NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement & Releasing Players (1 Viewer)

[Late225]

I don't recall seeing so many veterans released in a short period of time. Did something from the last collective bargaining agreement make it much more cap friendly to release players?

 

[Kool-Aid Larry]

I really couldn't say how many guys have been released each year, so maybe it's just your perception, but in the years covered by the old cba the cap tended to grow each year, while it's been fairly stagnant, lately.

this is from the wiki:

2013 $123 million - I believe it was originally pegged at more like 121

2012 $120.6 million

2011 $120 million

2010 Uncapped

2009 $123 million

2008 $116 million

2007 $109 million

2006 $102 million

2005 $85.5 million

2004 $80.582 million

so, you can see that, skipping the uncapped year, it's remained pretty flat the last 4 years, whereas from 2005-09 it went up 38m.

what happens is that a lot of these contracts build in some backloading to basically put off the bill collector in the expectation that the cap will rise and they will be able to better afford these deals, but when it doesn't go up they have to cut guys to stay under the cap.

 

[GregR]

Yeah, that's about the only thing I can think of.

I can't think of anything that makes it more cap friendly to release people. There is the same immediate escalation of prorated signing bonus, so the cap hit is the same.

 

[ConnSKINS26]

Id say its because it was already a deep FA class to begin with, and a deep draft at the positions where there have been lots of releases, so teams feel comfortable moving on and the options they have available after cutting their vets. Which in turn makes the FA pool even larger. Resulting in more cuts, possibly.