*** Official NFL offseason thread ***

[PokerFink]

Needle,

Converting the bonus to a signing bonus should spread the $8M out pretty evenly over the remaining years of Manning's contract. So yes, it pushes money onto future caps, but that's a good thing for reasons already mentioned.

[Richard Tanner]

[ QUOTE ]
Cody,

Does this mean that they pushed MORE money into the future? How much money do the Colts have pushed into the future years? It's good they are saving 8 million this year but how much did they lose in future years? For a team that wants to compete year in and year out, why would they put themselves in more trouble by doing this?

Of course, the people doing these deals are much smarter than I am and I'm sure it's to the Colts advantage.

[/ QUOTE ]

Think of it like this
Roster bonus-8 mil
Year - Cap Hit
2007 - 8 mill
2008 - 0
2009 - 0
2010 - 0

Signing Bonus-8 mil
2007 - 2 mill
2008 - 2 mill
2009 - 2 mill
2010 - 2 mill

Cody

[Richard Tanner]

[ QUOTE ]
What do you think about Rhodes getting hit with a DUI?

I think he's a good 2nd back, maybe the best in the league but I think this is going to hurt his rep with the team.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah he's a great 1.5 back, but this DUI helps the Colts, if only by making him slightly less in demand by other teams. Not that that was much of a worry anyway as, despite the media fervor, he's not that sought after. GMs know he's good in a two back system, but not so much on his own.

Cody

[Richard Tanner]

[ QUOTE ]
One thing is that because the cap is increasing, that money will be more valuable this year than in the future, also if I was the Colts I would be more concerned with maximizing Peyton's prime years than competing year in and year out.

[/ QUOTE ]

There will be, sadly, a life after Peyton, or as Needle calls it "The year the Jags finally have a shot" [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]. Well maybe not, if Indy can get ahold of the same Disney animatronics used to keep Brett Farve mobile.
The Colts already have their ring for this era, although more would, I assume, not be unwelcome. Part of being a successful franchise (listen up ARI, HOU, and TEN except as of late) is never putting yourself in Salary Cap Hell. If the Colts were to pay Peyton the large sums of money called for in his contract, they'd be doing just that.

Quick Salary Cap lesson for those unaware. In the NFL, no money after Signing Bonuses are garenteed. Thus, when you hear about Peytons 99.2m contract, it's not exactly like that. It's more like (totally approximated numbers):
Signing Bonus-32 mil
Year
1-800,000
2-850,000
3-1,000,000
4-2,000,000
Roster Bonus (now redone): 8,000,000
5-8,000,000
6-12,000,000
7-24,000,000

But of course he'll never see those later years, at that point, as is already starting to happen, he'll rework his deal, and push back those big checks into the future, though he'll still get a massive signing bonus again. Contracts are structured this way to make them appear larger then they are.

Cody

[BadBoyBenny]

Well if they do it like they did this year they are pushing back those big bonuses but also making them guaranteed at the same time. I think for the next 5 years or so they can make this work, and who knows what the cap will be like then? Maybe it won't be as big of a deal.

Indy's model has been to leverage the best player in the league by creating an unbalanced team that can maximize his abilities. It is not the same model of Denver or Pittsburgh who have been able to stay consistently good without a superstar QB. I don’t think consistency is a necessary part of being a successful franchise. An example would be been Tampa Bay, who signed too many big C3 deals to keep their aging vets together, but did manage to get the ring. I think Tennessee is another example; they lost the Superbowl but had a good enough team that it was worth it to sacrifice a year or two to keep the run going.

[Kneel B4 Zod]

[ QUOTE ]
Part of being a successful franchise (listen up ARI, HOU, and TEN except as of late) is never putting yourself in Salary Cap Hell.

[/ QUOTE ]

Given the players the Colts have lost (recent years on defense, Egde, prob. Cato June now) some would say the Colts salary cap has been handled poorly. granted, they replaced Edge well, but the defensive losses really killed them for most of this year. we'll see how it works going forward, esp. if they lose June.

in another news, the rookie season of Pats WR Chad Jackson went from bad to disasterous as it was announced yesterday he tore his ACL in the AFC championship. he'll probably be out until mid-season. this increases the odds the Patriots use a high pick on a WR I think.

[capone0]

What were their defensive losses other than Thorton? They had injuries. It's very hard to replace a very good DT in Simon with backups and an Pro-Bowl type Safety in Bob Sanders. The rest of their team was pretty much in tact for most of the year. They have spent a lot on their O especially Peyton. But it obviously worked out for the best last year. They, unlike the Pats, will spend on players other than their top QB and DE.

[Kneel B4 Zod]

[ QUOTE ]
They, unlike the Pats, will spend on players other than their top QB and DE.

[/ QUOTE ]

this is just a huge misconception b/c the median Patriots salary is so high. The Pats will spend a lot on OLineman, but they want it to be on 6 Olineman. this was the first year in a while that the Pats had any kind of significant salary cap room, a lot of which was due to the unanticipated, bungled, and then salvaged Deion Branch holdout. last year they had like $100k in free cap space at the end of the year, which would have been impossible if they had only spent on their QB and DE.

looking at total salary expenditures over the past 5 years or so, the Pats are easily one of the top 10 teams in the league.

[SL__72]

Arizona has like 33mil in cap room going into this off-season with a really solid core of young talent locked up for a while...

[capone0]

9ers have a ton of money as well. Hopefully they use it wisely on some of our needs.

Biggest needs are pretty obvious:

Defensive: Shut down corner, End who can get pressure, and another OLB. MLB wouldn't hurt either. The biggest draft need hopefully will be filled with a top flight DT. Safeties aren't anything special either.

Offensive: Replacement for disappointing Kwame Harris, a real #1 WR and a better backup for Gore.

Special Teams: K and P is fine. We need better returners. I'd love to see us get someone who can make a special teams returning impact.

I know the 9ers are looking heavily at Adalius Thomas. He was coached by Nolan in Baltimore. Honestly I'd rather have Clements but that's just me. We do need to get someone to pass rush. I think some of our DBs are decently talented but if you don't get a pass rush, it doesn't matter how good they are they won't look very effective.