What Might Ruin the NFL Next Year

Most owners expect a salary Cap to return at some point, so teams are going to be smart and not spend too much where they cant get under the cap if they need to.

and I don’t claim to be knowledgable about this stuff at all…but how, from any perspective, could the absence of a salary cap be a good thing for a league that prides itself on parity? For real, somebody fill me in.

I agree, the cap will be back. So hopefully that will keep tight wads like MB competitive for free agents (if he wants to be)

RFA is up to 6 years so many top end FA’s are off the market.
Top 8 teams can only sign a FA if they lose one.
ETC ETC

…would want a cap. Its also pretty clear that the NFLPA wants a CBA and I’m sure that a CBA would include a cap. The big issue of contention, if I understand correctly, is the amount of money teams are required to pay out in compensation. I think its 80% (player salaries, plus a fund for injured/older players).

Without a cap, it could turn into a baseball like situation where some teams shell out 200 million, others 60 million with the latter team dumping by mid-season. I doubt it would get that bad, just because of the nature of the sport (shorter careers in NFL). But, I could see a big problem with rookies demanding outlandish guaranteed contracts.

I tend to believe that cooler heads will prevail and we will see a CBA soon. A lockout is not in either party’s interest.

NFLPA: wants to extend the CBA for six more years, which will force owners to pay 60 percent of their team revenue to player salaries. Like his predecessor, the late Gene Upshaw, De Smith insists that if the salary cap disappears, it will never return. An uncapped year would lead to a wide range of changes to the free-agent market.

Ownership: wants the percentage of team revenue that goes to player salaries down to 42 percent. There’s no way in hell that they want a salary cap because it limits their financial freedom which owners hate. Opposed to a spending spree of the highest paid players, it seems more likely that owners are more interested in paying their least important players less than they do now. No salary floor.

Both sides want a rookies to be paid less, so at least there is that common interest.

I think a deal will get done right before the deadline but I do not expect the cap to return. For small-market teams, the draft and the coaches they employ will keep them competitive. Larger market teams will likely wait for prospects to mature and pay them the jackpots they crave. Fortunately, football is a sport where player talents are very comparable and coaching and preparation make the difference. Here’s to hoping that Mike Brown spends more money on scouting and good coaches as opposed to big name free agents.