TaborJet Posted February 12, 2006 Share Posted February 12, 2006 What to expect in an uncapped year By Pat Kirwan NFL.com Senior Analyst (Feb. 10, 2006) -- There is a chance that 2007 will be an uncapped year if the collective bargaining agreement doesn't get extended. The closer we get to the start of this year's free agency, the more we will hear about an uncapped season in 2007 and the ramifications of such a situation. So I thought it might be a good idea to let the readers know what an uncapped year means, since the term is getting mentioned in the media on a daily basis. If 2007 is uncapped, then qualifying free agents can be paid as much as can be negotiated. This sounds great for the players, but who are the qualifying free agents? The rules to become a free agent change in an uncapped year. To become free, a player will need six years of service instead of four years and his contract has to be expired. A player with five years of experience who under capped season rules would have been free, will now be a restricted free agent if the club decides to designate him as restricted. Quality players with five years of service will be restricted and not many teams will be willing to surrender high draft picks for them. A player waiting for his big 'free agency' contract with a nice fat signing bonus will probably play for a one-year salary with no signing bonus and risk a career ending injury. The same rules apply to players with four years of service to those players with five years as mentioned in point No. 3. The group of potential free agents will be significantly reduced in 2007 because of the loss of four- and five-year players. The best players from the 2002 and 2003 draft classes will not be moving around too much in 2007. If that isn't bad enough for the players hoping to hit the market, each club will also get an additional 'transition tag' to protect an older veteran. As long as the club offers a player in this category a one-year contract for the average of the top 10 players at his position, the franchise retains his rights unless another club wants to give significant draft compensation. Figure the top 32 veterans (one per club) who was supposed to hit free agency will now be tagged. Just from points Nos. 3, 4, and 5, there should be very few quality free agents in 2007 if it is uncapped. My best guess is that 70 percent of the players who warrant big contracts because of their 2006 production and their age will be off the open market. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4HCrew Posted February 12, 2006 Share Posted February 12, 2006 Even with these notes you just know teams like the Cowboys and Redskins will benefit the most. And Woody? hmmmm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sperm Edwards Posted February 12, 2006 Share Posted February 12, 2006 An uncapped NFL is the worst thing that could happen. Not just to the Jets, but for the whole league. Certain owners don't care b/c they'd love the freedom to buy all the expensive talent. Players don't want a cap b/c they just want to get paid; the longterm future of the NFL won't affect their lives nearly as much as the mega-contracts/SB's will. We couldn't have a worse year for our cap issues. So we dump all or lots of our dead cap weight (Chad, Kendall, Law, Fabini, Chrebet-retired, Curtis-maybe) & maybe moving Abe out of fear of the same. The benefit of dumping all of this now is that it will be difficult/impossible to put a Superbowl team on the field for 2006, so we'd be taking our lumps now. BUT if there's no cap 2007 & beyond then we're taking our lumps now for no reason beyond getting under the 2006 cap. So we'd purge ourselves of our most expensive talent & then have a team full of cheaper ones, when there's no league-mandated incentive to keep the team's total salaries down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maxman Posted February 12, 2006 Share Posted February 12, 2006 The benefit of dumping all of this now is that it will be difficult/impossible to put a Superbowl team on the field for 2006, so we'd be taking our lumps now. BUT if there's no cap 2007 & beyond then we're taking our lumps now for no reason beyond getting under the 2006 cap. So we'd purge ourselves of our most expensive talent & then have a team full of cheaper ones, when there's no league-mandated incentive to keep the team's total salaries down. That is a really good point. It is a scary thought as well! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonysxl1200c Posted February 12, 2006 Share Posted February 12, 2006 The biggest misconception of an uncapped year is the fact that there will be no free agents to sign. The Unrestricted FA's will have to have 6 years instead of 4. Every team gets an extra Transition Tag to protect a veteran. Pat Kirwan was on his Sirius show yesterday, and he did some calculations since he wrote that article. He figures in 2007, there will be almost 80 players off the market due to the uncapped FA rules. The only advantage I see of an uncapped year is being able to sign your own players to long-term, big money deals. No chance any big names come free. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mudcat21 Posted February 12, 2006 Share Posted February 12, 2006 The only advantage I see of an uncapped year is being able to sign your own players to long-term, big money deals. [/HTML] What happens when the cap comes back in 2008? Then the teams that spent big money on these big long term contracts in 2007 will have to get back under the cap in 2008. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BaumerJet Posted February 12, 2006 Share Posted February 12, 2006 What happens when the cap comes back in 2008? Then the teams that spent big money on these big long term contracts in 2007 will have to get back under the cap in 2008. The difference is that you do the LARGE PAYOFF in '07 where Cap would have to be adjusted. Since there is no CAP YEAR in '07 (hypotheticly) you would end run the payoff of a 6-year contract @ $1.0 MIL or less per year. All signing bonuses would be paid UP FRONT, in a NON-CAP year. It will also aid those teams who are in CAP HELL for '06. You could restructure the players NOW for a PAYOUT in '07 - where the cap is NON EXISTANT and still work out a payoff of $1 Mil or less for the end of the contract. In our case, that would give us the streingth to resign ABE (BIG BONUSES IN '07) restructure Chad, CM & Law, while still having enough space to sign our draft picks. In truth, this could be a boon to the NFL & allow teams to wind up well under the cap in '08. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maxman Posted February 12, 2006 Share Posted February 12, 2006 The biggest misconception of an uncapped year is the fact that there will be no free agents to sign. The Unrestricted FA's will have to have 6 years instead of 4. Every team gets an extra Transition Tag to protect a veteran. Pat Kirwan was on his Sirius show yesterday, and he did some calculations since he wrote that article. He figures in 2007, there will be almost 80 players off the market due to the uncapped FA rules. The only advantage I see of an uncapped year is being able to sign your own players to long-term, big money deals. No chance any big names come free. Tony... That is interesting. Still puts the Jets in a bad spot. Because unless the have a Hall Of Fame draft, they are still lacking a lot of talent. No cap might help them right off some bad debt without cutting everyone. But they won't be enough to make them a top team. They need some new blood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonysxl1200c Posted February 12, 2006 Share Posted February 12, 2006 What happens when the cap comes back in 2008? Then the teams that spent big money on these big long term contracts in 2007 will have to get back under the cap in 2008. If the cap goes away in 2007, it will be extremely difficult if not impossible to ever bring it back for quite some time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maxman Posted February 12, 2006 Share Posted February 12, 2006 If the cap goes away in 2007, it will be extremely difficult if not impossible to ever bring it back for quite some time. If that happens we will find out for sure if Woody is cheap or not. Hess always spent a lot of money (never wisely though). Daniel Synder would go insane with his payroll! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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