Rationale behind cuts - 2014 Salaries

[tctony]

Hey guys and gals,

Here's a good post I came across on the Baltimore Ravens subreddit.

http://www.reddit.com/r/ravens/comments/1a7x8u/my_thoughts_on_what_were_doing_this_year/

Essentially, we need to take these hits now so we can afford to pay guys in 2014.

[BallHawker]

Cuntdiff. Son of a beach.

[T3hRaven]

Logical, and somewhat terrifying. We have an enormous chunk of the salary cap taken up by a small number of guys. If they don't produce our team is screwed. I hope we nail the draft cause we're going to have trouble signing guys the next couple of years, until Suggs, Ngata, and Rice are off the books.

[reediddy]

so basically, Ngata and Suggs are drastically overpaid relative to their recent production on the field, and will be even more so in 2014. Fantastic

[Guest Mr. Nobody]

[quote name='reediddy' timestamp='1363191691' post='1393190']
so basically, Ngata and Suggs are drastically overpaid relative to their recent production on the field, and will be even more so in 2014. Fantastic
[/quote]

no way we're keeping the two contracts as they are now for 2014... either extend in Sizzle's case or restructure for Ngata's... anyway, another thrilling off-season to come lol

[Gordo52]

[quote name='reediddy' timestamp='1363191691' post='1393190']
so basically, Ngata and Suggs are drastically overpaid relative to their recent production on the field, and will be even more so in 2014. Fantastic
[/quote]
Well to be fair Suggs tore his achilles after coming off a DPOY season. Ngatas been fighting injuries for what it seems like forever.

[jaege]

That sort of makes sense, except, why cut Pollard now? How do we benefit in 2014 by cutting him this season? Why not just wait until his cap hit is too high and then cut him? And Boldin was gone next season anyway, so no cap hit there.

[T3hRaven]

[quote name='reediddy' timestamp='1363191691' post='1393190']
so basically, Ngata and Suggs are drastically overpaid relative to their recent production on the field, and will be even more so in 2014. Fantastic
[/quote]

Ngata got hot at the right time and has been hampered by injuries, but he was paid according to the market at the time. Suggs was overpaid, Ozzie was the guy in high school that ruined it for everyone, in terms of OLB contracts. Still one of my favorite players, and you can't hold last season against Suggs. He was DPOY the year before.

[ravensfan2430]

[quote name='Ravens<3' timestamp='1363191880' post='1393205']
Well to be fair Suggs tore his acl after coming off a DPOy season. Ngatas been fighting injuries for what it seems like forever.
[/quote]

Achilles

[Yatagarasu]

Cundiff...

Such big promise after 2010 that fell apart in 2011.

He's probably one of the worst and costliest signings in the past two years. That dead money is tough to swallow, but we lived with it last year.

[Yatagarasu]

[quote name='jaege' timestamp='1363191894' post='1393207']
That sort of makes sense, except, why cut Pollard now? How do we benefit in 2014 by cutting him this season? Why not just wait until his cap hit is too high and then cut him? And Boldin was gone next season anyway, so no cap hit there.
[/quote]

With the extra room now, I assume Ozzie wants to dumb the dead money in this year's transaction so we can sign our players or get higher quality free agents in the next couple years. For now, the only values we can get are the LB and CB free agents. WR and DL are probably sucked dried, but still plenty of underrated talents here and there.

[dirtybird10]

This is what I was thinking when looking at this Pollard cut. He would have cost 3.5 the next couple years I believe, which is a decent savings especially if we can do something with the big contracts of Ngata and Suggs.

[reediddy]

[quote name='Ravens<3' timestamp='1363191880' post='1393205']
Well to be fair Suggs tore his acl after coming off a DPOy season. Ngatas been fighting injuries for what it seems like forever.
[/quote]

*Achilles*

And yeah I understand Ngata has been hurt for some time now, but Oz won't bank on him getting healthy, I'm expecting restructure

BTW: 4,000th post woot woot!

[reediddy]

[quote name='T3hRaven' timestamp='1363192067' post='1393222']
Ngata got hot at the right time and has been hampered by injuries, but he was paid according to the market at the time. Suggs was overpaid, [b]Ozzie was the guy in high school that ruined it for everyone[/b], in terms of OLB contracts. Still one of my favorite players, and you can't hold last season against Suggs. He was DPOY the year before.
[/quote]

Lol idk why but that just feels like the worst insult ever. Idk if Suggs was overpaid because he still produced a DPOY season and actually came back to contribute this year when it was believed he wouldn't be able to given his injury (now it's not that noble of a comeback, given reports that he was at fault for the injury).

[Ravenseconbeast]

[quote name='BallHawker' timestamp='1363191603' post='1393178']
Cuntdiff. Son of a beach.
[/quote]

Hahaha

[T3hRaven]

[quote name='reediddy' timestamp='1363192472' post='1393263']
Lol idk why but that just feels like the worst insult ever. Idk if Suggs was overpaid because he still produced a DPOY season and actually came back to contribute this year when it was believed he wouldn't be able to given his injury (now it's not that noble of a comeback, given reports that he was at fault for the injury).
[/quote]

It's about market value. OLB contracts were significantly lower until Suggs pulled that nonsense about him putting his hand in the dirty once in a while. Ozzie caved to the pressure, and as a result hurt the cap.

[Gordo52]

[quote name='reediddy' timestamp='1363192371' post='1393253']
*Achilles*
[/quote]
Whatever you know what I mean lol. Plus the torn bicep.

[reediddy]

[quote name='Ravens<3' timestamp='1363192681' post='1393281']
Whatever you know what I mean lol. Plus the torn bicep.
[/quote]

Haha well I was gonna say whoa! he played through that too?! #beastmode

[jus'_crAzy]

Good post. This CBA's no joke.

[BallHawker]

[quote name='jus'_crAzy' timestamp='1363192944' post='1393306']
Good post. This CBA's no joke.
[/quote]

Don't understand why the NFL doesn't just raise the salary cap with a maximum cap for each position (would probably need to be agreed upon by the NFLPA). I mean, the executives, owners, and teams make much more money than the players.

[Yatagarasu]

It's good that we're thinking about our future cap more seriously than other teams. Some of these teams paying high dollars like Cleveland and Miami are going to suffer what the Cowboys and Jets are facing now. Salary Cap Hell and load of wasted cap space for reconstructing and releasing players.

[Alexir]

[quote name='BallHawker' timestamp='1363191603' post='1393178']
Cuntdiff. Son of a beach.
[/quote]

How did that beat the filter?

[hawkprey]

It's good to have some players that are great even though they eat up a chunk of cap. You might look at Suggs' cap hit and say "Hey, for that cap hit we could have 3 or so very good players". But you only have so many roster spots, and many of them are under rookie contracts. If you draft well, those players are all being paid at discount relative to their worth. But if you want to replace a big Suggs-like contracts with a few smaller contracts, you have to give some of those players up because of the roster limit.

The best strategy is to get your superstars, draft well, and rotate everyone else as needed. That's what we're doing.

[GrimCoconut]

I think Pollard's cut was also due to penalties. He's very close to getting suspended. His play sort of calls for those penalties. That's my best guess.

[Pino]

it's so obvious now, just like the super bowl blackout

it's the very same ANTI-Baltimore Conspiracy!

we weren't supposed to win the SB

so they're making sure we won't win it again anytime soon

NFL and all the owners are conspiring together, throw the big cash at our best players to rob us of our home grown talent

so obvious

[jus'_crAzy]

When a roster move doesn't make sense, it's a safe bet that it all points to the scrilla.


[quote name='BallHawker' timestamp='1363193154' post='1393322']
Don't understand why the NFL doesn't just raise the salary cap with a maximum cap for each position (would probably need to be agreed upon by the NFLPA). I mean, the executives, owners, and teams make much more money than the players.
[/quote]

I don't think raising the salary cap would solve anything. All it'll do is cause an inflation. And the set cap for each position would discourage players from playing the 'lower tier' position. Bad for the game.

This is a power struggle between the NFL and the NFLPA.

My understanding is that the rookie cap is allowing owners to trend towards spending less money on contracts.

And all of this means that the NFLPA got played. I'm guessing the theory of the rookie cap made sense. Take money away from those unproven rookies; means more for vets, right? Wrong. It just made the high-risk veteran contracts compete with low-risk rookie contracts, which really isn't a competition at all.

Pick up Greg Jennings' $10M/year contract for 6 years? Heck no. I'll just draft Tavon Austin for $1M/year for a max of 5 years. And guess what? If he doesn't work out, we'll just pay off the $3M guaranteed, cut him and pick up another rookie next year with the same contract. It's peanuts compared to what you'd have to pay in FA.

[Dudeman]

[quote name='jus'_crAzy' timestamp='1363199359' post='1393636']
When a roster move doesn't make sense, it's a safe bet that it all points to the scrilla.




I don't think raising the salary cap would solve anything. All it'll do is cause an inflation. And the set cap for each position would discourage players from playing the 'lower tier' position. Bad for the game.

This is a power struggle between the NFL and the NFLPA.

My understanding is that the rookie cap is allowing owners to trend towards spending less money on contracts.

And all of this means that the NFLPA got played. I'm guessing the theory of the rookie cap made sense. Take money away from those unproven rookies; means more for vets, right? Wrong. It just made the high-risk veteran contracts compete with low-risk rookie contracts, which really isn't a competition at all.

Pick up Greg Jennings' $10M/year contract for 6 years? Heck no. I'll just draft Tavon Austin for $1M/year for a max of 5 years. And guess what? If he doesn't work out, we'll just pay off the $3M guaranteed, cut him and pick up another rookie next year with the same contract. It's peanuts compared to what you'd have to pay in FA.
[/quote]

I agree to an extent but it works both ways as well. Look at our own younger free agents this year, and you'll see "bargain" players in the draft that found big paydays in free agency. So in essence they have "outplayed" their rookie contracts which is why they could cash in on free agency. I don't think that the rookie wage cap has prohibited teams from participating in free agency. But I do believe that teams that draft well (Patriots, Steelers, Ravens, Packers) trend on being conservative in free agency.

My final thought? Do teams that "win" in free agency usually win the Super Bowl? No, I don't think so. Look at the Chiefs last year, and the Eagles the year before. Both were popular picks to win their divisions based on free agency by pundits and both teams missed out on the play-offs. Most of the time "over paying" a free agent ends up being a bad deal in hindsight.

[fistfullwales]

[quote name='GrimCoconut' timestamp='1363196003' post='1393451']
I think Pollard's cut was also due to penalties. He's very close to getting suspended. His play sort of calls for those penalties. That's my best guess.
[/quote]

If this were the reasoning we could have still traded him. Releasing him makes me think he is un-tradeable, meaning he is seriously injured (ribs). This is the only reason I can think of why we would release him and not attempt to trade him. If he is healthy he has value.

[baltravens]

I saw the link from the post and followed it to the website. I looked over the website and got the immediate impression that it was low-class, and I left.

[sameoldbull]

[quote name='baltravens' timestamp='1363219122' post='1394764']
I saw the link from the post and followed it to the website. I looked over the website and got the immediate impression that it was low-class, and I left.
[/quote]
Dude. Even your own president did an interview to that site where people could ask freely about different topics (more or less). The layout might be simple, but the content is pretty good. Thou the subreddit sometimes feels like a bit of a circlejerk.