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For years, we’ve been arguing that the best paid gamers ought to search contracts that tie their earnings to a proportion of the cap. This may be certain that a long-term deal by no means turns into out of date — as a result of the cap consistently goes up.
The league (particularly the NFL Administration Council) has resisted that, constantly. (Gamers who’ve tried previously to get a proportion of the cap as their compensation embrace Kirk Cousins and Darrelle Revis. It’s potential others have tried to do it extra just lately. Joe Burrow would have been an ideal candidate for it.)
However the league is excited by one other sort of cap-based components in terms of quarterback contracts. Tom Pelissero of NFL Community (who works for the league and thus should tread flippantly right here) just lately talked about it on Wealthy Eisen’s present.
“There has actually been dialogue throughout the league amongst sure house owners about even the concept of a quarterback cap, that in some unspecified time in the future you don’t need quarterback numbers to go over a sure proportion of your wage cap,” Pelissero mentioned Tuesday, by way of BleacherReport.com. “To my information, that hasn’t actually gained traction, partially as a result of so many groups have paid their quarterbacks.”
As we’ve heard it, it wouldn’t be an official, separate cap. It could be an unofficial, off-the-books (and, extra importantly, off the CBA) association pursuant to which groups would refuse to go above a sure stage. All groups. Which might make it pointless for, say, Dak Prescott to pressure his strategy to the open market. The perfect deal he’d get from the Cowboys can be the identical as one of the best deal he’d get from another person. (It could be like a max contract within the NBA.)
It’s the pure response to the dismay expressed by a number of house owners when the Browns gave Deshaun Watson a five-year, fully-guaranteed contract. The house owners, who meet a minimum of 4 groups a yr and (because the union has lengthy believed) collude their asses off about issues which might be in any other case the topic of individualized negotiation between gamers and groups, can be violating the Collective Bargaining Settlement by establishing a secret, wink-nod association amongst themselves to cap quarterback pay.
Pelissero, by acknowledging that the house owners have talked about it, might need inadvertently opened Pandora’s Field. Shifting ahead, it is going to be helpful to watch carefully the offers which might be achieved, the cap costs which might be related to them, and whether or not quarterbacks who go to the open market discover one thing higher from one other crew.
The one strategy to correctly prepare for a league-wide cap on quarterback pay can be to barter it with the NFL Gamers Affiliation. And such efforts would shortly spotlight the fact that there ought to be totally different bargaining items for every place, like operating again. For that purpose alone, the union can be inclined to not conform to such an strategy.
For that purpose alone, any conversations amongst house owners a few quarterback cap (coupled with the proof-in-the-pudding from the offers to come back) might lay the inspiration for a collusion case towards the NFL.
There’s already a collusion case pending towards the league, concerning the refusal of groups to provide fully-guaranteed contracts to sure veteran quarterbacks. This one can be a a lot greater deal. If/when the league secretly implements a cap on quarterback pay and if/when the union can show it, that will make for fairly a compelling authorized battle between administration and labor.
