Post by GrizzlyBear on Mar 15, 2017 11:21:06 GMT -6
bearsbarroom.com/ryanpace-salary-cap/
Is Ryan Pace Hoarding Salary Cap Money?
About an hour after free agency started there was a frenzy of complaints leveled at Ryan Pace and the Chicago Bears for their frugal approach to spending. Announcements of big name free agents were being attached to teams not named the Bears.
So what’s the deal? Is Pace trying to horde money to divvy it up between the Halas/McCaskey family members and key executives? The team has a long history of being tightfisted with money. Mike Ditka famously said that George Halas threw around nickels as if they were manhole covers.
The modern day Bears, though, have gone a long ways towards erasing that reputation with big contract signings to Julius Peppers, Jay Cutler and others.
To a certain extent the Bears have improved their reputation because they had to. There’s an enormous amount of money that the NFL cashes in on every year, salary cap space has risen more than $47 million since 2012 alone, and every team has a contractual obligation to share a portion of that money with their labor.
The last Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NFL and the player’s union (NFLPA) was a historic ten-year deal that was ratified in 2011. Under that agreement every NFL team is required to spend 89% of their cap money over a four-year window. The first threshold just passed — it began in 2013 and ended with the 2016 season. During that period each team was obligated to spend at least $493.5 million in cash on player salaries. The total cap amount over those four years was a total $554,550,000. The Bears easily met that obligation but fell short of spending to the cap.
As Andrew Brandt wrote at MMQB.com barely a third of the NFL teams spent as much money as they could:
“The numbers presented by the union show that only 12 out of 32 teams spent “to the cap” (or beyond it, as allowed through prorated bonuses) between 2013 and 2016. In other words, while teams are satisfying minimum spending requirements, the vast majority of teams are consistently spending under the cap. A salary cap is already an artificial restriction on team spending. It should ensure that teams reach that threshold of spending, but that is not happening.”
So, exactly how did the Bears do over the last four years of that CBA? Remember two of those years were under the Phil Emery administration and two under Ryan Pace. The data shows that the Bears easily surpassed their four-year obligation of 89% by spending 98% of the allocated cap dollars.
Let’s go year-by year, using spotrac.com’s figures, and begin by listing how much the Bears were under the cap and their ranking among other NFL teams in cap money spent ( ).:
2016 – $8,267,659 (26th place)
2015 – $3,604,530 (15th)
2014 – $1,574,645 (22nd)
2013 – $3,483,016 (12th)
What pops out immediately is that under Ryan Pace the team had more cap space than the organization had under Emery. In other words, Pace is proving more frugal. One can make the argument that under Emery the Bears felt they were in more of a position to win. The Bears were a win way from making the playoffs in Emery’s first year and therefore the Bears were more justified in spending to get over the hump.
What’s also interesting is the rollover amounts from year to year are more under Pace than they were during the Emery years.
2012 – $3,236,965 (Emery’s first year)
2013 – $746,727
2014 – $1,545,934
2015 – $867,589 (Pace’s first year)
2016 – $8,103,197
In each general manager’s first year they are dealing with a previous administration’s budget. So, it’s more telling to see what happens in year two and beyond. We need more data to proclaim Pace is hoarding cash. Next season will provide much more information.
Currently the NFLPA lists the Bears with $29,261,483 of cap room. That number could rise considerably with the possible release of veterans like Eddie Royal and Lamar Houston (Royal’s release alone would free up $5,000,000).
We could see the Bears roll over even more money into 2018 than the $8.1M they did into this season.
Pace is right to not spend money recklessly. He’s committed to improving the team primarily through the draft and covering up holes with free agency. But how far of a leap forward can the Bears make when they sign Prince Amukamura for a one-year, $7,000,000 contract over a Stephon Gilmore who signed for $65 million over five years, and $40,000,000 guaranteed?
If Amukamura plays well he will position himself for a Gilmore type deal in 2018. Will the Bears pay?
We might get an indication by seeing what Pace eventually does with Akiem Hicks. The defensive lineman signed a two-year, $10,000,000 contract last season. It was one of the best value deals for an NFL team last year. If Hicks continues his projected progression in 2017 he will be in line to sign one of the bigger deals for a defensive lineman in next year’s free agent frenzy. Pace can put a stop to that by signing Hicks before the end of the season. The sooner the better, because the closer Hicks gets to free agency the bigger the temptation to test the market.
In 2015, the Green Bay Packers extended the contract of their ascending defensive lineman, Mike Daniels. The Packers and Daniels agreed to a four-year, $41,000,000 deal two months before the end of the season. That move halted Daniels from hitting the free agent market and therefore saved the Packers from a bidding war.
Pace will likely face a similar decision with Hicks as the Packers did with Daniels. If he continues to pursue value, like he did with Alshon Jeffery, then we’ll be forced to wonder if Pace is on a road to offsetting lost revenue from no-shows and declining ticket sales and not on the path to the Super Bowl.
About an hour after free agency started there was a frenzy of complaints leveled at Ryan Pace and the Chicago Bears for their frugal approach to spending. Announcements of big name free agents were being attached to teams not named the Bears.
So what’s the deal? Is Pace trying to horde money to divvy it up between the Halas/McCaskey family members and key executives? The team has a long history of being tightfisted with money. Mike Ditka famously said that George Halas threw around nickels as if they were manhole covers.
The modern day Bears, though, have gone a long ways towards erasing that reputation with big contract signings to Julius Peppers, Jay Cutler and others.
To a certain extent the Bears have improved their reputation because they had to. There’s an enormous amount of money that the NFL cashes in on every year, salary cap space has risen more than $47 million since 2012 alone, and every team has a contractual obligation to share a portion of that money with their labor.
The last Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NFL and the player’s union (NFLPA) was a historic ten-year deal that was ratified in 2011. Under that agreement every NFL team is required to spend 89% of their cap money over a four-year window. The first threshold just passed — it began in 2013 and ended with the 2016 season. During that period each team was obligated to spend at least $493.5 million in cash on player salaries. The total cap amount over those four years was a total $554,550,000. The Bears easily met that obligation but fell short of spending to the cap.
As Andrew Brandt wrote at MMQB.com barely a third of the NFL teams spent as much money as they could:
“The numbers presented by the union show that only 12 out of 32 teams spent “to the cap” (or beyond it, as allowed through prorated bonuses) between 2013 and 2016. In other words, while teams are satisfying minimum spending requirements, the vast majority of teams are consistently spending under the cap. A salary cap is already an artificial restriction on team spending. It should ensure that teams reach that threshold of spending, but that is not happening.”
So, exactly how did the Bears do over the last four years of that CBA? Remember two of those years were under the Phil Emery administration and two under Ryan Pace. The data shows that the Bears easily surpassed their four-year obligation of 89% by spending 98% of the allocated cap dollars.
Let’s go year-by year, using spotrac.com’s figures, and begin by listing how much the Bears were under the cap and their ranking among other NFL teams in cap money spent ( ).:
2016 – $8,267,659 (26th place)
2015 – $3,604,530 (15th)
2014 – $1,574,645 (22nd)
2013 – $3,483,016 (12th)
What pops out immediately is that under Ryan Pace the team had more cap space than the organization had under Emery. In other words, Pace is proving more frugal. One can make the argument that under Emery the Bears felt they were in more of a position to win. The Bears were a win way from making the playoffs in Emery’s first year and therefore the Bears were more justified in spending to get over the hump.
What’s also interesting is the rollover amounts from year to year are more under Pace than they were during the Emery years.
2012 – $3,236,965 (Emery’s first year)
2013 – $746,727
2014 – $1,545,934
2015 – $867,589 (Pace’s first year)
2016 – $8,103,197
In each general manager’s first year they are dealing with a previous administration’s budget. So, it’s more telling to see what happens in year two and beyond. We need more data to proclaim Pace is hoarding cash. Next season will provide much more information.
Currently the NFLPA lists the Bears with $29,261,483 of cap room. That number could rise considerably with the possible release of veterans like Eddie Royal and Lamar Houston (Royal’s release alone would free up $5,000,000).
We could see the Bears roll over even more money into 2018 than the $8.1M they did into this season.
Pace is right to not spend money recklessly. He’s committed to improving the team primarily through the draft and covering up holes with free agency. But how far of a leap forward can the Bears make when they sign Prince Amukamura for a one-year, $7,000,000 contract over a Stephon Gilmore who signed for $65 million over five years, and $40,000,000 guaranteed?
If Amukamura plays well he will position himself for a Gilmore type deal in 2018. Will the Bears pay?
We might get an indication by seeing what Pace eventually does with Akiem Hicks. The defensive lineman signed a two-year, $10,000,000 contract last season. It was one of the best value deals for an NFL team last year. If Hicks continues his projected progression in 2017 he will be in line to sign one of the bigger deals for a defensive lineman in next year’s free agent frenzy. Pace can put a stop to that by signing Hicks before the end of the season. The sooner the better, because the closer Hicks gets to free agency the bigger the temptation to test the market.
In 2015, the Green Bay Packers extended the contract of their ascending defensive lineman, Mike Daniels. The Packers and Daniels agreed to a four-year, $41,000,000 deal two months before the end of the season. That move halted Daniels from hitting the free agent market and therefore saved the Packers from a bidding war.
Pace will likely face a similar decision with Hicks as the Packers did with Daniels. If he continues to pursue value, like he did with Alshon Jeffery, then we’ll be forced to wonder if Pace is on a road to offsetting lost revenue from no-shows and declining ticket sales and not on the path to the Super Bowl.
