Originally Posted by Chaka (Post 189507)

Interesting article regarding the Patriots philosophy in going hog wild in free agency this offseason - much different that the Colts:

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...gency-splurge/

Basically, Kraft is saying that the pandemic / cap reduction created an inefficiency in the system - less teams competing for free agents - and because they had lots of cap room they were in a unique position to exploit it.

While it sounds logical to a degree, I don't know if I agree here. First, it doesn't look to me that they got many bargains in free agency, which is kinda what Kraft is suggesting. Nelson Agholor 2 year / $22 million? Jonnu Smith 4 year / $50 million? Hunter Henry 3 year / $37.5 million?

Second, I really don't buy into the idea that this year it is more difficult for teams to sign free agents. Regardless of their available cap space this year, the teams have a toolbox of financial engineering instruments at their disposal, and can still fit a large contract into their cap this year if they really want to - at the expense, of course, of cap impact later down the road.

Originally Posted by Dam8610 (Post 189543)

The inefficiency he was exploiting, and did so quite heavily, was the ability to offer market value level contracts due to the large amount of cap space they had. Most teams had to lower the first year of the contract because of cap constraints. They didn't. That's the inefficiency.

Originally Posted by Chromeburn (Post 189541)

Just the way it is. Contracts go up seemingly even in a down year.

Originally Posted by Brylok (Post 189571)

I get it, but this has been about as interesting as watching grass grow. C'mon draft...

Originally Posted by Chaka (Post 189556)

And my point is that as a practical matter, just about any team can offer a "market level contract" if they really want to. It just depends upon how much they are willing to sacrifice future cap flexibility.

And by the way, this will be an issue for the Patriots too because, although Kraft tries to characterize his free agency as some sort of brilliant plan to take advantage of inefficiencies, I don't think the facts bear this out - every one of the contracts I looked at is backloaded to minimize cap usage in 2021 (Nelson Agholor, Jonnu Smith, Hunter Henry, Matt Judon, Henry Anderson). So they'll pay the consequences later for these contracts.

To me, it just reeks of desperation after seeing Brady win one without them.

Originally Posted by YDFL Commish (Post 189575)

Not if the cap number for next year is north of $230 million.

Originally Posted by YDFL Commish (Post 189575)

Not if the cap number for next year is north of $230 million.