QCity

This is wrong and you're using some flawed logic here. The rate of cap growth has been decreasing the past two years. This years 6.1% increase was the lowest increase since 2013, and last years 7.6% increase was the 2nd lowest since 2013. If anything cap growth appears to be trending down, perhaps due to some recent fan ambivalence about the sport. Regardless, the belief that the cap is going to steadily increase every year is not sound financial planning. You don't allocate salary based on what you hope will happen in 5 years, you work within your current constraints (this doesn't just apply to football). A $10M cap increase doesn't mean that gets allocated to one player, it gets absorbed by every player on every team -- "A rising tide lifts all ships." Rookie salaries increase every year, as does the cost for tagging players. Minimum salaries go up, and those depth/special teams players you could sign last year for $1.5M now costs $1.7M. And when you start signing non-QBs to 12-13+% of your cap, you certainly can get into trouble.

Spending big on non-QB FAs is great for whipping the fan base into a frenzy and selling tickets, but history has shown they seldom pay off in the long run. Exactly. It's only easy in a world where injuries don't happen.

One of the more entertaining seasons.

I'm sorry but I think playing the violins for Bell is just crazy. This is a guy that's already made ~$15M playing football. He just (allegedly) turned down a contract that would have paid him $33M guaranteed over the next 2 years, which would mean he could have made about $48M in the NFL before the age of 28. And I'm not even getting into endorsement money. But I'm guessing there is a lot of ego involved here. He wants more guaranteed money than Gurley but that not going to happen because A) he's older B) he's got a lot more mileage on him and C) Colbert is not an idiot. But to demonize the NFL over this? Hah! Where do you think Bell would be if it wasn't for the NFL? He'd probably be bagging groceries like someone mentioned and he be arguing over a 75 cent/hr raise at the end of the year.

Exactly. And that's why it's a shrewd move to offer him a deal they can walk away from after 3 years when he's 29 (i.e. approaching 30).

Looks like the Ravens playbook cost too much.

Rappaport is saying it's $33M GTD over first 2 years, which sounds more inline with that contract. They could walk away from him after 2yrs $33M or 3yrs $45M, so that's probably the max for that deal. It's a wise move by the Steelers, getting large amounts of money tied up into RB's when they approach 30 is not a winning proposition.

I can't believe Beane isn't bringing in a proven, successful QB to workout for the 3rd string spot. What a moron.

Yeah I just did this and read the first dozen pages or so and it's epic. This is easily going to win Thread Of The Year and the season hasn't even started yet.

Maybe it was Geno Smith?

Two kinds of people in this thread: 1) BurpleBull 2) Those that are wrong. Dead wrong. Take your victory lap.

"Hey, he's only played 14 games"

He should be brought in for a look. It's a bit odd that Tenn cut him on that cheap contract though. He probably was never going to beat out Kline at LG, but not even earning a backup spot is strange. The guy's a Mormon so off the field issues are unlikely.

A lot of fans only picture the best-case scenario in these trades. It's easy to like the trade if you imagine getting an All-Pro every year for the next 6 years or someone who will get 15 sacks a year for the next 5 years (suggested in this thread). But that's not realistic at all. His production will fade as he ages. If you want to weigh the scenario appropriately, then at least consider the worst-case along with the best-case. What if he blows out his knee or pops an Achilles and never returns to form? Congrats! You just sabotaged your franchise for the next half-decade. Chicago fans will be celebrating Mack this season for sure, but get back to me in 3 years and we'll see how they feel then. These moves typically don't work out in the long run, and they aren't getting any major reinforcements via the draft in the next two years....

I'd say he knows exactly what he's doing. Some of the fans, however...

^

The real story here is the beginning trend of GM's ripping up rookie contracts. That's the second one Snead has torn up this year.

Then you clicked on something very, very wrong. I'm not going to post any guides, I'm simply making people aware of Reddit -- a social news aggregation site which is the 6th largest site in the world.

*cough*...google....*cough*....reddit nfl streams...*cough*

If you are not a fan and don't follow the team closely, you see a 1st round QB that they traded up for, Cincy's backup, and a guy who threw 5 INTs at the QB position. It's not even a competition in most people's minds, and that number reflects that.

Now that's something you don't hear too often.

TBD is much more entertaining with these two writing columns.

"Our studies show that we actually have a ramped-up injury situation with players during preseason as opposed to the injury factor in the regular season." So if player safety is truly the main concern, then why not eliminate 2 preseason games and stick with the 16 game schedule? Because none of this is about player safety, it's about money.

There was never anything quiet about it. It was clearly evident from the start the team was being re-built. There's just a lot of fans that live in a different reality.

I've been around here long enough to know that if Dalton doesn't complete that pass there would have been threads calling for the firing of McD, Beane, the whole front office, and probably even one demanding that Pegula sell the team. That's not hyperbole. I think it will be very interesting to see how the coaching staff is perceived after this year.