BDW1968 Posted January 11, 2006 Share Posted January 11, 2006 I have posted several times stating that I would build from the O-LINE and D-LINE out. I have expressed interest in the past of siging some very high priced FAs for the O-LINE and have been mocked because of salary cap reasons. People wew saying I was dreaming and the line I wanted to put together they said was impossible. And, they are all legit reasons on th surface. I am here tonight to show you that it is possible. If I were given a clean slate and was allowed to build a team, this is how I would allocate the salary cap dollars. This demonstartion is rough, but you will see the concept. I am basing these numbers on the 2006 Salary cap number which is expected to be about 90 Million dollars. Here we go: OFFENSIVE LINE - This is the foundation to my plan and where the most money will be allocated to any starters. To make the numbers simple, I have allocated an average of 5 Million per position (some postions may be more....OT and C......and some may be sleightly less....OG). However, to make this simple, I am using a 5 MILL average for each O-LINE POSITION. THIS WILL ALLOW FOR A DOMINATING O-LINE. Again, this is the FOUNDATION to a winning team! LT - 5 MILL LG - 5 MILL C - 5 MILL RG - 5 MILL RT - 5 MILL SKILLED POSITIONS - I truly believe that if you have a STUD O-LINE in place, you don't need SUPERSTARS at the skilled positions. All the QBs, RBs, TEs, and WRs that are in the NFL are there for a reason. THEY HAVE TALENT! ANY QB can throw the ball accurately if they get time to throw. All the RBs can run the ball if there are holes to run through. All TEs and WRs can get open if they have time to develop the routes. With this said, based on my plan and structure, average, or sleightly above average, players at these positions will get the job done. I firmly believe SPEED is the key at all of these positions. I will take guys with sleightly less talent at these positions as long as they have speed. They might not be able to cut back or bounce as well....or run as crisp of routes as the SUPERSTARS, BUT with my SUPERSTAR/STUD O-LINE, they can be sleightly less than perfect, but still be just as effective because of the time they will have. The QB will have all day to throw which allows him the time he needs instead of having to make the quick and decisive decisions (that is where QBs in this league are separated....SOME READ FASTER THAN OTHERS AND THUS ARE PAID MORE). In my scheme, an average QB will have the opportunity to look great (JP is a perfect example of this.....takes him a little longer to read defenses, but he will have time behind my STUD O-LINE and has the SPEED to make something happen if nothing is open...perfect for my offense). As I stated earlier, SPEED is the key at the other positions and you can find guys with enough talent to get the job done at the prices I outline below. REMEMBER, A GREAT O-LINE WILL MAKE AVERAGE PEOPLE AT THE SKILLED POSITIONS LOOK GREAT. QB - 4 MILL RB - 3 MILL TE - 2 MILL WR - 3 MILL WR - 3 MILL WR - 3 MILL DEFENSIVE LINE - Same thing applies here as with the offense.....BUILD FROM THE LINE OUT. IF you can stop the run and GET substantial pressure with your FRONT 4, YOU WILL MAKE THE REST OF THE DEFENSE LOOK GREAT!!!!! IF you only give a QB 3-4 seconds to throw, you can change the game. With this said, my D-LINE will average 4 MILL per position. You can get some great talent for 4 MILL per position. DL - 4 MILL DL - 4 MILL DL - 4 MILL DL - 4 MILL LINEBACKERS - I still see this as a fairly important position. You must eliminate the run game and have very athletic LBs. With that said, you don't have to have SUPERSTARS, but you must have SPEED and solid players. With that said, a good LB core can be had for about 3 MILL per linebacker. You can be VERY good at LB for that price. LB - 3 MILL LB - 3 MILL LB - 3 MILL SECONDARY - With a solid SOLID and FAST front 7, you take a lot of pressure of your secondary. If you can get to the QB in a hurry and eliminate the run game, you make the secondary's job a lot easier. With that said, I get 2 SOLID corners.....again, not SUPERSTARS, but SOLID CORNERS (2 TERRANCE MCGEE type playes would be good here) I have allocated 3 MILL per CB in this plan (actually more than necessary, but they are important and you can get VERY GOOD, not great, corners at this price). I allocated 2 MILL a piece for each of the safety positions. Again, SPEED is the most important factor here. They don't have to be the most talented guys with the front 7 I have in place at this point (GONNA GET TO THE QB FAST AND STOP THE RUN). You will have a VERY SOLID defense if structured this way. CB - 3 MILL CB - 3 MILL FS - 2 MILL SS - 2 MILL That takes care of the starters. That leaves 31 palyers for the backups to complete your team. That will give you your 53 man roster. Personally, I wouldn't field 53 guys....I really think you could get by on 48-50, but for this example, we will use the full 53 man roster. Backups would make up on average 1 MILL a piece (Some Vets making sleightly more and some younger players making less). That would add up to 31 MILL for the backups. 78 MILL for the STARTERS 31 MILL for the BACKUPS 109 MILL TOTAL Now, I know the Cap is 90 MILL, but remember how contracts are structured. You use bonus money up front to lessen the base salaries and will bring the Cap numbers down to the required number. For example, the Redskins last year had about 128 Mill invested in their team but were still under the 85 Mill Cap. So, 109 is NO PROBLEM at all. Through the years, the Cap number will increase along with contracts, but as long as you follow this bacic formula, you will always be competitive and a winner. Sure, maybe you will have an average year now and then due to the backends of some contracts, but as far as I am concerned, I will take 5 GREAT years for every 1 Average or even Bad year. I know this is just a rough outline, and it might not even be that simple, but it really isn't that much harder than this. I'd like to get some feedback on this plan. Again, I know there is more to it than this, but the purpose of this post was to show the winning formula for building a football team. It probably can't be done EXACTLY like this, but this syestem can be put into place with little modification. THIS SYSTEM IS DEFINATELY REALISTIC. THIS IS HOW I WOULD BUILD A WINNING FOOTBALL TEAM. 560692[/snapback] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sven233 Posted January 11, 2006 Author Share Posted January 11, 2006 Pyramid scheme. ok, so you shrug off 109m in spending over a cap of 80m by arguing for bonuses pushing the deficit into the future. Fine. So if that is your approach, where do you account for the dead money on the books from previous years of doing this? I don't see it in your estimates. And I should add that Mould's contract, for example, is not a problem because we pay him too much. It is a problem because we repeatedly restructured it to push money down the road. Most of the money to be charged against him was actually paid long ago. So the point is that if you play accounting cap games like you advocate, all those "5m" linemen on the books will actually be making much less. 561286[/snapback] I DID account for the future contracts saying that you WILL have a DOWN year every now and then. BUT, like I said earlier, I will trade 4-5 GREAT YEARS for every 1-2 DOWN YEARS that you will have due to contracts. As a matter of fact, I said I would take 10 DOWN years for 1 SUPERBOWL WIN! This concept outlined above would give you a great chance at winning consistantly. Sure, you will have a bad year now and then while you get yourself out of cap trouble, but I BELIEVE IN GOING FOR IT NOW.....Win one and worry about the future when it gets there. But even if you have a DOWN year or 2, you can reimplement this plan over and over......but yes, you will have a bad year now and then because of the cap. BUT I'd really like to have a realistic shot at winning the whole thing instead of making the playoffs every year and losing in the first round. GO FOR IT! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orton's Arm Posted January 11, 2006 Share Posted January 11, 2006 An excellent thread you've started, Sven. However, there are some points with which we disagree: -First, I think that having a good QB is pivotal to a successful team. Look at the teams who will be playing in the divisional round. The divisional round's QBs are listed, with 2005 passer ratings in parentheses: Peyton Manning (104), Tom Brady (92) , Ben Roethlisberger (99), Jake Plummer (90), Jake Delhomme (88), Matt Hasselbeck (98), Mark Brunell (86), and Kyle Orton (60) / Rex Grossman (60). Chicago is in the divisional round because its defense had one of the best statistical years in NFL history. The other five teams needed good QB play. A bad QB can really hurt his team, killing drives through both INTs and incomplete passes. Compare the Oakland game to the Bucs game. Both were road games in which the offensive line was getting dominated, and in which the running game did next to nothing. But the Bills scored just 3 points in Tampa, while scoring 17 in Oakland. The difference was the quality of the QB play. -Second, I'll disagree about the importance of having speedy WRs. I think there needs to be one speedster like Lee Evans, but for the most part good hands are more important than speed. The cover-2 defense makes it very tough for teams that live and die by 40 yard passes. You need to be able to move the ball down the field in small chunks, and a receiver with the dropsies will kill your drives. Let's say your receiver drops a five yard pass on first and ten. You might think this is no big deal. But look more closely. Now it's second and ten. If you run a standard-issue between-the-tackles running play, it will be 3rd and 6 or 7. The odds of coverting in that 3rd down situation are well under 50%. The defense knows this, so on second and ten, they only need to focus on taking away plays of five yards or more. Now let's say the receiver makes the five yard catch, putting you in second and five. You no longer need a big play to convert, so the defense has more to guard against. Two standard-issue 3.5 yard running plays will get you the conversion quite nicely. So will another 5 - 6 yard pass. Because there are more things for the defense to guard against, they're much more likely to guess wrong. The third thing about which we disagree is the best way to acquire an offensive line. I strongly feel that most or all of your offensive line should come through the draft. There are several reasons for this: 1) the best offensive linemen almost always get locked up for their careers by the teams that drafted them, 2) you need to be locking up players for their whole careers yourself to create maximum continuity. Take Chris Villarrial as an example. A few years ago, he was one of the best offensive guards on the free agent market. TD signed him. But old age has caught up with him all too quickly, and now it's getting time to find a new RG. Once again there will be disruption at the RG spot, instead of the years of continuity that teams with successful offensive lines enjoy. If your average free agent OL signing lasts five years as a starter, then on average you're replacing one starter a year. That's not good. What makes the situation worse is that guys who are in their last year or two of being starters will provide declining levels of play. So of your five linemen, one will be new to your line, and another will be a declining player in his last year as a starter. That leaves just three good linemen. Maybe you're thinking this problem could be avoided by signing all five free agents at once, so they can all gel together, and provide their best years at the same time. But there simply aren't enough quality OL free agents to let you do this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sven233 Posted January 11, 2006 Author Share Posted January 11, 2006 Good post. And I appreciate the feedback. And I do see some of your points..... However, I think we might disagree on which QBs are good and who isn't. Personally, I don't like Mark B., Kyle O., or Rex G. as much as you might. In fact, I think they are all about average at best. I don't know if I would take any of them over Losman at this point. The Skins had like 143 TOTAL yards of offense the other day and still won. Mark B. was terrible. And the bears all years averaged only 13 points a game or so (that might even be more than they actually did). So, what I am saying is that right there shows you that you don't need a superstar at QB to win. You can get a pretty good QB for 4 Mill a year. And like I said, I think a guy like Losman would be fine behind this O-Line. He has shown he can make the throws when he has time and can step into the throws. He has shown that he can get himself out of trouble when needed with his feet. Where he struggled is that sooooooooo many times this year he had 2-3 seconds to throw the ball and he tried to force things or make something happen. Behind a good line, he won't be rushed as much. So, that is where I am on the QB. About the WR.....I guess I may think that Evans is better than you do. Like I said, I would take 3 Lee Evans type receivers at WR. He has VERY GOOD HANDS and GREAT SPEED. He doesn't drop many balls at all. He is a a GOOD receiver that can do most everything. 3 guys like him will get open and won't drop the ball that offten. As for where the lineman come from......I agree the draft could be very important in doing this. If I were drafting, I would draft BIG guys on both sides of the ball the first 3-4 rounds every year. They could be the future. But, I think FA guys have a big place on my team as well. For example, take a look at what has come out the past couple years......Bentley and Hutch this year.....Woody and Demulling Last year among others. Those are guys that can be had for the right $$$$$$$$$. That is why I allocate so much money to the O-Line. And, due to my drafting system of drafting Big Men high........if one of the FAs hit the wall or goes down, there will be talent there to back up the STARS. You won't lose too much this way. Remember guys, this plan is just an outline. It is not exactly perfect, but I wanted to show you that if you build a team right....FROM THE LINES OUT.....you will WIN! Sure the plan is not exact, but it is impossible to be exact unless you are really managing a team and looking at the players you want......But, this is the idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orton's Arm Posted January 11, 2006 Share Posted January 11, 2006 Remember guys, this plan is just an outline. It is not exactly perfect, but I wanted to show you that if you build a team right....FROM THE LINES OUT.....you will WIN! Sure the plan is not exact, but it is impossible to be exact unless you are really managing a team and looking at the players you want......But, this is the idea. 561935[/snapback] I agree with you that Lee Evans is the kind of WR you want on your team. My point about hands WRs was more directed at avoiding the situation the Raiders found themselves in maybe 10 - 15 years ago. They had a track team of guys with names like James Jett, but the only one who caught very many passes was the comparatively slow Tim Brown. The fast guys just couldn't catch. I like your plan of focusing on the o-line in the early rounds of the draft. Personally, I would sign few or any free agents this year, so the Bills could have good position in next year's draft. If there isn't a player worthy of wherever you're picking, then trade down. I'm not sold on Losman. Maybe next year he will do something to change my mind. Of the eight teams in the divisional round, seven have gotten good years out of their QBs this year. Maybe next year some of those QBs will have bad years. If so, their respective teams will likely be replaced in the divisional round. I agree Brunell had a bad day against Tampa, but Simms had a bad day against Washington. One of the two had to win despite his poor performance. Simms' QB rating for the year was a very respectable 81, so good QB play had a lot to do with why both teams made it that far in the first place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rico Posted January 11, 2006 Share Posted January 11, 2006 OFFENSIVE LINE - This is the foundation to my plan and where the most money will be allocated to any starters. To make the numbers simple, I have allocated an average of 5 Million per position (some postions may be more....OT and C......and some may be sleightly less....OG). However, to make this simple, I am using a 5 MILL average for each O-LINE POSITION. THIS WILL ALLOW FOR A DOMINATING O-LINE. Again, this is the FOUNDATION to a winning team! LT - 5 MILL LG - 5 MILL C - 5 MILL RG - 5 MILL RT - 5 MILL 560692[/snapback] IMO that's WAY too much to spend on the OL, no matter how bad the unit has been for Buffalo. You may always be decent with that kind of appropriation, but the odds of you being great are slim. Playmakers still win championships, & the grunts support the playmakers. I think TD had the right amount allocated for this year's OL (a little over $3M per starter)... the only problem was MW was getting half of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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