Why "Ask Vic" is must reading
 

http://www.jaguars.com/Story/5059.asp

Jeff from Boonsboro, MD: I thought you said the Patriots are great at dealing with the salary cap. Why do they have to cut players like McGinest, Givens and I heard rumors they were gonna cut Rodney Harrison? Maybe they are looking to the future, but what do you think?
Vic: How many times have I said it's not a game of maintenance, it's a game of replacement? To be good salary cap managers you have to be willing to let players go. You can't keep everybody, which is why I've also said you have to have jars on the shelf. The Patriots are fantastic salary cap managers because they are not afraid to lose players and they seem to always replace the players they lose. There are those players, such as Tom Brady, who are irreplaceable and the Patriots have a keen eye for extending those core players without suffering major consequences. Look at the Steelers. They've lost two key receivers, Plaxico Burress and Antwaan Randle El, in the last two free-agent periods. The Steelers have also lost defensive end Kimo von Oelhoffen and will lose safety Chris Hope. These are all players the Steelers could've found ways to keep by re-structuring other contracts and making cap room by stealing from future caps, but they don't do that because they know they'll be mortgaging their future. Instead, they bite the bullet now and put the onus on their scouting department to find replacements. The Patriots did that with Joe Andruzzi a year ago and they found Logan Mankins. They did that with Lawyer Milloy in 2003 and found Rodney Harrison. There's a popular belief that the best salary cap managers are the teams that invent tricks and move money around to keep their players. That's bull. The best salary cap managers are the teams that have the guts and skill to lose players and replace them."

Vic does a great job of breaking down the cap and its management.

nice find. Thanks. The IQ of this board just went up ten-fold.

In BB we trust ! Thanks for the reminder, how soon people forget !!

Could we make this a sticky? Or maybe force the influx of Chicken Little posters to read it upon registering? :D

Good stuff, Miguel, thanks. I like reading Vic's column, but for some reason I forget to check in on it very often, appreciate the reminder.

Miguel leads the way again...shining the light of knowledge on the legion of Chicken Little doom bawkers

excellent post. If you invest in the stock market you know that you should never fall in love with a stock. Like a good scouting department, you need to have a great research group who'll find you up and coming investments to replace stocks in your portfolio that you feel have limited upside.

You'll always have blue chips (Brady) in your portfolio to keep it steady,but you always go out and invest in more risky ventures that sometimes do great (Harrison) and sometimes don't perform very well (Starks) in order to try and maximize returns (superbowl wins and playoff appearances).

Why is this such a hard concept to "get"?

It's part finance...part performance...part cutting your losses short so you don't lose your shorts.

Similar to an asset allocation model.

"Money Ball" is centered around baseball, but is relevant to this topic. Pretty good book.

I've always wanted to read this book. I think I'll go out and get it. Do you know if there is a similar book but more football centric?

I agree, was listening to Curran yesterday on EEI, and he more or less has the same thing to say. I suspect that there will be some doings in Foxboro in the next couple of days, however do not expect them to be "sexy". The Pitt and NE analogy is excellent, let us see who is playing next January.

Miguel...Great find!! I think it's hard for some fans to understand what is needed to win in this NFL.. It is NOT the NFL of the 50s and 60s OR 70s...It is not the way it was when u just paid players and they stayed..the salary cap throws the whole situation into another dimension..meaning that players can not be kept for many years without a down side. It makes it hard for the fans. I know, but it is the way teams succeed or not. I wish it was not the case in some ways, but the system works and there is more level playing field. A solid article that people should read and understand. Thank you Miguel...another brings some sanity to the chicken little chaos.