NFL could try to cap individual player contracts

Bill Lee · Mar 30, 2026

XLIX said:
This issue is a lot like the franchise tag. Players hate having the franchise tag applied to them but it only impacts about a dozen players a year (at most). So the 1600 member Union as a whole isn't going to make a significant sacrifice to get rid of something which only impacts a dozen or so players.

Odd thing is it is probably impacting a lot more players over time than just 12 a year, some negatively and some positively.

Think of what free agency would look like if one prime QB could hit FA each and every season. That FA QB would get over-paid (Kirk Cousins, anyone) and over time the positions in the most demand (QB, WR1, EDGE, LT) will keep more of the salary cap while (in general) everyone else would get less.

The reason this doesn't happen is that the Franchise Tag lets each team keep its top FA off the market by paying the average of the top five, which by definition means the top-of-market benchmark salary does not increase via Free Agency. It surely would otherwise, since everyone knows it only takes one owner with a hard-on to change the market. OTOH, the mere threat of using the FT often gets players to take concessions.

Bill Lee · Mar 30, 2026

XLIX said:
********. If Josh Allen getting less means the rank and file get more, then the rank and file are not going to be intimidated by Josh Allen into voting against something that benefits them.

OTOH a lot of rank and file players think they're going to somehow blossom and become the next Josh Allen.

People voting against their self-interest due to delusional behavior isn't a new phenomena.

Bill Lee · Mar 30, 2026

Rob0729 said:
No it doesn't. It probably means James Cook is getting more. If there is just one max contract that only affects QBs, odds are the money saved will go to the top free agents to get them or retain them. So it will just raise the salaries of the top

Players might be happy to see the franchise tag gone, but most don't care about all that much anymore. Name all the players who have been screwed over by the franchise tag in recent years. Most players who get franchised either get paid a top of the market deal with their team or traded to another team where they get a top of the market deal. The days of teams keeping players on a franchise tag for a year or two to keep them from free agency without having to pay them for a long term deal is no longer a thing except in rare cases. So it isn't that big of an issue for the players.

I think we're in general agreement. Josh Allen and James Cook would be getting more, and would pretty much any of the QB/WR1/EDGE/LTs in their prime about to hit the market, but the rest of the players would be the ones getting less to make up for them. The fact that the overall cap goes up each year due to better media revenue masks this a lot.

Rob0729 · Mar 30, 2026

Bill Lee said:
Odd thing is it is probably impacting a lot more players over time than just 12 a year, some negatively and some positively.

Think of what free agency would look like if one prime QB could hit FA each and every season. That FA QB would get over-paid (Kirk Cousins, anyone) and over time the positions in the most demand (QB, WR1, EDGE, LT) will keep more of the salary cap while (in general) everyone else would get less.

The reason this doesn't happen is that the Franchise Tag lets each team keep its top FA off the market by paying the average of the top five, which by definition means the top-of-market benchmark salary does not increase via Free Agency. It surely would otherwise, since everyone knows it only takes one owner with a hard-on to change the market. OTOH, the mere threat of using the FT often gets players to take concessions.

A max cap for contracts would definitely hurt a player like Drake Maye. It would lower the incentive for the Patriots to sign him to a long term deal before his fifth year option. Sure it would be cheaper next year when he is eligible for a long term deal. But if the league puts a cap on max contracts, the deal he could get in 2029 would be far less than what he would get without a cap on max contracts. Not only would the contract he would get in 2029 hit the max value, the contracts every year for the top QB between next year and 2029 would be capped slowing the growth rate of the max deals.

The big reason to sign players earlier and earlier is how fast contracts are growing each year for the top players. If the league slow that growth for the top players, it gives them incentive not to sign deals early. They might even save money by waiting.

Steve102 · Mar 30, 2026

Bill Lee said:
I'm already there. I've never explicitly paid for NFL since I dropped cable TV around a decade ago. With CATV I had to pay extra to get sports programming in HD and the only reason I did that was to watch NFL. I do have Amazon Prime but I've had that since it was first offered long before Amazon partnered with NFL. I also have YouTube Premium but again I bought that long before NFL was partnering with Google. Now I either watch games live for free over the air or I watch highlights delayed on YouTube.

I'll pay for Fubo/ Youtube TV during the season, so I can watch NCAA too. I shut it off after the Super Bowl. That's the limit, and if they get to pricey, they will be out too.

XLIX · Mar 30, 2026

Rob0729 said:
No it doesn't. It probably means James Cook is getting more. If there is just one max contract that only affects QBs, odds are the money saved will go to the top free agents to get them or retain them. So it will just raise the salaries of the top

That makes zero sense.

Less money to QBs means overall more money for everyone else.

Rob0729 said:
Players might be happy to see the franchise tag gone, but most don't care about all that much anymore.

No ****, that's what I have been saying. MOST players don't give a crap about the franchise tag because MOST players are not even remotely in a position where it may apply to them someday.

Rob0729 said:
Name all the players who have been screwed over by the franchise tag in recent years.

Every player who got the tag applied to him was screwed over because it prevented that player from being a UFA after their contract expired.

The thing is no one feels sorry for those players because they are making millions and millions of dollars.

Rob0729 said:
Most players who get franchised either get paid a top of the market deal with their team or traded to another team where they get a top of the market deal. The days of teams keeping players on a franchise tag for a year or two to keep them from free agency without having to pay them for a long term deal is no longer a thing except in rare cases. So it isn't that big of an issue for the players.

It isn't an issue for 99% of players.

It is a HUGE issue for the (roughly) 1% it impacts.

Rob0729 said:
And you cannot hurt my feelings. I don't care about you. You might want to try to argue with yourself more if you like to argue with bad arguments.

At least I'd be arguing with someone who understands football, and not a moron who thinks 1 vote outweighs 10 votes.

Newsflash: Player will have internal discussions, but Josh Allen is not going to bully his teammates on how to vote, and only a special type of imbecile thinks such a thing is even possible.

Grogan14 · Mar 30, 2026

Clonamery said:
I hate these Socialistic fixes because the Owners can't control their budgets so it's up to the Players to do it. These Commie Billionaires always trying to spread the wealth at the expense of the BEST Americans.

Wrong! Americas best are military, policeman and first responders not greedy Wall street executives and overpaid nfl qbs

BTTA · Mar 31, 2026

Ring 6 said:
No, because his observation was not accurate and such characterizations are at the center of politics in America today.

What you did is what made them the center of politics. You are the one who brought that lens onto this, in this case. That's what is making it happen, people doing exactly what you did. You are not the victim here, you are the perpetrator.

There are millions of Americans who wake up every day with the sole purpose of addressing some of our realities. They are nonpartisan in their viewpoint, transpartisan in their efforts. If you silence the reality they know, you end people's ability to make the world a better place.

There are a few thousand conflict entrepreneurs who prey on the privileges of an open society. You are doing their bidding here.

Ring 6 · Mar 31, 2026

BTTA said:
What you did is what made them the center of politics. You are the one who brought that lens onto this, in this case. That's what is making it happen, people doing exactly what you did. You are not the victim here, you are the perpetrator.

There are millions of Americans who wake up every day with the sole purpose of addressing some of our realities. They are nonpartisan in their viewpoint, transpartisan in their efforts. If you silence the reality they know, you end people's ability to make the world a better place.

There are a few thousand conflict entrepreneurs who prey on the privileges of an open society. You are doing their bidding here.

Quite the opposite. Someone posted misinformation to push their political views, and I corrected it.

mgteich · Mar 31, 2026

Steve102 said:
All this cap talk and limiting contracts while charging me stupid money to chase streaming services is a real turn off. I am going to get to the point that I'm not going to pay. I can see that day coming pretty quickly.

You will do this as the NFL becomes more and more popular and the teams more and more valuable.

mgteich · Mar 31, 2026

Capping individual contracts might be agreed to in the next contract. After all, this cap would benefit the vast majority of players (and teams).

The issues are always revenue splits, safety and pensions.

Vindicate · Mar 31, 2026

mgteich said:
You will do this as the NFL becomes more and more popular and the teams more and more valuable.

Tbh I think the valuation hike is going to be slowed because teams have been resistant to private equity (PE) creeping in, and the insane valuations have necessitated their presence. Furthermore, PE firms have been failing to deliver the returns promised as of recently because of, DUN-DUN-DUN: the overall trend of a declining rate of global growth and profit

moosekill · Mar 31, 2026

patfanken said:
I never said 95% of Americans are poor. Just that they aren't "rich". They are people who ARE affected by the current policies of the US government.

BTW assuming your 80% number is correct, that means 33 MILLION Americans have no access to health care insurance and given the cost of health care and medication in America that means no access to health care for the vast majority of these people. But I guess you're OK with this number. Your boss certainly is.

And finally, I know you are ass burnt because you king is having a rough time getting away with his constant lying and bad policies, but in my post wasn't political, it was just an observation and pointing out that a cap on NFL players might be good for the overall membership of the NFLPA. But admit THIS paragraph is political.

BTW- google estimated that there are a 165MM working Americans, hence the 33MM number of uninsured workers

Lol did you post this crap 2 years ago when gas was higher than it is now? How come you can't keep this to football.

Steve102 · Mar 31, 2026

mgteich said:
You will do this as the NFL becomes more and more popular and the teams more and more valuable.

Grogan14 · Mar 31, 2026

BTTA said:
What you did is what made them the center of politics. You are the one who brought that lens onto this, in this case. That's what is making it happen, people doing exactly what you did. You are not the victim here, you are the perpetrator.

There are millions of Americans who wake up every day with the sole purpose of addressing some of our realities. They are nonpartisan in their viewpoint, transpartisan in their efforts. If you silence the reality they know, you end people's ability to make the world a better place.

There are a few thousand conflict entrepreneurs who prey on the privileges of an open society. You are doing their bidding here.

Young men who run around chasing a ball playing a game get generational wealth for their next 10 generations and live like kings, while the people who make it safe and possible for them to play a child's game (policeman, nurses, first responders) and those who have just had the bad luck to be born into a desperate situation live paycheck to paycheck and scrape by.
You can be a capitalist and realize this is not right and unjust. There should be a wealth cap and annual income cap.

The pro sports salaries are sick and every year they and their league bosses want more and more

My opinion is screw them...enough is enough

mgteich · Mar 31, 2026

Should there also be a cap on singers, doctors, lawyers, owners of businesses? Should the government take away 90% of Musk's money to make life more fair for everyone else? He is worth more than 1/2 of Americans). I am all for higher tax rates on the rich (they agree), but capping their earnings or total assets are really horrible ideas.

BTW, surely Taylor Swift doesn't need more than $20M a year!
=========================================
With regard to the NFL, this issue is up to the players' union to negotiate. They could decide that no one should be able to make more than $20M AAV. That would allow the teams to spend more on the rest of the roster. There are already fixed rookie contracts.

All this is up to the unions. For example, they could decide on a pay limit for each position (changing by year of experience).

The owners will share whatever percentage of the revenue that is negotiated. They really don't care much how the UNION wants to split the money among its members. This current effort is merely a suggestion by management that a cap might be in the best interests of everyone but the very highest paid players (as is the rookie contract structure).

mgteich · Mar 31, 2026

Socialism is a recognized system.

I'm sure that you feel the same regarding Musk or Taylor Swift.

XLIX · Mar 31, 2026

Grogan14 said:
Young men who run around chasing a ball playing a game get generational wealth for their next 10 generations and live like kings, while the people who make it safe and possible for them to play a child's game (policeman, nurses, first responders) and those who have just had the bad luck to be born into a desperate situation live paycheck to paycheck and scrape by.
You can be a capitalist and realize this is not right and unjust. There should be a wealth cap and annual income cap.

The pro sports salaries are sick and every year they and their league bosses want more and more

My opinion is screw them...enough is enough

The reason they make so much money is because you watch. So either stop watching or stop complaining.

patfanken · Mar 31, 2026

moosekill said:
Lol did you post this crap 2 years ago when gas was higher than it is now? How come you can't keep this to football.

The price of gas in MA in November of 2024 was $3.01 The average price nationally was $3.04. (according to google). Was it higher earlier in the Biden years? Sure, it was, but that was after coming into office with almost a 1% inflation rate for almost a decade. Of COURSE inflation was higher when inflation started but dropped just below 3% by the end of his term. So I guess in the parlance of internet sparring. DOUBLE LOL on you! moose

What is kinda interesting to me is that gas is actually LOWER in MA than the national average at about $3.80/gal. Though I haven't checked it in about a week so it could be a bit higher. Still not what I expected.

BTW- Is anyone one else questioning why we are paying more based on the price of oil TODAY on oil that was bought and paid for about 3-4 months ago? Now understand, almost NONE of our oil comes from the middle east. So, correct me if I'm wrong, the US oil companies have just made BILLIONS more in extra profits on gas that that was bought at $72-82/barrel. while the rest of us have dollars LESS because of that seemingly unnecessary increase in price.

I don't know why everyone isn't asking that question

Ian · Mar 31, 2026

Let's get off the political road this is going down and try and keep things on the rails.

And RIP to this guy. Disappointed to hear the news, but didn't realize he was 94. I definitely feel old.

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NFL could try to cap individual player contracts

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