How is it relevant? It’s relevant because it helps to explain why things are different, this year. Normally, they’re not as top heavy, and they usually aren’t quite as close to the cap as they’ve been this early in the game.
I like the idea of looking at the cap through percentages and how spending is distributed but that assumes that teams never change their approach in terms of how much they are willing to pay absolute stars and go for more 3-4m contracts than those 7-8m deals to balance it out. Similarly, how often has Brady gone into a season with a charge that large ? How often was he on an expiring deal ? Context is king when it comes to look at the exact cap numbers.
There is no "early" in this game because in 10h they could be sitting at 10m+ more space. I think what would be much more interesting to see is with how much money they will go into the season when we hit September. That is far more telling than a arbitrary point in April with almost the entire offseason still ahead. But obviously people (and journalists) don't have the patience but need something to discuss now.
We are better off today with about 5m in space than after 2016 when we went into the offseason with 60m+ in space but dozens of vacancies. Mostly because proven talent is already on the roster and only a handful moves are left to be done.
I’m not claiming that what you say isn’t true, but it’s just a bit ironic how in one sentence you claim how disciplined they’ve historically been, and in another how easy it will be for them to buck that trend and kick money down the road.
I don't see how that is ironic. I am just pointing out that you can't be
tight against the cap if you have as much flexibility to create space with the snap of a finger as the Pats do. That's like suggesting someone is running out of money except for the savings account.
Obviously as most here I am well aware of the consequences of doing it repeatedly. The Eagles and Saints will eventually reap the consequences of repeatedly kicking the can down the line.
Also, they went after Humphries at the very beginning of free agency, so I don’t think it’s fair to assume that they’d have made all of the other moves that they’ve made. Would they go after him again, right now? That’s the question that some of us aren’t as sure of. Either way, they’re going to free up money, but I don’t know if it’s going to be enough for the likes of AJ Green and some of the other names that have been mentioned.
They increased their offer to 10m APY while some people here already had been talking for days how we can't afford to sign anyone because we only have so much space. You really need to ignore the number that Miguel has written on his twitter handle because that is just a snapshot. It would be much more interesting to see the realistic estimation of the amount they could free up if they wanted to.
If they wanted to they could sign whoever they want but in the end it will be about value. When I mentioned AJ Green almost a month ago as a potential target I called it a moonshot for multiple reasons and BB not seeing the value was the biggest. Them going to 10m APY with Humphries made me a bit more curious but it remains a long shot.
My issue with the entire conversation always was reading that we can't afford something because of the cap situation. Which is absolutely not true. Of course we can't go on a 100m shopping spree but that is besides the point and mostly a strawman. But we can absolutely afford to get one elite player on a 14-15m APY contract if BB thought they could get value out of it. Which especially with WR is more than questionable but that is a different conversation altogether.
