Supe, that $13MM that they are saving this coming year is $13MM that will have to be added to that $20MM average down the road.
You aren't taking into acct the guaranteed bonuses Ken, which is 100% why all of the QB restructures take place. It's the same principle, take a bigger guaranteed amount now in a bonus, and shrink your cap hit in the process to help the team save precious cap space.
Some of that difference between the 7 million year one cap hit and your thought that it should be a 18.19 million dollar cap hit will indeed get added on to the back years, so you're right there, but you are also forgetting about the bonus money and the split of 2 guaranteed pymts. The guaranteed money will be lessening his base salary, so the difference won't be as much as you think it will.
Ultimately I'm not really disagreeing with the fact that there will be some bigger cap hits of mid 20's plus in the later years, but that is also a time of 4-5-6 yrs down the line, when as many as 12 or more QBs can have that exact same number. Another thing to keep in mind is that for a deal of this magnitude they are probably assuming a restructure or two down the line, so all of this nonsense that we're talking about likely won't matter anyway.
It's a yearly exercise for every NFL team in terms of cap mgmt. Money gets shuffled, vets are let go, players get restructured, some key players are even cut. Every year it's the same thing. The object is to field the best team under the restrictions of the cap. Some teams gamble more for the future. I'm not seeing BAL doing that, besides the necessary gamble that it takes to give your QB that kind of market money over a long term deal.
I just don't think it necessarily puts them in cap hell, since the whole premise of the 'cap hell' was by reporters and fans based on the fact that the Ravens wouldn't have enough time to work out a long term deal and they'd be forced to franchise him at close to 20 million, thus forcing them to get rid of key players such as Suggs, Boldin, etc. Since that didn't happen, there's no real reason to continue discussing it, and that was my initial point when I commented on your post. BAL isn't in cap hell. That is incorrect, yet so many still seem to want to believe that to somehow make themselves feel better, like our front office is so much better than theirs, and they are stupid for signing their franchise QB to a 18 million dollar aav contract (even though that's at least the going rate at the moment, let alone 5-6 yrs down the line...)
You seemed to incorrectly think that they were in such a tight spot both now and for the future, but the truth of the matter is that they were 20 million under the cap, which is actually better than a lot of teams. If you look at their structures and their future year dealings, you'll see that they aren't in that bad of shape.
And while both Brady and Flacco get a huge portion of their contract in the first 2 or three years, there is a HUGE difference between the 2. While Brady's real salary will shrink by over half after the 2014 season, Flacco's will keep on growing. And while it won't reach the $30-5MM point we are seeing in some contracts, it will surely exceed $25MM at a time when Brady's cap is going to be $15MM.
That reason is solely because Brady took MORE guaranteed money now in the form of bonuses to lessen the cap hit later on. Joe Flacco and the Ravens could end up doing much of the same. We don't know what effect it may have on future dealings yet.
I think what the Pats did was very smart and beneficial to the team, but that money doesn't just disappear....it is paid to Brady in the form of guaranteed bonuses. No one is stopping any other team from doing the same thing, and we'll likely see that from some, possibly even BAL since Flacco will still only be 34 at the end of this deal. By the time he's 31-32 they could have already restructured it once, and be looking towards an extension.
