See MLB contracts are guaranteed for the full contract the NFL are not. I would think they should have done this the last contract they signed
Too much injury problems in the NFL, which is why “guaranteed money” is the main focal point in negotiations
We have been through this before. I also mentioned how many years ago former NFL running back Robert Smith was very critical of then-NFLPA President Gene Upshaw over this issue. Smith, however, did not just complain but rather got involved with the union and he then changed his tune. He said that he realized how fully guaranteed contracts would be worse for the players than the current system, and he apologized to Upshaw.
There is nothing preventing NFL players from getting fully guaranteed contracts. Both Kirk Cousins and DeShaun Watson got them. However, Cousins only signed a three-year contract, and the Browns had to give Watson a fully-guaranteed contract in order for him to consider playing there. They have been outliers, and you have to be really special to get guaranteed contracts.
Back to what Smith said, I think this would be a case of being careful of what you wish for. Right now the NFL has non-guaranteed contracts, but there is the guaranteed money and signing bonuses, which allow the teams to play games with the salary cap and push out cap dollars to later years while paying the players up-front, leaving them to deal with the salary cap purgatory issues later.
If the NFL required fully guaranteed contracts, the length of the contracts would no doubt be shorter. And, with no non-guaranteed out-years to spread out the salary cap charge for the bonus, the signing bonus would be much lower too. Many players would end up with shorter contracts with less guaranteed money under such a system.
Well said, and I believe we have agreed that understanding the salary cap is virtually impossible for a layman.
I truly believe either of my kids would be amazing at it if they decided to go into it as a career.
I have said before that I think a basic top-level understanding of the NFL, MLB and NHL systems is possible. You and I are proof of that. We may not fully understand all of the ins and outs, but we do understand how the salary cap works in the NFL.
I have said that I do not think there is any simple basic top-line understanding of the NBA’s system.
Agreed, but I would not be able to go in and do it now.
Either of my kids would literally thrive at it, especially my daughter, since she doesn’t follow football that much, so she would not have any emotional attachment.
If you want to how complex salary caps can become, look at this for the NHL.
I still maintain that one can understand a basic top-line explanation of how the NHL salary cap works. Understanding all of the rules in detail is another story.
What I don’t like about the NHL’s system is how teams can sign players to contracts with signing bonuses and spread those out among the full term, as the NFL does, but then allows teams to buy out the remainder of a contract at the end with the payout and salary cap charge based only on the amount of actual dollars remaining to be paid at the time of buy-out. As I understand, if a team buys out a player’s contract, the buy-out is for two-thirds of the total remaining amount due spread out over twice the length remaining on the contract. No consideration is given to bonuses which were paid earlier and which would have counted against the salary cap in those later years had the buy-out not been done.
Contrast that with the NFL, where every dime of guaranteed money will count against the salary cap, period. The only question is which year.
Sorry hate to disagree but it would so much better for the players that the contracts are guaranteed and all the BS cap playing is gone.
See the avg. player is there only 3.3 years
Average NFL career length | Statista
If you had guaranteed contracts and no cap BS it would make it even fairer for all teams and those who can count and not exceed cap will do the best. The players will at least know what they will earn in their careers
No, they would not. They would only know how much their current contract was. That is not much different from now, where they know how much money is guaranteed in their current contract. Beyond that, they will have no idea how much they will make in the future.
I can see exactly how it would play out if the NFLPA were to somehow get a requirement that all contracts be fully guaranteed. As I said earlier, teams would be signing players to shorter contracts with less guaranteed money than before, and people would soon be bitching at the owners for how they were doing business.
Edit: Here is a recent piecd by Robert Smith, who I mentioned earlier.
he sounds like KC with the what ifs. He picks the 90 players that get cut down to the final who make the team. Those are the contracts to be guaranteed.
like this.
NFL camp invites and undrafted free agents aren’t the same - (hbcugameday.com)
BS to the six month contracts as teams will do what they do now and bid up the players they want
Time will tell if it ever changes
I assume you are referring to this from the article:
First of all, that’s not possible. NFL teams start with 90-man rosters in training camp. So how do you fully guarantee every player? You don’t, because you can’t. Not everyone is going to make the team, and not everyone that makes the team is going to make it through an entire season.
So, per your comment you don’t have any contracts guaranteed until training camp is over, then those left standing get guaranteed contracts? What happens to those guarantees the following year, when they would start the process over again?
As mentioned, they will be bidding with shorter terms and less guaranteed money if the entire contract has to be guaranteed. But, have it your way, just like you had it your way when you said the Indianapolis Colts hired the best person available for the job when they named Jeff Saturday their interim coach last year.
and you didn’t read my link that states what the payments are for those in training camp and preseason
Your logic doesn’t hold about 1 year contracts because it doesn’t happen in baseball. Why don’t the owners do it there?
I did. Your link has nothing to do with my point about why the NFL does not have fully guaranteed contracts. But that is typical of you to reply by posting links to articles that are totally irrelevant to the original point and then act like you make some wonderful point.
Baseball has a totally different economic system - and life span of a career. Also totally irrelevant to this discussion.
no my link was a counter to your link about guaranteeing 90 players contracts. It showed the pay scales of the players in the camp and preseason . They were getting paid and don’t have a contract
Which doesn’t have squat to do with your original topic about NFL contracts not being fully guaranteed.
whatever
and MLB is actually the first word in the thread
Have a nice night
The problem with not having guaranteed contracts are the risks for on the player for anything that’s not a signing bonus. But yes guarantee contracts would be shorter ones
Odd you would say that, as you have said elsewhere that MLB should have imposed a salary cap and revenue sharing after the 1994 work stoppage, just like the NFL has.
You too.
and it still holds true.