Oh Man!!!!

[Nathan S.]

I'm not just going to saying this because I have a team that is in good position for a $120 million cap but because this is what people have been preaching all along - reality. We have been making things as real as possible, so why not continue. If the salary cap - not benefits cap - is $120 then that's what it should be here.

We shouldn't sway away from reality just to accomodate some people. I say if the salary cap is $120 in the NFL, then the salary cap here should be $120 - no less, no more.

[vikingfan]

I'm a believer that FANgm should incorporate sometype of one time rule. In real life, a lot of these teams moved money into last year... since it was uncapped. We should do something that eases the move to 120, to mimic reality... as they were eased into the 120 cap with last year's uncapped season.

On the other hand Jared, we put a cap in so teams wouldnt bankrupt themselves for this year. The contracts were ridiculous with the higher cap, couldnt imagine what would have happened with teams spending unlimited FAKE money. May have had the first Billion Dollar a Year athelete contract. Everybody knew of the pending labor issue. If you gambled on what you thought, well in my opinion you lost. 120M cap doesnt help me much with a bunch of free agents to sign not to mention draft picks. Thank God those should be cheaper.

[Onyxgem]

From what I've read, there are actually two cap numbers floating out there. There is the oft-cited figure of $120 which is the pure salary figure. This is the amount of money teams pay in cash to players. Then there is also the salary plus benefits figure of $140+. This is cash + health care and retirement benefits to current players.

In FanGM, the question is whether we were using the salary figure or the benefits figure back in 2009. In that year, the salary cap was $128. What I can't figure out is whether that included things like Minimum Salary Benefit, Player Performance Benefit, etc. If it did, then it might make sense for us to use the $140+ figure.

Nevertheless, if we go with the $120 figure as our target, I think it is wise to at least discuss alternatives for the next year or two. Putting in a cap of $120 now would lead to massive player cuts which in turn would create an inflated market of quality players that the teams with cap room would be able to lock up for years to come. It seems to me to be sensible to drop the cap to $130 for 2011 and then possibly match the NFL's cap for 2012. Then the teams (like my AFFL Arizona) that were expecting something like $145 would be forced to make some major changes but we wouldn't have a huge market of players to be split amongst the 5-10 teams that have cap space.

That is the big question, what exactly does it mean for the 140mil area, what is that money actually used for...is it used for Signing bonuses and what not or? That is going to have to be the big question on which cap we use.

[Ben C.]

On the other hand Jared, we put a cap in so teams wouldnt bankrupt themselves for this year. The contracts were ridiculous with the higher cap, couldnt imagine what would have happened with teams spending unlimited FAKE money. May have had the first Billion Dollar a Year athelete contract. Everybody knew of the pending labor issue. If you gambled on what you thought, well in my opinion you lost. 120M cap doesnt help me much with a bunch of free agents to sign not to mention draft picks. Thank God those should be cheaper.

I'm not saying that those of us who gambled and lost shouldn't have to pay (if it ends up that the 20 million that is listed as "for benefits" is not included in our cap here). I'm saying that in order to preserve realism long-term we may need to look at having a higher than reality cap here for this year.

If there are 20 teams over the cap, players will have to be released in order to just get those teams under the cap. After that those teams wouldn't have any cash to spend on free agents. The end result would be only 10 teams bidding on an inflated number of players and locking them up for multiple seasons at below-market rates. I don't think that is realistic.

[Strategist]

I agree that we CANNOT be real and go straight to a 120 mil cap. As for the arguement that we need realism well we did not go to uncapped last season (wouldn't work for our system) and I also don't believe it is realistic to just install a straight 120 cap.

Yes I will be affected negatively with a 120 mil cap. Dffl Dal. I didn't gamble and sign those players to those outrageous contrats that was done by the real jerry jones and I had to scramble last year to try and get under the cap and i know that it would be almost impossible to get under 120 in one year. So maybe I am biased but in real life owners where able to manuever to help out their teams. In this game we were not so I don't see it as fair to some of the teams to go straight to a 120 mil cap.

[vikingfan]

For most part CFFL is fine. Only 4 teams are currently over before signing Rookies. Of the 4, NYG and GB should have no problem getting rid of contracts. Indy is currently only appearing to be over by 1M. Cin like I stated earlier will have the most work to do. But it can be done. A lot depends on what the rookie scale looks like.

[Goodell]

More details should come out soon as things get closer to reality.

I've read that $120M, as well as other figures. Also that there may be exceptions that make it seem more like $130M. Also some talk about "dead money" possibly being treated differently under a new cap than the old, so we'll have so see how some of our old "cap hits" are treated under a new cap structure.

Unless a ton of specific details come out, I could see us talking about new rules (and changing programming scripts for new rules) for a bit as we watch what the real teams are doing in free agency who are in those situations. Some teams in NFL coming off uncapped year have much more salary on the books. What will those real teams do that might be in situations like many of our teams? Are they forced into drastic cuts or articles written about how the new cap is being managed?

I'm not seeing a lot of stories half the league about to be cut and massive salary slashing expected across the board, but instead a lot of talk about so many free agents and probably a lot of spending about to happen. We'll have to see how things in the NFL are going to work, so hopefully a lot being written about the new cap rules and how teams with higher salaries are managing under that system with a lower cap than it used to be a couple years ago despite revenues going up. I think some of the accounting for what counts against that new lower cap in terms of dead money or some of our cap hits could possibly change for what counts against that $120M versus what used to count against a higher cap figure. But we'll see.

It's hard but when thinking about your team and moves, be patient. We don't know right now what the new rules are, but we hope to find out much more soon as the NFL gets things together and we get to witness how teams are going to be operating and how they are managing higher salaries under different cap figure and possible changes in accounting practices.

I do want to try to keep things real generally as I think that's what separates a league like this from other fantasy/sim alternatives, but we can talk about options as the NFL picture gets clearer and how we want it to effect us. We'll have a round of rules discussions. If we see a ton of salary restructuring in reality, we might change our current rules about that to allow more restructurings, etc.

[Jared A]

As my teams go, I have one team that will GREATLY benefit from the 120 cap (and the rookie scale), one team that will be hurt, and one team that it doesn't make a huge difference. So, I honestly don't care. However, like Ben pointed out, we can't afford for teams to be forced under the cap, and then a bunch of probowl players to be signed for next to nothing.

[Royce R]

We already have players being signed for next to nothing as Team A trades a player to Team B then Team B gets him for next to nothing while Team A pays off his SB. So if players are cut and go to new teams that is nothing new to us.

My AFFL Ten team is always in cap trouble. Have I wondered how the heck im gonna get to 120 million and keep my team in tact, yep. But thinking that since I cut people I can't sign new ones in not in my plans.

I will cut enough that I can be active in FA. I suggest you find a way to prepare for that as well. Might be more of a shake up then most of us have planned. But watching the previous drafts and FA's we are always very active in changing our teams around and I would suspect most of us will have a ton of fun playing with the new cap and having a challenge rather than just keep spending away.

[Adam K]

I guess I look at your scenario like you rolled the dice and lost. Unlucky break for you and the others that spent or in some cases overspent. Whatever happens, its going to be crazy.

I agree. I would have to believe Jerry Jones was saying the same thing during the labor agreement. I think if NFL teams are dealing with this then it should be reflected here.