Proposed Change: Eliminate the $10M cap on salaries and make all players subject to the salary escalation provisions of rules 16.7 and 16.8 (+$1M for contracts of 4 years or less, +$1.5M for contracts of 5 years or more). Conditions: (1) No initial salary can exceed $10M. (2) There is a $10M maximum salary cap penalty for any player cut with a salary over $10M, regardless of remaining years on their contract. (3) The new salaries will take effect next year (2015). (4) Any coach with a player impacted by this change (player current salary is $10M with years remaining or will hit $10M during the current contract) will have a one-time opportunity this year (2014) to modify/reduce the length of that player’s contract without penalty.
Explanation: It makes no sense to have to pay another $1M or $1.5M every year for a player like Riley Cooper when players like Brady or Witten continue indefinitely with no salary increase. This change will make more high quality players available to the league as free agents because it will be more difficult to hoard players. The conditions allow for a reasonable transition from current contracts and the salary cap penalty maximum will hopefully prevent a team from crashing because of a huge salary cap fine upon cutting a high value player. The escalation is no different than what everyone else pays.
