Proposed Change: Eliminate the $10M cap on salaries and make all players subject to the salary escalation provisions of rules 14.10 and 14.11 (+$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 (2016). (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 (2015) 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 Rodgers 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.
I think we have too much player movement. Seems like my roster turns over almost completely every 3 to 4 years. I would rather figure out a way to increase the amount of players I can keep on my team long-term than decrease.
I’ve voted for this proposal in the past and would vote for it again. As I said last year, elite players deserve no special dispensation. The current rule allows an owner to retain an elite player for multiple years without an increase in salary, freeing up money that can be spent on other players. That never seemed right to me.
I haven't experienced the dramatic roster changes every 3-4 years that Jeff mentioned, so I can't speak to that. Most teams can afford only one elite player, so I don't see losing that one elite player to free agency as contributing to a tidal wave of player movement.
How about "grandfathering" those with current $10 mil contracts? Allow current contracts to remain as is, since they were signed to a binding and existing contract. And then apply this rule to any future max. contracts. I think I might support it this way, and honestly it makes more sense, at least to me. I probably would not support it as written, mostly because of what I just said.
Current teams with a $10 mil player contracted beyond this season are:
Bensalem: DE Calais Campbell (contracted through 2016) Bronx: QB Matthew Stafford (contracted through 2016) Kutztown: QB Ben Rothlisberger (contracted through 2018) Las Vegas: QB Aaron Rodgers (contracted through 2017) Warrington: QB Joe Flacco (contracted through 2016)
Any "grandfathering" would only impact these five teams. I guess I could live with that and I will amend the proposal that the salary escalation in the new rule would not apply to these five players on these teams, which means if these player are traded or released, this "grandfathering" no longer applies.
