| Let us go on an archaeological dig of a dynasty long
gone. We’re not talking about the Ming dynasty or the Roman Empire, although
excavating the relics of those days of yore would be fascinating. No, the dynasty
I’m referring to is the San Francisco 49ers (1981-99), once a glorious franchise but
now a paltry shadow that seems eons removed from its former glory.
Mistakes of those fallen dynasties — don’t appease Hitler as Chamberlain did;
don’t be like Nero and fiddle while your capital city burns — can provide
valuable lessons to those who are wise enough to study history.
There is one lesson that all NFL teams should learn from the 49ers: Take your
salary-cap medicine. Look at the 49ers’ roster now — it has aging, overpaid
stars who are viewed as salary-cap burdens instead of top producers, and it has precious
little young talent or depth. The 49ers’ cap situation is so bad that the team may
have to trade the No. 3 overall pick in the draft because it can’t afford the signing
bonus that player will command.
The lesson in caponomics is crystal-clear, yet many teams continue to put off the
inevitable. Contracts are restructured and/or extended, and that delays the devastating
salary-cap blow. The problem for these teams is that the blow will come.
Other teams are employing all sorts of shenanigans — legal maneuvers but ones that
certainly do not fit under the spirit of the rules — to create extra salary-cap space
to sign new players. Some of those moves are to be expected, but some teams have gone
overboard in their actions. And they will pay.
I’m thinking here especially of the Denver Broncos, who signed DE Kavika Pittman
to what was announced as a ridiculous seven-year, $28 million contract. In reality, the
deal is a five-year contract worth around $13 million, with the two extra years tacked on
to lessen the immediate salary-cap impact.
Or consider OLT Tony Jones’ new seven-year, $34.5 million deal. I don’t think
anyone expects the 13-year veteran to play seven more seasons, but his contract is
stretched out over that period to diminish the burden his salary places on the
Broncos’ cap this season.
And it was just announced today that the Broncos have signed former Falcons DE Lester
Archambeau to — you guessed it — a seven-year deal. Archambeau is a pretty good
player, but he is getting up in years and showed signs of slipping last season. That may
have been the result of injuries, but it’s not a good sign, especially when it comes
to someone who’s going to be on the books for a long time.
It just doesn’t seem like good planning to me. The Broncos’ bookkeepers will
be accounting for Jones, Archambeau and Pittman long after the players themselves are
gone. And it’s not just the Broncos who are playing fast and loose with the cap
— myriad other teams are pulling the exact same tricks, looking for a bit of help now
that will cost a fortune later.
The biggest problem with restructuring and stretching contracts the way so many teams
do is that it puts a burden on the cap in future years that will likely force similar
moves in the future. Think of it as a repeating cycle that feeds itself until a
team’s future prospects are bleak.
If you don’t believe it, just ask the 49ers, if anyone still remembers when the
dynasty lived. |
