Interesting insight on the salary cap and QB salaries

[StickierBuns]

https://x.com/ckparrot/status/1816494772334252226

[Greylock]

Salaries are getting out of control. No longer is it related to what they do on the field to help their team win, it has become a race to be the highest paid player at their position. They sign a multi-year deal and soon somebody passes them up on the wage scale and all of of sudden it's either trade me to some team that respects me and will make me the highest paid at my position or hold out until they pay me.

[StickierBuns]

Salaries are getting out of control.  No longer is it related to what they do on the field to help their team win, it has become a race to be the highest paid player at their position.  They sign a multi-year deal and soon somebody passes them up on the wage scale and all of of sudden it's either trade me to some team that respects me and will make me the highest paid at my position or hold out until they pay me.

Don't blame the players. The NFL has never been more popular. TV contract $$$$ is off the chart. Tickets have never been more expensive. Big, beautiful NFL stadiums are being built partly on tax payers backs. These NFL teams are worth billions of dollars, owned by billionaires. And all of this is easily visible on the Internet (TV contract dollars, etc.) And QBs are the engines that power the money machine. Why shouldn't they get paid?

[MaroonBells]

Don't blame the players. The NFL has never been more popular. TV contract $$$$ is off the chart. Tickets have never been more expensive. Big, beautiful NFL stadiums are being built partly on tax payers backs. These NFL teams are worth billions of dollars, owned by billionaires. And all of this is easily visible on the Internet (TV contract dollars, etc.) And QBs are the engines that drive the money machine. Why shouldn't they get paid?

Exactly. Never understood why so many fans get angry at players as if they're driving NFL owners into the poorhouse.

[Montana Tom]

It's actually a fairly simple economic model. It is supply and demand. As we Vikings fans know too well over the last decade or two, if you have position stability at QB, you can exhale and focus elsewhere. When you have (shall I name the other three after Cousins went down last year, how about the parade between Randall Cunningham to Daunte Culpepper and after Culpepper went weird doing recovery sprints in the parking lot of a strip mall in Florida (who knows what to believe!)...we actually, like it or not, had six years of position stability with Cousins.

But then what?

There are only 32 starting jobs in THE WORLD in this industry. The NFL has become massively profitable (with TV and other income streams), and so they had more money to spend in a highly regulated, tightely managed, highly competitive salary situation. I am quite certain that there are industry guidelines on how much of the cap should be allocated to your "franchise QB".

And if you ain't got one, or you got a hope (insert JJM here) that is on the rookie scale, you are in hog heaven, like a kid in a candy store with lots of nickels and quarters. That extra $35 or more million that you can spend on building your roster...that cap space is there to be spent and the lucky guys who are the best at their craft IN THE WORLD, deserve to get paid a percentage of what's available.

The NFL was not in this situation 50 years ago. I credit Pete Rozelle for creating the parity of "any given Sunday" to create this entertainment oligopoly that prints money today. And the juggernaut keeps getting bigger and more powerful (NFL Sunday Ticket setbacks, notwithstanding).

So it's supply and demand, basic economics. The industry makes a bundle, the owners HAVE TO SPEND IT.

As the old Knight in the first Indiana Jones movie said "choose wisely" (on who you spend that dough on).

[bigbone62]

Salaries are getting out of control.  No longer is it related to what they do on the field to help their team win, it has become a race to be the highest paid player at their position.  They sign a multi-year deal and soon somebody passes them up on the wage scale and all of of sudden it's either trade me to some team that respects me and will make me the highest paid at my position or hold out until they pay me.

They are the driving force behind a form of entertainment that had $20 billion in revenue last year and has averaged nearly $17 billion the last three seasons. You're talking about one of, if not the most successful businesses in the sports/entertainment space. Players are getting paid exactly what the league has deemed acceptable based on profits. I always get a chuckle when fans bemoan players for getting paid. It's essentially supporting billionaire owners getting off on the cheap. Players are far closer to Joe Sixpack than the owners whose billions fans fret over.

[StickierBuns]

Just to show how popular NFL QBs are: who hasn't seen a pic of Joe Burrow's new haircut and dye job? LMAO. Its the talk of the Internet the last few days. These guys are rock stars.

[StickierBuns]

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/tua-t...uaranteed/

This is the way of the NFL world. Tua deserves this? Its what the market rates. Its not a debate.

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https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/tua-t...uaranteed/

This is the way of the NFL world. Tua deserves this? Its what the market rates. Its not a debate, its just a fan discussion.

[medaille]

Not disagreeing, but the “market” isn’t setting these rates most of the time. Very few of these guys are hitting the open market where multiple teams get to compete and set a value for them. This is the price of not having any competition and a shortage of semi-quality QBs league-wide at the most important position in the sports. I would imagine that if a team had no other option and the player was available on the free market, the price would go up. I would imagine if the team had a second pretty good option waiting in the wings, the first player would take less rather than waiting it out another year to try free agency.

[StickierBuns]

Not disagreeing, but the “market” isn’t setting these rates most of the time.  Very few of these guys are hitting the open market where multiple teams get to compete and set a value for them.  This is the price of not having any competition and a shortage of semi-quality QBs league-wide at the most important position in the sports.  I would imagine that if a team had no other option and the player was available on the free market, the price would go up.  I would imagine if the team had a second pretty good option waiting in the wings, the first player would take less rather than waiting it out another year to try free agency.

But that isn't the NFL game. You are projecting something that isn't going to happen. The QB market is most definitely setting the rate, 100%. Open market?? Who lets that happen with half a brain? Not in Corporate America, not in any other aspect, this is sports. There's a Draft. There's a lock step slotting grade for picks. When you have contracts, you have agents, you have risk assessments. Free market? LMAO. I think the last time a close to free market activity happened in the NFL, it was Kirk Cousins. And he got the first guaranteed contract. And then the wheels came off moving forward. A good option 'in the wings'? That hasn't happened since Joe Montana and Steve Young. JMO. Its all interesting nonetheless.