Quote:
Originally Posted by Fonz the Boss
If there is indeed an uncapped year and several big market teams choose to go on spending sprees for superstar free agents, what will happen if the next year is capped and these teams are already tied up with mega contracts for a few more years?
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First, welcome. Not sure why you post in bold, it really isn't necessary.
As for what will happen should the cap return after an uncapped year, I have no idea other than I'm sure something will be considered in negotiations. It's been so long since the league first had a salary cap (1994), that I don't remember exactly how Year One went. It was different then though, because the cap came as a sort of negotiating item to even having free agency as I remember it, i.e. teams wrote contracts in '93 knowing that the cap was coming the next year (and even then some teams didn't know how to manage it, hence all the cap-strapped teams in the late 90s and early 00s).
The last time the CBA was extended (2006) would have been relatively equivalent to having it extended again during the first week of March 2009, which is to say that the extension happened just before the league opened the new year that would have been the last capped year.
Given the NFLPA still doesn't even have a director, I think it's a safe assumption that we'll be entering unfamiliar territory when free agency opens in another six weeks. That said, I imagine the owners will look to continue (or re-introduce) the cap at some point, and as such, I think spending will for the most part remain somewhat in line as if the cap were still in place. Granted, there will be some major exceptions, but in the scheme of things, there are probably far fewer 'haves' than 'have nots'.