2010 Salary Cap

[Nconroe]

I guess DelJuan Robinson, Bryan Pittman, and Ephraim Salaam are also unrestricted free agents at this time.

It will be interesting which of their own UFA and RFA they sign in the next month or is there a date to sign by this year?

[Keith]

So teams have until the start of the new league year (March 5th this year) to sign their own free agents before they are (officially) able to negotiate with other teams.

http://www.nfl.com/more/nflcalendar

Fwiw, teams can begin tagging players on Feb 11 and must do so by Feb 25.

[Keith]

According to this report, no teams have carried forward unused cap space (remember the Philly Loophole?) into the 2010 season. Just another sign of stalled CBA talks and a definite sign to expect an uncapped year for 2010.

In an amazingly backward state of affairs, the NFL appears to embracing life without a salary cap, a cap it fought so hard to have and maintain. And the union appears to be hoping against hope for life with a cap, something every union has fought hard to keep out (with only the baseball union succeeding).

The reason for both stances is that without a salary cap there is no salary floor, which is presently at $108M. Without a salary floor, teams can spend as little as they want, meaning there may be teams spending as little as perhaps $75-$80M on players, even less.

http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/...toughness.html

[NBT]

So the small market teams like Buffalo will suffer, while the big market teams (of which we are one?) will prosper? The meek will certainly not inherit this particular earth!

[kravix]

Originally Posted by NBT

So the small market teams like Buffalo will suffer, while the big market teams (of which we are one?) will prosper? The meek will certainly not inherit this particular earth!

Yes it looks as though one of the things I hate the most about the MLB will become common place in the NFL. Parity will go down the drain. Although everyone speculates that an ucapped year means there will never be another cap, I am not so certain.

When small market teams like Buffalo, St Loius, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Tampa and maybe a few more of the poorly run teams begin to fold and close shop both players and owners may see their folly. Unlike baseball the football season is extremely short, this leaves alot less time to generate revenue. These teams will end up with bad coaches and bad players. The competition between a bad team and a good team in baseball is less noticable, but in football it will be glaring. People will not pay the high prices to watch that. At least baseball can be a very inexpensive experience to take the family to, football cannot and wont be able to compete.

After the thrid team shuts down and there in no interest in owenership outside of the largest markets it will come full circle. This is just how I see it.

[Keith]

2010 Franchise and Transition Tag Amounts:

CORNERBACK: $9.566 million (franchise), $8.056 million (transition)
DEFENSIVE END: $12.398m, $10.193m
DEFENSIVE TACKLE: $7.003m, $6.353m
LINEBACKER: $9.680m, $8.373m
OFFENSIVE LINE: $10.731m, $9.142m
PUNTER/KICKER: $2.814m, $2.629m
QUARTERBACK: $16.405m, $14.546m
RUNNING BACK: $8.156m, $7.151m
SAFETY: $6.455m, $6.011m
TIGHT END: $5.908m, $5.248m
WIDE RECEIVER: $9.521m, $8.651m
The franchise tag is an average of the top five salaries at a position for the 2009 season. (Or, in the case of "exclusive" franchise tags, the average of the top five salaries as of a TBD date this coming April.) The transition tag is an average of the top 10.

http://www.nj.com/giants/index.ssf/2...nsition_t.html

[Nconroe]

Interesting numbers. Top 5 guys do pretty well.

I find it a little interesting that OL is second highest, or highest other than QB.

And more surprising that TE is lowest of the position players given how much impact TE seem to have in offenses these days.