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To Pay or Not To Pay!
How Much Should You Spend? If at all!

Free Agency is a major part of professional sports and has just as many detractors as it does supporters. Some GMs hail the concept as the lifeblood to building a strong championship contender, while other GMs look at the process of overpaying mediocrity with distain.

Like it or leave it, free agency is here to stay in sports. The beauty of it all is, that GMs have proven you can win without it ... or at least having free agents play a minimal role in acquiring a league title.

So just like GMs that prefer to trade away their draft picks and avoid the draft altogether, there are GMs that spend the off-season free agency market on the sidelines.

This is what makes the USAFL such a wonderful experience. The amount of ways you could build a championship team are just about endless.
 

CHAMPIONSHIP FREE AGENCY FORMULAS
Let's take a look at the last 20 Super Bowl Champions and see how they relied on the free agency market. You will probably be surprised to see that there is a wide range of thinking here. We are looking at only the last 20 seasons because we've didn't begin archiving cap reports until about twenty seasons ago.

This table is sorted (far-right column) by the percentage of the team's overall salary cap that was designated for free agents on their roster that season.
 

 

  TEAM GM SALARY # of FAs FA-SAL-SUM Avg pr FA PCT of Cap
2061 DAL Flip 143.600 6 67.100 11.183 46.7%
2059 GB Todd 135.000 5 62.000 12.400 45.9%
2068 BUF Mark 149.800 5 53.300 10.660 35.6%
2055 MIN Lou 147.250 4 51.250 12.813 34.8%
2067 BUF Mark 141.800 4 48.300 12.075 34.1%
2064 DEN Ben 143.500 4 48.500 12.125 33.8%
2065 MIN Lou 135.000 5 37.500 7.500 27.8%
2066 MIN Lou 137.000 4 35.000 8.750 25.5%
2062 NE Jean 143.250 2 34.250 17.125 23.9%
2069 BUF Mark 121.000 3 28.000 9.333 23.1%
2054 NYG Joe 139.500 2 32.000 16.000 22.9%
2070 BUF Mark 126.000 3 28.000 9.333 22.2%
2053 MIN Lou 147.000 3 31.500 10.500 21.4%
2056 BUF Mark 130.330 2 25.330 12.665 19.4%
2063 BUF Mark 137.500 1 22.000 22.000 16.0%
2058 BUF Mark 138.930 2 21.430 10.715 15.4%
2051 KC Steve 135.000 1 10.000 10.000 7.4%
2052 NYG Joe 122.100 1 6.600 6.600 5.4%
2057 PHI Andrew 129.000 1 3.000 3.000 2.3%

NOTE: The 2060 Dallas Cowboys were not included in this study, as the salary cap reports for that season were never archived. Sadly, they will be lost forever.

What kind of doctrine do you follow? And do you follow it year in and year out? Or do you switch your thinking around from time to time and explore playing the game in ways you wouldn't naturally do if you were really hired as a professional General Manager?

There are a couple of GMs that have a locked-down system that they follow to a "T" every season, simply because it has proven to be a winner at one time or another. They follow their routine whether they are bringing home trophies or sitting around waiting for the trading period to start.

Then there are a few GMs that every 7-10 seasons or so, totally return to square one and build a team using an entirely different way of thinking.

Those kind of GMs are the guys that have been around the USAFL for a few generations. They've discovered that tinkering around with other doctrines keeps the game fresh.

Of course, some say (names not mentioned to protect the guilty) that there are GMs that don't utilize any system at all ....

The cool thing is, as General Manager of your team, you can run your team whatever way your little ole heart desires. I highly doubt the real-world would allow a GM to run a team like that. The die-hard fans of your city would be calling for your head on a platter every night on the local sports-talk radio until your owner would ask for the keys to the executive washroom.

What kind of GM are you?
 

Let's look at the above 20 Champions again, but this time let's examine it from the perspective of how well they managed their cap by how much money they had leftover to pay all their remaining non-FA players:
 

  TEAM GM SAL FA FA-SAL REMAIN LEFTOVERS AVG
2059 GB Todd 135.000 5 62.000 48 73.000 1.521
2061 DAL Flip 143.600 6 67.100 47 76.500 1.628
2069 BUF Mark 121.000 3 28.000 50 93.000 1.860
2067 BUF Mark 141.800 4 48.300 49 93.500 1.908
2064 DEN Ben 143.500 4 48.500 49 95.000 1.939
2055 MIN Lou 147.250 4 51.250 49 96.000 1.959
2070 BUF Mark 126.000 3 28.000 50 98.000 1.960
2068 BUF Mark 149.800 5 53.300 48 96.500 2.010
2065 MIN Lou 135.000 5 37.500 48 97.500 2.031
2056 BUF Mark 130.330 2 25.330 51 105.000 2.059
2066 MIN Lou 137.000 4 35.000 49 102.000 2.082
2054 NYG Joe 139.500 2 32.000 51 107.500 2.108
2062 NE Jean 143.250 2 34.250 51 109.000 2.137
2063 BUF Mark 137.500 1 22.000 52 115.500 2.221
2052 NYG Joe 122.100 1 6.600 52 115.500 2.221
2058 BUF Mark 138.930 2 21.430 51 117.500 2.304
2053 MIN Lou 147.000 3 31.500 50 115.500 2.310
2051 KC Steve 135.000 1 10.000 52 125.000 2.404
2057 PHI Andrew 129.000 1 3.000 52 126.000 2.423

See how it's not necessarily the amount of FAs on your roster that effect your cap, but the salaries they make. In 2053, Lou was able to average over 2.3 million in salary for non-FA players on his roster, even though he had 3 high-paid free agents.

It definitely pays to get as much out of your 150 million allowance as possible. But with the infinite number of ways to fill your roster spots, sometimes you find yourself having to waive good players simply because they are hurting your overall cap numbers.

Decisions ... decisions .... To Pay or Not To Pay .......... that is the question!