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!
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