The last time the NFL needed a new collective bargaining agreement, Robert Kraft was the hero.
The Patriots' owner, despite his wife, Myra, being bed-ridden with the cancer that would eventually take her life, was instrumental in ending the 135-day lockout and pushing through the new 10-year labor agreement in 2011.
“A special thanks to Myra Kraft, who even in her weakest moment allowed Mr. Kraft to come and fight this out and, without him, this deal does not get done,’’ Colts center Jeff Saturday said at the time.
The circumstances are much different this time around — talks have been much more amicable and productive toward a new CBA 13 months from its expiration — but Kraft and his son, Jonathan, could again be central figures in closing this deal that most are hopeful will result in a new agreement before the new league year — the last under the old CBA.
If the Krafts want to follow through on their stated desire to have Tom Brady finish his career with the Patriots, they virtually need the new CBA to happen by March 18.
Same goes for Drew Brees with the Saints. And several other contract-related circumstances around the league.
Why?
Without getting overly technical, when the NFL enters the last year of a CBA — The Final League Year — teams no longer have some of their fancy accounting tricks available to manipulate the cap.
For the Patriots and the Saints, that would include not being able to include voidable dummy years in the contracts of their aging franchise quarterbacks. Both teams used them in their last deals with Brady and Brees, and they might be essential this time around as well.
The voidable years allow a team to pay their player now but spreading out the cap hit for multiple years. For example, when the Patriots renegotiated Brady's contract last year, they gave him a $20.25 million signing bonus to bring him in line with most of the other quarterbacks. It was part of a three-year contract with the final two years voiding on March 18, so with the bonus prorated, just $6.75 million went on the Patriots' cap last season. The rest of the $13.5 million is set to hit the Patriots' 2020 cap if an extension is not worked out before March 18.
For other teams that would like to rid themselves of troublesome contracts, they no longer have the "post-June 1 designation" at their disposal. That allows a team to dump a bad contract and spread the dead money on it over two seasons. Teams can do that with two players per year, but the team must carry the contract on their cap until June 2.
"It's a rule that was in place, I believe, to make sure that teams could cut players after training camp
and still comply with the cap since full acceleration may have put some teams over," said OverTheCap.com guru Jason Fitzgerald.
But in the final league year, that post-June 1 designation is not available.
That would prohibit a team like, say, the Cardinals from terminating the contract of running back David Johnson. Without a new CBA, his release would count $16.75 million on this cap this year. If there's a new CBA, the Cardinals could spread that hit out over two seasons.
If the Giants wanted to release Nate Solder before his $3 million roster bonus is due, he would have $13 million in dead cap without a new CBA but it would be divided over two years if there's a new CBA.
If you're a Patriots fan that feels that Marcus Cannon is overpaid with his $9.6 million cap hit in 2020, then using the June 1 designation to get younger on the offensive line would basically be a necessity. Without it, the Patriots would have more dead cap than cap savings so his release would make little sense.
"Yes, there are teams that would benefit from a new CBA," said OverTheCap.com guru Jason Fitzgerald. "Not as much on the trade front since you would have to wait until June 2 to process a trade and many want to make the trade in March, but definitely for the void year. Brady and Brees would be perfect examples."
When it comes to Brady, the Patriots might not be able to re-sign Brady without a new CBA. Could they do it? Sure, but they basically wouldn't be able to make any other moves to approve the team.
The Patriots basically have about $30 million in available cap space for this offseason before paying Brady. To compete with other teams with substantial cap space — the Colts, Buccaneers, Broncos, Raiders and Titans are among the possible suitors with over $50 million available — the Patriots would need to have voidable years as part of any deal.
There's a "report" the Raiders are ready to offer Brady $60 million for two years, probably all of it guaranteed. The Patriots couldn't match that without pushing the cap hit out for, likely, two years.
With a new CBA, the Patriots could give Brady a $60 million signing bonus on a four-year deal to be in the ballpark and just $15 million would count on the cap for, say, two more years. When the rest ($30 million) hits the cap as the final two years void and Brady rides off into retirement with another Super Bowl win, the Patriots can plan for that (they have only $31.7 million in 2022 cap commitments right now) and the league-wide salary cap will be substantially higher.
If the Patriots wanted to give Brady $60 million over two years without a CBA, they'd basically have to do it with $30 million in salary for each of the next two seasons. That would make Brady's cap number $43.5 million for next season.
In other words, it ain't happening. The Colts could easily do it.
You'd think the NFLPA is clued into all this and realize the leverage it could create for them as the two sides try to hammer out a deal in the next month. The two sides are close, but the 17-game schedule is a major sticking point at this time absent more concessions from the owners.
With powerful people like Kraft almost desperate for a new deal if he still wants Brady to finish as a Patriot, then the union should get as much as they can right now — they might never be in this position again.
Kraft could very well be a driving force in CBA talks again, just under much different circumstances.
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Conversing with Fitzgerald with the cap helped me to clear up one cap thing that I get stuck on, and some of you might find it interesting.
I never really understood why sometimes the dead cap, when it is spread over two years, has a different amount in both years and not just a complete split of the hit.
"The reason it's sometimes higher in year 1 than year 2 is usually because of contract structure," Fitzgerald said. "In some cases it may be because of guaranteed salary (guaranteed salary always counts in the year of release) though more often than not teams don't cut players with too many guarantees. More often its because you can only prorate for five years so for some players who have been restructured, they may have received a massive signing bonus that proration ends for in 2020 with a few smaller restructure bonuses that go into the future but only count for a few million.
"Stafford would be a good example of that next year. He had a massive $50 million signing bonus that has $10 million count in 2021 but $0 in future years. He's had restructure bonuses that count $3 million a year but run until the end of the contract. So if he was a June 1 cut in 2021, he'd have $13 million in 2021 but just $6 million in 2022."
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Since there's a lot of scuttlebutt about the Raiders possibly being interested in Brady, I thought I'd ask two veteran quarterbacks with experience in a lot of systems about Brady going from New England to a hardcore West Coast Offense with Jon Gruden (I don't see it happening from Brady's view, but the Raiders might try).
Sage Rosenfels
"Nothing is impossible. Peyton Manning learned and used the West Coast under Gary Kubiak and had great success when he threw 55 TDs. I also know they added a ton of what Peyton wanted to do to the traditional west coast. It really evolved into Peyton’s offense and less Kubiak’s.