Site News

Reminder Twitter Q&A Tonight 8:30ish EST

Posted on by Jason Fitzgerald

Just wanted to put out a quick reminder that Ill be online starting sometime between 8:30 and 9:00 (depending on when the wonderful kids are asleep for good) to do NFL Q&A on Twitter, generally discussing contracts and free agency. Last year I did this in the weeks leading up to free agency and people seemed to enjoy it so I’ll answer questions as long as they keep coming or the game ends for the night, whichever comes first. Last week this ended up going on for about 3 hours. I don’t expect anywhere near the same interest this week (I think many people got their main questions out of the way last week) , but if you had any specifics feel free to ask me on Twitter.

If you dont follow me already you can follow me @Jason_OTC or just tweet to that address any questions. I’ll do my best to answer any questions I get but it may take some time if I get bombarded with questions. I’ll retweet the questions with the answer so it goes out on my timeline. Feel free to leave any questions ahead of time in the comments here that might require a little more research or that you would like answered if you can’t be online. Please leave your Twitter handle if you wont be online so I can tweet an answer back directly. I plan on doing the Q&A every Thursday so there is plenty of time before free agency to ask whatever may be on your mind.

In the meantime in the shameless plug department take a look at my picks for the top 10 contracts that are going to give teams salary cap headaches in 2016 over at SN because of the contract structure.

I don’t expect that same

Introducing OTC’s Texture Page For 2015

Posted on by Nick

As I explained before in this article, and used 2014 as an introductory example, I’m interested in exploring the concept of texture to gain a better understanding how what goes into building an NFL roster.  I have now created a page that will programmatically display the texture of each team as it stands in real time.  In the future, I hope to add tabs for team textures of previous years.  Since the 2015 regular season is hours away from beginning, I used today as a deadline to get this page live so that we could get a glimpse of what teams look like right now before the attrition of the season comes upon us.

Here is a direct link to the texture page, and you may also find the same link in the Featured Content box on the sidebar.  Beyond the fold, you can find interesting texture facts to get you started, one for each team, grouped by division.

Continue reading Introducing OTC’s Texture Page For 2015 »

Internship Opportunity for Those Pursuing Career in Salary Cap/Contracts

Posted on by Jason Fitzgerald

OTC has a very strong following among people who currently work in the NFL and those hoping to pursue careers in the NFL, and I think this should be of interest to those readers. We have an internship opportunity to offer this year where you will get to work with a sports agent and get some very hands on experience working with the salary cap and NFL contracts. Continue reading Internship Opportunity for Those Pursuing Career in Salary Cap/Contracts »

Dave Diehl and Brian Cushing Podcasts and Caponomics Book Update

Posted on by Zack Moore

First off, thanks to everyone who had e-mailed me at Caponomics@gmail.com to let me know you’re interested in the book we have coming out this summer analyzing Super Bowl champion salary caps, creating theories and then applying those theories to annually analyze every team as to why they were or weren’t successful. It’s really encouraging to know so many people are interested. I’ll be sending out the two or three preview chapters to cap-heads on the e-mail list within the next two weeks, thank you for being patient.

I wanted to alert you all to a great podcast that I’m doing some work with. A huge mentor and educator of mine, plus the main reason I was able to become scholarship caliber football player in college, Joe DeFranco, has started Joe DeFranco’s Industrial Strength Show on iTunes. (Without training at DeFranco’s Gym, I probably wouldn’t have finished my career at URI, the guy turned me into a legitimate athlete, so I know personally that he’s the real deal.)

The last two episodes have been with Brian Cushing of the Houston Texans and Dave Diehl of the New York Giants, both guys who have trained with Joe for over a decade. The definition of industrial strength according to Merriam Webster is “stronger, more powerful, or more intense than others of its kind,” and that’s the kind of motivation behind the show, hearing the stories of people who have “industrial strength.” So with these episodes, you get to learn about the process that has made Diehl and Cush who they are today.

A pretty awesome fact is that Dave Diehl is the first player to go from the field to the booth in the year after he retired since Troy Aikman did it. He’s a great lesson in how an NFL player should be prepared for his post-NFL career. They’re both great guys who you’ll get to learn more about in their podcasts, so please subscribe to the Industrial Strength Show at the link here!

Last, I want to share some of my recent articles that go along with the kind of analysis that you’ll find in Caponomics, so that you can grasp the mindset that I have when writing this book. I’m having a lot of fun writing this and it’s really increased my knowledge of the NFL salary cap so far, so I hope that you guys will enjoy the final product!

Moneyball’s 27 Outs vs. Caponomics 12 Possessions

Eagles Finding Value in Injured Players

DeMarco Murray and the Team Building Strategies of the Cowboys and Eagles

Analyzing the 4 Patriots Super Bowl teams of the Salary Cap Era

Analyzing Top Cap Charges for Super Bowl Champs

Suh’s Contract Cripples the Dolphins

The Manning vs. Brady Debate

If you want to purchase The First Annual Caponomics: Understanding NFL Roster Building through Super Bowl Champion Salary Cap Analysis, which has analysis like this in it, please e-mail me at Caponomics@gmail.com, so that I can put you on our e-mail list for people interested in purchasing the book.

 

If you join our e-mail list, I will send you a chapter on the 2014 Lions and then the 2014 Patriots once they are completed. I will probably throw in a bonus chapter on the 2012 Ravens or 2013 Seahawks as those are coming along nicely.

 

I’m currently in the process of getting some legal stuff handled for the book and then I can put the pre-order up on Amazon, otherwise, it would already be up there. Thanks for your support and feel free to send me any questions or ideas to that e-mail address.

OTC Answers 3 Questions Over at MMQB with Peter King

Posted on by Jason Fitzgerald

I had the opportunity to answer three salary cap questions for Peter King’s MMQB this week on some recent free agent topics. I’d imagine most readers here are avid MMQB readers but if not, feel free to check it out and add any comments here is you want. The three topics covered are:

1. The potential problems with the Ndamukong Suh contract

2. Who may be next on the Saints Shopping Block

3. What teams tratditionally manage the cap the best

Here is the link to the article

NFLPA Says 2015 Salary Cap Will Be At Least $143M

Posted on by Jason Fitzgerald

The NFLPA has said for a few weeks now that they will give their own estimates for the salary cap limits so that players and agents do not need to rely on NFL estimates and today they gave it- $143 million, a rise of $10 million from last season. If they are correct in their assessment this will mark the second year in a row in which the cap rose by $10 million after three years of a flat salary cap.

We have now updated (almost) all the numbers on the site to reflect the $143M estimate. The NFL salary cap space page now reflect that change as well as the workout adjustments which will soon accrue.  The NFL salary cap calculators are also all updated to reflect the new franchise tag and RFA tender projections. The following are the tag and tender amounts we are estimating:

Franchise Tag

QB: $18,507,000
DE: $14,785,000
LB: $13,169,000
CB: $13,049,000
OL: $12,920,000
WR: $12,797,000
DT: $11,171,000
RB: $10,929,000
TE: $8,330,000
S: $9,600,000
P/K: $4,118,000

Tenders

1st Rnd: $3,347,000
2nd Rnd: $2,351,000
ROFR/Original Rnd: $1,539,000

The only number that we don’t have updated yet is the Proven Performance Escalator, which will equal  the ROFR. Since these numbers are not official I will hold off on that update until it becomes official. You can read about what players earned the PPE here.

As always if you see anything missing or in error just send an email and I will try to correct it.

Introducing OTC’s Draft Resources Page

Posted on by Nick

[adsenseyu1]

With the offseason now in session for 30 of the 32 NFL teams, the grand majority of people are now interested into looking toward the 2015 season.  As always, an integral part of the offseason is the draft.  Here at OTC, I’m proud to introduce two aspects of the draft that I feel will be quite useful for those among us that follow contracts and the salary cap with added interest:

  • Estimates for each team’s rookie pool in 2015, the amount of cap money that they can be expected to devote to signing their entire draft class, barring future trades.  Current trades and draft order have been taken into account–you can click on each team to see which picks they currently. (And don’t worry, Patriots fans: if the Pats win the Super Bowl the order will be changed accordingly–the current order is not a prediction but arises from a strength of schedule tiebreaker.)
  • Projections on the compensatory draft picks that will be awarded some time in March.  This has implications for the cap situation for some teams, as their rookie pool will increase with the benefit of having additional draft picks.  But my goal is to also provide a valuable resource for all those interested in the draft in general and not just with the financial aspects.

You may view OTC’s draft page here, and a link has also been added to the dashboard. As always, questions and comments are welcome and encouraged.  (Though I would ask that for a greater chance of response, if you have questions specifically about the 2015 compensatory pick projection, that you comment directly in the post on the subject here, or respond to me via the contact form.)