The Moves We Should Make Next Year (merged)

[SouperMeister]

Originally Posted by SouperMeister

I'm not a fan of the business, and the top ranking revenue - I'm a fan of building a winner with staying power. I can't believe some of you feel Snyder is a genius skirting the cap every year. We carry more dead cap money than any team in the league. It's Gibbs attitude as well. I thought he'd bring roster stability upon his return, but he hasn't been able to retain core Redskins (Pierce, Smoot, Clark) because we have over-leveraged our cap every year. Teams like Philly and New England stay way under the cap to allow them to re-sign their core players as they APPROACH free agency. Both have done this brilliantly, and since they do so before their players hit the open market, they can usually retain their own at a significant discount. Tom Brady is Exhibit A - making significantly less than Peyton Manning. That doesn't mean they keep everyone, but they have the price they're willing to pay, and they're in a position to make a solid offer before their key guys are free agents. The Redskins NEVER have enough cap room to sign a guy like Pierce to an extension during the season, so we end up competing on the open market, and as history has demonstrated, we usually lose out. It burns me that we let go of self-made Redskins like Pierce and Clark, then pay a lot more for guys like Archuleta and Carter. The only year under Snyder that the Redskins have shown restraint was the lone year that Schottenheimer was in charge.

Just the latest example of intelligent cap management by Philly to retain the team's core: ESPN.com - NFL - Eagles DT Patterson inks seven-year, $32M extension

Patterson joins guard Shawn Andrews, cornerbacks Lito Sheppard and Sheldon Brown and other top draft choices in recent years to receive extensions before their rookie contracts expire. But the Patterson deal was one of the earliest, coming in the middle of his second year.

Andy Reid is making a calculated gamble that Patterson and others will develop into solid players that would have commanded far more money if allowed to bid their services as free agents.