Seven days after extending its most recent offer to the NFLPA*, the NFL is still trying to persuade the media, the fans, and the players that the offer was a good one.
NFL general counsel Jeff Pash appeared Thursday on Sirius NFL Radio with Pat Kirwan and Tim Ryan. Pash at one point honed in on the term guaranteeing that teams would actually spend 90 percent of each year’s salary maximum.
“For the first time, we were going to have a cash minimum as opposed to just a cap minimum,” Pash said, as posted by NFLLabor.com. “You understand what the difference means and of course so did the union, which is why they pushed for that. The 90 percent was an agreed upon figure and because of the way teams change over time, we all thought that you couldn’t do it year-by-year so we were doing it at on a three-year basis to allow for the fact that teams go through cycles. Everyone on both sides thought that was a sensible compromise. It would have done a lot.”
In past years, teams could satisfy the minimum with “dead money” -- i.e., bonus accelerations resulting from cutting players before their contracts ended. Under the current proposal, the teams would have been required to actually spend the money, as determined via a three-year window, 90 percent of the salary limit.
It’s a significant move, and given that the league has said the offer is negotiable it means there’s possibly room to move. So push the number higher, to 93 percent or 95 percent or 98 percent.
The salary cap is meaningless without considering the salary floor. If the players try to raise the floor as high as possible and require the cash to be spent, the players will end up with much more money in their pockets.