thesack12 wrote:CrimsonCrew wrote:
You seem to be conflating rolling over cap space with pushing cap hits into the future. They're basically polar opposites. If the Niners had saved $23 million on Garoppolo last season, and rolled it into this offseason, they would have that much more available cap space. Before making any moves, they'd be about 13th in cap space (instead they're 23rd), and upon trading Garoppolo would jump up to 5th. That's in terms of how much money they have to spend.
The Packers and Saints, on the other hand, are rolling SALARY COMMITMENTS into future years to lessen the cap hit in the present. That will eventually kill a team (Saints are, in fact, more like $76 million over the cap, and will have to unload some serious contracts to get under). Rolling cap space into the future is only a good thing, precisely because it does change your ultimate cap figure. For instance, the salary cap for 2022 is $208 million. But let's say we rolled $30 million over. We could now spend $238 million in 2022, while teams that don't roll money over are stuck at the $208 figure. The bottom line does indeed change.
Ultimately, as said, I think holding onto Garoppolo and netting a couple draft picks (assuming that happens) was the right call. Even a big number like $20 million looks pretty small when you realize it's only over a single year, and a mid-level guy on a three-year, $21 million contract will eat it up entirely. Given the draft capital we gave up to get Lance, we're better off recouping some of that and landing a couple cheap players who will be on the roster for the next few years at least.
Yes, I'm aware the money they would be "allowed" to spend would increase. In other words, their adjusted salary cap would be increased by the $23 mil they would have rolled over to this year. But the league base cap is still important.
With rollover cap, its a one time use thing. So if they burned all their rollover cap this offseason, they would be obligated to adhere to whatever the base 2023 salary cap would be.
Using round numbers for convenience. Lets say they cut Garoppolo, and rolled that cap over. Which would find them with roughly $50 mil that they "could" spend, but their actual cap number would still be $180 mil. With the base cap being $210, they would only be able to spend $30 mil without exceeding the base cap. So if they spent the $50 mil that they were allowed to they would actually be $20 mil over the base cap going into next season. Fluctuating of course based on the 2023 base cap going up or down
and any money coming off the books after next season. But since they used all their rollover cap, they would be obligated to the 2023 base cap, and would need to somehow shed $20 million off their cap before the 2023 season. When you start being forced to shed salary, is when things can start to snowball.
Admittedly, I'm not capologist but this is layed out as I understand it. So if I'm not comprehending this right feel free to correct me, it wouldn't be the first time I was wrong.
At the end of the day, we're in total agreement that holding Garoppolo was definitely the right move.
Yes, it's true that we wouldn't want to use all of our excess cap space in a single season. That's a recipe for disaster, unless we're making a one- or two-year SB run and just want to throw caution to the wind. Instead, you'd want to spread those cap savings and hits out over a couple years. Again, it's a moot point, but there was at least some rationale for the argument.
