and Patriots won't overpay....

[Scorpion]

Interesting read from Cold, Hard, Football Facts....

It’s irrational to overpay for any player in the salary cap world.
Put most simply, fans and team management get emotional and starry-eyed over BIG NAMES. Hey, we just signed BIG NAME KICKER for $2.5 million per year.

Yippee!

What people don’t realize – or choose to ignore – is that in the salary-cap NFL, every BIG NAME at the top of the roster comes with a serious, unseen and unreported price somewhere down at the other end of the roster.
Every dollar that goes into one player’s pocket comes out of the pocket of another player.
When you’re overpaying for one player, you are – absolutely and unequivocally – underpaying for one or more players down at the bottom of the roster.
Teams such as New England and Pittsburgh instinctively seem to understand this. They refuse to overpay for top talent. As a result, they often lose their big-name free agents. They often suffer a firestorm of critcism in the process. But they're also more likely to have stronger top-to-bottom rosters. Not so coincidentally, New England and Pittsburgh have won four of the past five Super Bowls and have been the NFL’s most dominant powers in the salary-cap era.

Here’s an example to consider. Team A signs BIG NAME CORNERBACK for $10 million a year. The signing has some routine repercussions:
The “pundits” cheer: “Now there’s a team that really wants to win,” they write.
Fans ruled by emotion get all fired up for the upcoming season. “Hey, we just signed BIG NAME CORNERBACK! Now we’re going to win.” Then they run out and buy a jersey with BIG NAME CORNERBACK’s name and number on it.
Management holds up the signing as proof that they’re doing everything they can to win. “Hey, we just broke the bank to sign BIG NAME CORNERBACK!”
Management is vindicated when BIG NAME CORNERBACK picks off 10 passes. But the team goes 4-12 and everyone wonders what went wrong. Well, here’s what went wrong: Team A didn’t just sign BIG NAME CORNERBACK amid a wave of fan and media approval. It also quietly filled its roster with a bunch of stiffs.

That $10 million salary robbed the team of maybe 10 players who won’t generate a lot of headlines. Instead of paying a decent cornerback $2 million and spending $8 million on 10 solid contributors, Team A must scramble through the NFL scrapheap and find a bunch of cheap, ineffective players to work for minimum money.

Team A didn’t improve its roster when it overpaid for BIG NAME CORNERBACK. It destroyed its roster.

http://www.coldhardfootballfacts.com/Article.php?Page=747

[Scorpion]

and now for my favorite part, about the Colts.....

The Colts are determined to destroy their roster.
We’ve already seen the disastrous effect doling out top dollar for BIG NAME PLAYER can have on your roster. The Colts have now tied up more than 30 percent of their salary cap in just four players: a quarterback, two receivers and a kicker.

The salary-cap numbers for Peyton Manning, Reggie Wayne and Marvin Harrison vary according to different reports. And the Colts have been in arbitration over these contracts as they attempt to massage the numbers and minimize the hit this season. But it seems certain that these three players, along with Vinatieri, will eat up more than $30 million of $104 million in cap space in 2006.

Given the fact that each dollar that goes into the pocket of a big-name player comes out of the pocket of a lesser-known player, it’s clear that Indy management has done serious damage to its team.

Four Colts will gorge themselves on more than $30 million this year. Forty-nine players are then left to divide about $70 million in salary-cap scraps.

The Colts will probably rack up plenty of points and passing records again this season. And, again this season, their kicker will be one of the leading scorers in the NFL. But we’ve seen this movie quite a few times over the past eight years. We know how it ends. Indy management seems determined to watch it one more time.


So, why are the books keep making the Colts favorite to win the super bowl again next year??

[Dark Horse]

Excellent points. The salary cap has increased the importance of team spirit. On the field it all comes down to finding that balance where the whole becomes greater than the sum of the individual parts.

Funny that teams like the Colts drive off the deep end before the season has even started. Sorry Peyton, maybe try some Injun jewelry instead?

[Mudcat]

It makes sense. Football is more of a team game than any of the other major sports.

But I don't get as carried away with my conclusions as the author. This is not a black and white issue. There have been some teams in the salary cap era that have won it all while being top heavy with star's salaries (like Dallas).

I don't write off the Colts this year by any means. If it's wrong that the books make them the favorites, I'd like to know who should be.

[The Great One]

Wo wo wo wo.

Don't rip on the Colts. So, I'm curious, what are they supposed to do? let Peyton walk 2 years ago. That would surely improve their team. You can't let the greatest quarterback to ever play the game just walk away.

The Colts problems with not winning the SB have mostly been on the D, but not entirely. This past year, it was all about the coaching staff.

The Colts have not lost many role players do to the salries of their stars. This year lost Thorton at SAM. Triplett was a back-up and he is gone. James was a star and they didn't resign him. So which is it, resign James and lose some role players let James walk and get some role players.

I would feel alot better with the Colts chances of the SB if Dungy was just Defensice Coordinator and someone with actual strength and presense was head coach.

And by the way, the Colts beat the Patsies 40-21 last year so they must have done something right. In the previous years the Colts lost to them, the Pats. were favored at home in the snow. But, there are some morons who don't know what they are talking about consider that "choking" even know the Colts weren't favored.