Currently most all teams have a pretty good handle at dealing with the salary cap and know how to build teams around it. However was watching the documentary 'Tale of Two Cities' the other night about the Cowboys and 49ers rivalry and a large part of it is centered around their rivalry between '92-'95. It is flat out stated by the 49ers organization that they didn't care how much they had to spend that they were going to build a team that could beat Dallas. And they did. The guys that they brought in on defense were clearly brought in to stop the power running and timing offense of Dallas. Got a Super Bowl out of it.
Dallas in turn tried to do the same in '95. Didn't necessarily bring in as many guys but they did bring in what many viewed as the main reason the 49ers were able to overtake them in '94 and that was the addition of Deion. They brought Deion in and though it wasn't nearly as dramatic of difference as it was with the 49ers Dallas still probably doesn't win the Super Bowl without Deion.
These two teams are really the most obvious who were using the salary cap to win the Super Bowl regardless of how much it would take or the effects it would have afterward.
Have there been any other teams in the salary cap era that were in an arms race like these two teams were and did the couple real glum years for the 49ers in '99 and '00 have much to do with the amount of spending they did in '94? I know in Dallas's case their bad years were more of a result of players simply aging and them not drafting well enough to replace those players.
Teams of the early salary cap era that tried to overspend
Re: Teams of the early salary cap era that tried to overspen
The title-winning Broncos teams of that era technically exceeded the cap by paying lower-than-market-value salaries to John Elway and Terrell Davis, then making up the difference by having Pat Bowlen pay them under the table (and off the books, not counting against the cap).lastcat3 wrote:Currently most all teams have a pretty good handle at dealing with the salary cap and know how to build teams around it. However was watching the documentary 'Tale of Two Cities' the other night about the Cowboys and 49ers rivalry and a large part of it is centered around their rivalry between '92-'95. It is flat out stated by the 49ers organization that they didn't care how much they had to spend that they were going to build a team that could beat Dallas. And they did. The guys that they brought in on defense were clearly brought in to stop the power running and timing offense of Dallas. Got a Super Bowl out of it.
Dallas in turn tried to do the same in '95. Didn't necessarily bring in as many guys but they did bring in what many viewed as the main reason the 49ers were able to overtake them in '94 and that was the addition of Deion. They brought Deion in and though it wasn't nearly as dramatic of difference as it was with the 49ers Dallas still probably doesn't win the Super Bowl without Deion.
These two teams are really the most obvious who were using the salary cap to win the Super Bowl regardless of how much it would take or the effects it would have afterward.
Have there been any other teams in the salary cap era that were in an arms race like these two teams were and did the couple real glum years for the 49ers in '99 and '00 have much to do with the amount of spending they did in '94? I know in Dallas's case their bad years were more of a result of players simply aging and them not drafting well enough to replace those players.
The Niners had two losing seasons under Mariucci in 1999 & 2000...partly because of Steve Young's early retirement and partly because they didn't have cap space to bring in free agents. But the Niners continued winning in 2001 & 2002, so I'm not sure how much of an adverse impact the mid-90's spending had on those later Niners teams. I do know that the franchise reached its nadir following the hiring of Donahue as GM and Dennis Erickson as head coach.
-
BD Sullivan
- Posts: 2318
- Joined: Mon Oct 13, 2014 1:30 pm
Re: Teams of the early salary cap era that tried to overspen
Of course, Carmen Policy got busted after he left SF because of his "creativity" in circumventing the salary cap.
Re: Teams of the early salary cap era that tried to overspen
The issue with Elway and Davis had to do with deferred payments. Bowlen was having cash flow problems because of the new stadium that was going to be built, so he took some money from the bank of Elway and Davis to fund soon to be Invesco Field at Mile High.The title-winning Broncos teams of that era technically exceeded the cap by paying lower-than-market-value salaries to John Elway and Terrell Davis, then making up the difference by having Pat Bowlen pay them under the table (and off the books, not counting against the cap).
The deferments violated the CBA, though (there were provisions put in place to protect teams from bad owners).
Re: Teams of the early salary cap era that tried to overspen
Yeah, I'm having a hard time finding what "actually happened" with all of that. I thought the NFL fined Bowlen and stripped some draft picks from the team for, in the NFL's words, "circumventing the salary cap", but I can't find exactly what happened other than the speculation about Elway's and Davis's contracts.7DnBrnc53 wrote: The issue with Elway and Davis had to do with deferred payments. Bowlen was having cash flow problems because of the new stadium that was going to be built, so he took some money from the bank of Elway and Davis to fund soon to be Invesco Field at Mile High.
The deferments violated the CBA, though (there were provisions put in place to protect teams from bad owners).
Re: Teams of the early salary cap era that tried to overspen
The three winningest teams - Dallas, Buffalo, San Francisco- of the 90's all collapsed around the same time-1999-2000.
SF had a huge roster overhaul in 1999, moving on from a number of veterans. Steve Young helped keep them afloat to a 3-1 start but when he went down, they fell apart. The 49ers fall was relatively brief because 1- they rebuilt the defense in the 2000-2001 drafts, and 2- they found a QB in Jeff Garcia to go with an All Pro receiver in T.O.
Dallas stayed on the fringes of the playoff teams in the late 90's, but several years of bad drafting finally caught up with them... especially when Aikman's game fell off a cliff in 2000. The lousy drafts continued, and Dallas didn't climb back to the playoffs until Bill Parcells came aboard.
Buffalo had a huge talent drain in 2000 due to salary cap issues, including the Big Three of Thurman Thomas, Bruce Smith, and Andre Reed, They stayed in the playoff hunt late in the season, but the talent drain hurt their depth, and their special teams performers. Buffalo had the worst special teams in the league in 2000, and when a rash of injuries hit their defense, they lost four in a row to fall out of the playoffs.
2001 was a further talent drain due to salary cap issues, as well as the start of the rebuild under Tom Donahoe and Gregg Williams. They bottomed out at 3-13. The comeback should have taken place around 2003, as they rebuilt the offense with Drew Bledsoe in 2002, bouncing back to 8-8, and rebuilt the defense in 2003. The only problem was they lost a number of weapons on offense in 2003, and Drew Bledsoe regressed. They fell back to 6-10, fired Williams, and the drought was off and running.
SF had a huge roster overhaul in 1999, moving on from a number of veterans. Steve Young helped keep them afloat to a 3-1 start but when he went down, they fell apart. The 49ers fall was relatively brief because 1- they rebuilt the defense in the 2000-2001 drafts, and 2- they found a QB in Jeff Garcia to go with an All Pro receiver in T.O.
Dallas stayed on the fringes of the playoff teams in the late 90's, but several years of bad drafting finally caught up with them... especially when Aikman's game fell off a cliff in 2000. The lousy drafts continued, and Dallas didn't climb back to the playoffs until Bill Parcells came aboard.
Buffalo had a huge talent drain in 2000 due to salary cap issues, including the Big Three of Thurman Thomas, Bruce Smith, and Andre Reed, They stayed in the playoff hunt late in the season, but the talent drain hurt their depth, and their special teams performers. Buffalo had the worst special teams in the league in 2000, and when a rash of injuries hit their defense, they lost four in a row to fall out of the playoffs.
2001 was a further talent drain due to salary cap issues, as well as the start of the rebuild under Tom Donahoe and Gregg Williams. They bottomed out at 3-13. The comeback should have taken place around 2003, as they rebuilt the offense with Drew Bledsoe in 2002, bouncing back to 8-8, and rebuilt the defense in 2003. The only problem was they lost a number of weapons on offense in 2003, and Drew Bledsoe regressed. They fell back to 6-10, fired Williams, and the drought was off and running.
Last edited by conace21 on Wed Feb 14, 2018 1:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
-
ChrisBabcock
- Posts: 1834
- Joined: Sat Oct 11, 2014 3:36 pm
- Location: Tonawanda, NY
Re: Teams of the early salary cap era that tried to overspen
At first, 2003 looked like it would be an improvement over 2002 with the 31-0 blowout of the defending champ Patriots and a convincing win at Jacksonville. Then the offense regressed badly. I remember the 12-10 loss to the Texans being painful to watch. The Bills score per quarter was 2-3-3-2. With the last safety being an intentional safety by Andre Johnson. He cought the long snap, did a 180 and sprinted into his own endzone. Just looking up this season again... They had a stretch of 8 games in which they only got out of single digit scoring twice.The comeback should have taken place around 2003, as they rebuilt the offense with Drew Bledsoe in 2002, bouncing back to 8-8, and rebuilding the defense in 2003.
...and that was only 10 and 14.Re: Teams of the early salary cap era that tried to overspen
I was at that Houston game. I missed the safety because we had just entered the tunnel to leave. That was a brutal game. I recall Jeff Posey sacked David Carr in the end zone and forced a fumble. Sam Adams tried to recover it, but knocked it out of the end zone for a safety. Travis Henry broke off a 64 yard run, but was caught from behind and Buffalo settled for a FG.
The popular narrative was that when Eric Moulds went down, the Bills had no deep threat. They had replaced a speedster (Peerless Price) with a slot receiver (Josh Reed.) They had also replaced Riemersma and Larry Centers with Mark Campbell and Sam Gash. Teams cut off the short passing game, and Bledsoe would hold the ball too long. This was worse than Rob Johnson. At least Rob could scramble and make plays.
But the Bills were horrible on offense in week 3 vs Miami. I think their only scoring threat ended with Travis Henry throwing an interception in the end zone. Their only TD came on a Clements INT return. The defense stuffed Ricky Williams, but with 42 carries he started breaking some runs at the end. 17-7 Miami.
The popular narrative was that when Eric Moulds went down, the Bills had no deep threat. They had replaced a speedster (Peerless Price) with a slot receiver (Josh Reed.) They had also replaced Riemersma and Larry Centers with Mark Campbell and Sam Gash. Teams cut off the short passing game, and Bledsoe would hold the ball too long. This was worse than Rob Johnson. At least Rob could scramble and make plays.
But the Bills were horrible on offense in week 3 vs Miami. I think their only scoring threat ended with Travis Henry throwing an interception in the end zone. Their only TD came on a Clements INT return. The defense stuffed Ricky Williams, but with 42 carries he started breaking some runs at the end. 17-7 Miami.
-
ChrisBabcock
- Posts: 1834
- Joined: Sat Oct 11, 2014 3:36 pm
- Location: Tonawanda, NY
Re: Teams of the early salary cap era that tried to overspen
oops! The Patriots were not the defending champs in '03!At first, 2003 looked like it would be an improvement over 2002 with the 31-0 blowout of the defending champ Patriots
