Chiefs, Mahommes SB era done. Your salary cap advantage just ended.

[steeler_fan_in_t.o.]

Listen I get it. Bottom line would you rather have a QB like Mahommes or not? Would you rather have a player like TJ or not?

Teams have to make tough financial decisions regarding top tier talent and let the chips fall where they remain regarding injury risk, free agency, salary cap, and the draft.

Having a high ticket guy like TJ or Mahomes is always someone you want. However, if you want to succeed in today's NFL, to have a contract like one of those, you need to balance that with great value contracts.

[hackjam]

While that's not a massive amount, it's still almost 2x what he had as a cap hit this year.

The length of the contract certainly helps them.

But it will get progressively worse every time they kick money down the road.

I bet they will also benefit from what will probably be massive inflation of QB salaries once the cap starts growing quickly again (assuming powers for lockdowns and mandates aren't permanent).

Yeah I mean they have two, maybe three more years before it really becomes an issue (depending on how they choose to restructure).

[BURGH86STEEL]

Ya, but it's like personal finance. If you get your house (or rent) payment low, you can buy a bunch of lattes and avocado toast and still be OK.

But if you've got a huge mortgage (or rent) payment due every month, you better be brown bagging it (and probably driving a 10 year old Corolla).

Getting big cap value out of the QB position is such a huge benefit because QB cap hits are so big. I think that's why we will see more and more mid-tier QBs floating around in UFA as teams start to realize that lots of guys aren't worth a big 2nd contract.

Listen I get it. Bottom line would you rather have a QB like Mahommes or not? Would you rather have a player like TJ or not?

Teams have to make tough financial decisions regarding top tier talent and let the chips fall where they remain regarding injury risk, free agency, salary cap, and the draft.

[Northern_Blitz]

Looks like KC can get Mahomes' cap hit down to ~$14MM for 2022 if they convert his roster bonus into signing bonus.

Here's what it looks like if they restructure only his roster bonus every year through 2027

While that's not a massive amount, it's still almost 2x what he had as a cap hit this year.

The length of the contract certainly helps them.

But it will get progressively worse every time they kick money down the road.

I bet they will also benefit from what will probably be massive inflation of QB salaries once the cap starts growing quickly again (assuming powers for lockdowns and mandates aren't permanent).

[steeler_fan_in_t.o.]

This could be said for any position that takes up a certain % of a teams salary cap. It doesn't simply happen at the QB position.

Correct, I was not talking about the QB position but the draft in general. The more first contract players who you have, the more spare cash you should have to fill out the rest of the roster.

[crushedspirit]

I actually think their offense will be better in 2022 once they add a viable second receiver. Team tried to get JJSS at one point.

The problems for them start in 2023, with Hill looking for big bucks.

[Northern_Blitz]

This could be said for any position that takes up a certain % of a teams salary cap. It doesn't simply happen at the QB position.

Ya, but it's like personal finance. If you get your house (or rent) payment low, you can buy a bunch of lattes and avocado toast and still be OK.

But if you've got a huge mortgage (or rent) payment due every month, you better be brown bagging it (and probably driving a 10 year old Corolla).

Getting big cap value out of the QB position is such a huge benefit because QB cap hits are so big. I think that's why we will see more and more mid-tier QBs floating around in UFA as teams start to realize that lots of guys aren't worth a big 2nd contract.

[SteelerOfDeVille]

Chiefs got arrogant at the end of both halves. Just take the points. Reid spit the bit.

I saw the end of the first half but didn't see end of game.

i remember thinking, "if that were the Steelers, Tomlin would get hell!" but THAT was on Mahommes. You throw that in the end zone one way or another. HE thought they had a timeout and tried to call one. If the QB isn't aware of down-distance and TO situations when under 10 seconds, that's a problem...

[Northern_Blitz]

I don't think it is an absolute, but having a QB who eats up that much space does narrow your margin for error. It also means that you probably have to have other high value positions on rookie contracts. If you have a top CB, LT, WR etc. playing on the cheap then that can help make up for the higher QB hit.

I think the big takeaway here is that players on rookie deals are important in building a team. It might seem obvious to say but has to be said over and over - the key to remaining consistently competitive is to hit on the draft.

I think this is why our plan was to basically churn through relatively high pick WRs with Ben. Get a high value position on cheap contracts and let the QB elevate their play.

[BURGH86STEEL]

I don't think it is an absolute, but having a QB who eats up that much space does narrow your margin for error. It also means that you probably have to have other high value positions on rookie contracts. If you have a top CB, LT, WR etc. playing on the cheap then that can help make up for the higher QB hit.

I think the big takeaway here is that players on rookie deals are important in building a team. It might seem obvious to say but has to be said over and over - the key to remaining consistently competitive is to hit on the draft.

This could be said for any position that takes up a certain % of a teams salary cap. It doesn't simply happen at the QB position.

[steeler_fan_in_t.o.]

I don't think it is an absolute, but having a QB who eats up that much space does narrow your margin for error. It also means that you probably have to have other high value positions on rookie contracts. If you have a top CB, LT, WR etc. playing on the cheap then that can help make up for the higher QB hit.

I think the big takeaway here is that players on rookie deals are important in building a team. It might seem obvious to say but has to be said over and over - the key to remaining consistently competitive is to hit on the draft.

[Northern_Blitz]

I'm not buying that a high cap-hit QB dooms the team. Sure it makes it more difficult to put pieces around and have quality depth. But that's why teams have cap-ologists. There's no more important position on the field. Ben, Peyton, Eli, Warner, Wilson and now Stafford (and of course the GOAT) have all gotten to the show on non-rookie contracts.

It is possible to be competitive.

But it's much harder to be consistently competitive.

Which is exactly what we saw with Ben.

And then with Wilson.

Even with Goff.

And with Peyton (who was making less in Denver I think).

I don't know what Eli's cap hit looked like, but they were basically either terrible or won the SB.

Stafford isn't on a market level contract. He's at the end of a contract that was market level when he signed it. This is what I was hoping we'd get at the end of Ben's contract (before the 2 year extension). Where a guy is under market because the inflation of QB cap hits is bigger than the cap hit increases in a long contract. But those were the years where Shazier got hurt (so we had to rebuild the D on the fly) and Bell held out (so we had to hold the cap hit of the tag all year without him playing). Maybe we could have had a good shot the year after Bell held out (and we got the cap space back), but Brown went crazy (so we had to pull all his bonus money forward) and Ben got hurt.

When you pay the big cap hit for a QB, you need more things to go right because you have less depth and fewer above average players. And we had some pretty unfortunate things happen in a window where we had a pretty good chance to compete.

[Northern_Blitz]

The problem gets compounded with weakness. In the 2nd half, KC couldn’t figure anything out once Cincy started dropping 8 into coverage.

Just don’t blitz Mahommes and play sound D on the backend.

With more money tied into Mahommes it gets harder to add talent to overcome that deficiency and they really won’t be supporting making Pat better.

The league will look at how they lost and adapt and team with smaller QB contracts will add players to beat KC.

It’s a constant cycle.

I think this will work better with time too because the weapons around him will probably get worse as his cap hit gets higher.

Or maybe they keep loading up on O and plan to just outscore whatever their D gives up (the Colts strategy when they had Manning).

They should have to make harder decisions as his cap number goes up anyway.

[steeler_george]

All I know is that their 2nd and 3rd WRs Pringle and Hardman are FA, and would look good in B&G.

["BuzzNuter"]

The last 20 years of SBs.
Brady 7
Ben 2
Peyton 2
Eli 2
Rodgers 1
Brees 1
Wilson 1
Flacco 1
Foles 1
Mahommes 1
Warner? 1
How many of those guys are going to the HOF. Flacco and Foles got really hot when they won. All the rest could be considered HOF. You need a good QB. When you have one the odds are in your favor. Burrow is very good and Stafford plays for the Rams who the NFL wanted in the SB. Teams are going to go with what works regardless of how much you pay for the position.
Look at the history
Bradshaw 4
Montana 4
Starr 2
Young 2
When Cowher wasn't going to draft Ben, Dan Rooney stepped in and went with Ben. The good business decision statistically is get a QB.