In an era when the top NFL quarterbacks tend to push the limits of their team's salary cap space, Tom Brady seems to have taken a step in the opposite direction. Brady re-negotiated the terms of his contract to significantly reduce the salary cap burden that his old deal would have placed on his team. As a result, Brady will be paid far less than his performance would command on the open market - and the Patriots will be in a position to keep its best players surrounding their future Hall of Fame quarterback.
On the surface, such a move only makes sense, given that each NFL team is bound by a hard salary cap. The more a player is paid, the less money is left available to pay other players. So when a top-flight quarterback consumes a huge portion of the salary cap, the team is forced to field a team of cheaper players around him. Yet despite the simplicity of the calculations, the norm is for top players and their agents to demand the absolute most that their respective team would possibly be willing to pay to retain their services. Brady has already gone down that road and the results have not been great. After winning three Super Bowl titles in his first five years in the league, Brady and the Patriots have lost their last two Super Bowl appearances.
Some critics point to the fact that those early Super Bowls were won before Tom Brady was, well, Tom Brady. He was still a sixth-round pick making very little money by NFL standards. Once he got the huge contract, the team never quite had enough left to hoist the Lombardi Trophy. Similar scenarios are now playing out around the league, with the most immediate impact perhaps being felt by Baltimore's Joe Flacco. Flacco is an unrestricted free agent and the reigning Super Bowl MVP. His agent wants Flacco to be the highest-paid player in football - and that may very well be what happens. But once that deal is made, the team around Flacco will immediately get worse. It will be interesting to see how the Brady deal affects Flacco and the other top QBs who will be negotiating contracts in the years to come.
On the surface, such a move only makes sense, given that each NFL team is bound by a hard salary cap. The more a player is paid, the less money is left available to pay other players. So when a top-flight quarterback consumes a huge portion of the salary cap, the team is forced to field a team of cheaper players around him. Yet despite the simplicity of the calculations, the norm is for top players and their agents to demand the absolute most that their respective team would possibly be willing to pay to retain their services. Brady has already gone down that road and the results have not been great. After winning three Super Bowl titles in his first five years in the league, Brady and the Patriots have lost their last two Super Bowl appearances.
Some critics point to the fact that those early Super Bowls were won before Tom Brady was, well, Tom Brady. He was still a sixth-round pick making very little money by NFL standards. Once he got the huge contract, the team never quite had enough left to hoist the Lombardi Trophy. Similar scenarios are now playing out around the league, with the most immediate impact perhaps being felt by Baltimore's Joe Flacco. Flacco is an unrestricted free agent and the reigning Super Bowl MVP. His agent wants Flacco to be the highest-paid player in football - and that may very well be what happens. But once that deal is made, the team around Flacco will immediately get worse. It will be interesting to see how the Brady deal affects Flacco and the other top QBs who will be negotiating contracts in the years to come.