Professor

'Cash to cap' changes Bills' business plan

Bills's new business plan takes strange strategy

excerpt:
Six years ago today, I wrote a column applauding Eric Moulds for turning his back on free agency and signing the richest contract in the history of the Buffalo Bills. Moulds received a six-year, $40 million deal - with a $12.5 million bonus for signing his name.

Moulds put that $12.5 million right in his pocket. That's how the game is played in the NFL, which doesn't have guaranteed contracts. The signing bonus is a player's guarantee, a handy way for free agents to get the payday of a lifetime - with the entire bonus up front. The team gets to amortize the bonus, in other words, spread the salary cap hit evenly over the life of the contract.

Such a deal would be more difficult in Buffalo today. Marv Levy announced at last Friday's press conference that the Bills would no longer amortize signing bonuses on their balance sheets. They'll still give bonuses, but they'll proceed as if every dollar counted against the current year's salary cap.

From now on, as Levy explained, the Bills will spend "cash to the cap." I've never heard the phrase before. It's difficult to believe any team would want to advertise the fact that it won't be a big player in the open market, that it's abandoning the most common mechanism for affording the top free agents.

So you can say goodbye to Nate Clements, who will command a signing bonus in the $15 million range. London Fletcher, too. There's a good chance Chris Kelsay will go elsewhere. Green Bay gave defensive end Aaron Kampman an $8 million signing bonus last year, before Kampman's breakout year. So Kelsay will likely be asking for similar money.

Ralph Wilson has been crying for years for the NFL to give the small-market teams a bigger share of revenues. Wilson says he can't compete on an uneven playing field. This is his way of confirming it - by taking the Bills out of the running for the elite free agents.

"Cash to the cap" must be a blow to the gut of skeptical Bills fans. I don't imagine it'll go over well with players around the league, either. Buffalo isn't a prime destination for free agents to begin with. How will players and agents take the Bills seriously, knowing they're not taking full advantage of loopholes that allow teams to exceed the cap?

You can't blame Wilson for trying to turn a bigger profit. But he'll be content to compete for lesser free agents, players with modest signing bonuses that can be wedged wholly under the current year's cap. Last year, they doled out $18 million in bonuses to 13 players. Larry Tripplett, who got a $5.5 million bonus and didn't justify it until the second half, was the best of an unremarkable lot.

If the Bills aren't going to pursue the more expensive free agents, they need to do a better job of finding the free-agent bargains. They can't afford to have average drafts, either. Levy presided over a good draft in his first year as general manager, but the pressure is on now.





-----------If I was a Buffalo fan, I would be really, really pissed. Ralph Wilson will let his team suck in order to attempt to prove to the league that small market teams need a bigger share, when in the end it will prove nothing and mean nothing except that his team sucks. If I were I player on the Bills, I would know that I would never get paid there and look for any way to get out of that town. What a shame for thier fans

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