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In the salary cap era beginning in 1994, the debate has raged over how best to build your team in order to become a winner of the chip or in serious contention in the quest of one.
The very first thing to have in mind is that there is a salary cap and players whose careers are limited (averaging 3.3 years) are looking for as much money as they can get in the time that they remain active. This means that it will literally be impossible to keep your team intact once those rookie deals end and those high-dollar demands hit you. This is expressly impactful when it comes to your QBs.
Next, you’d have to figure out the very best way to get there, and as I think about it there are ONLY three (3) ways to get this done, so let’s discuss them all going from the worse way to the very best, quickest way to do it.
1. The Brady Exception… (Worse)
History has given us a once-in-a-lifetime, perhaps never again example of a QB who has taken a much lower salary during his career in order for the team to get and keep a supporting cast and their franchise both SB championships and a contender status towards that goal for many seasons. If this is your preferred plan, understand that it has happened once in the salary cap era and likely never will be repeated again. Attempting to repeat this plan has the highest percentage fail rate of the three, so good luck with this effort! The number of QBs in the salary cap era with this level of success is one (1)
Tom Brady Round 6 / Pick 199)
2. Build the team / insert lower-round QB… (2nd Best)
For those of you insisting that “it can be done” I have zero counterarguments because you are 100% correct, it can be done! Now, when doing it this way you have to understand that winning in this manner comes with its own set of drawbacks associated with the salary cap. The primary one is deciding whether or not to overpay your team needy QB, superstar money when the time comes, or cut/trade him in a desire to maintain the “build team first” method. You do this while hoping that the next man up at the position has what your now departed former QB gave you, or you’ve overpaid him, AND face the real demands against your cap becoming too great with your core, necessary players. I must advise at this point that repeated success using this method has only been done twice in history (Warner and Wilson) plus one other time and that was long before the salary cap. (Joe Gibbs) Now, if you’re merely looking for that one-time hit, here’s a list of QBs who were involved in this sort of effort. (*Denotes SB season)
3. Get your QB, Add pieces, and remain relevant (Best)
There’s a reason why I insist upon drafting your QB in the first two rounds of the draft and this will be made apparent once I list the QBs involved in this method later. In the meantime similar to the other two methods, this way will also leave you with difficult choices involving your QB, the salary cap, and what to do when it’s time to pay up. If your QB has been as good as my list suggests in most cases, you’re going to have to pay him or risk falling back into the pack of mediocrity. That means not being able to pay and keep key players that contributed greatly to getting you to the chip. You’re going to take a hit either way but in return, you’re no longer searching to fill the most important position in the game and if you’re about your business, you’re drafting a QB somewhere near or soon after the mid-point of his career arc. As you can see, your chances of having an SB team greatly improve with a first or second-round QB. (*Denotes SB season)
The very first thing to have in mind is that there is a salary cap and players whose careers are limited (averaging 3.3 years) are looking for as much money as they can get in the time that they remain active. This means that it will literally be impossible to keep your team intact once those rookie deals end and those high-dollar demands hit you. This is expressly impactful when it comes to your QBs.
Next, you’d have to figure out the very best way to get there, and as I think about it there are ONLY three (3) ways to get this done, so let’s discuss them all going from the worse way to the very best, quickest way to do it.
1. The Brady Exception… (Worse)
History has given us a once-in-a-lifetime, perhaps never again example of a QB who has taken a much lower salary during his career in order for the team to get and keep a supporting cast and their franchise both SB championships and a contender status towards that goal for many seasons. If this is your preferred plan, understand that it has happened once in the salary cap era and likely never will be repeated again. Attempting to repeat this plan has the highest percentage fail rate of the three, so good luck with this effort! The number of QBs in the salary cap era with this level of success is one (1)
Tom Brady Round 6 / Pick 199)
2. Build the team / insert lower-round QB… (2nd Best)
For those of you insisting that “it can be done” I have zero counterarguments because you are 100% correct, it can be done! Now, when doing it this way you have to understand that winning in this manner comes with its own set of drawbacks associated with the salary cap. The primary one is deciding whether or not to overpay your team needy QB, superstar money when the time comes, or cut/trade him in a desire to maintain the “build team first” method. You do this while hoping that the next man up at the position has what your now departed former QB gave you, or you’ve overpaid him, AND face the real demands against your cap becoming too great with your core, necessary players. I must advise at this point that repeated success using this method has only been done twice in history (Warner and Wilson) plus one other time and that was long before the salary cap. (Joe Gibbs) Now, if you’re merely looking for that one-time hit, here’s a list of QBs who were involved in this sort of effort. (*Denotes SB season)
- *1994 Stan Humphries (Round: 6 / Pick: 159)
- *1995 Neil O’Donnell (Round: 3 / Pick: 70)
- *1998 Chris Chandler ( Round: 3 / Pick: 76)
- *1999 Kurt Warner (Undrafted)
- *2002 Brad Johnson (Round: 9 / Pick: 227)
- *2002 Rich Gannon ( Round: 4 / Pick: 98)
- *2003 Jake Delhomme ( Undrafted)
- *2005 Matt Hasselbeck ( Round: 6 / Pick: 187)
- *2013Russell Wilson ( Round: 3 / Pick: 75)
- *2017 Nick Foles ( Round: 3 / Pick: 88)
3. Get your QB, Add pieces, and remain relevant (Best)
There’s a reason why I insist upon drafting your QB in the first two rounds of the draft and this will be made apparent once I list the QBs involved in this method later. In the meantime similar to the other two methods, this way will also leave you with difficult choices involving your QB, the salary cap, and what to do when it’s time to pay up. If your QB has been as good as my list suggests in most cases, you’re going to have to pay him or risk falling back into the pack of mediocrity. That means not being able to pay and keep key players that contributed greatly to getting you to the chip. You’re going to take a hit either way but in return, you’re no longer searching to fill the most important position in the game and if you’re about your business, you’re drafting a QB somewhere near or soon after the mid-point of his career arc. As you can see, your chances of having an SB team greatly improve with a first or second-round QB. (*Denotes SB season)
- *1994 Steve Young (1st supplemental) Pre-Cap SB app.1989, 1992
- *1995 Troy Aikman (1st overall) Pre-Cap SB app1992,1993
- *1996,1997 Brett Favre’ (Round: 2 / Pick: 33)
- *1996 Drew Bledsoe (1st overall)
- *1998, 1999 John Elway (1st overall) Pre-Cap SB app.1987,1988,1990
- *1999 Steve McNair ( Round: 1 / Pick: 3)
- *2000 Trent Dilfer (Round: 1 / Pick: 6)
- *2000 Kerry Collins ( Round: 1 / Pick: 5)
- *2004 Donavan McNabb ( Round: 1 / Pick: 2)
- *2005,2008,2010 Ben Roethlisberger (Round: 1 / Pick: 11)
- *2006,2009, 2013, 2015 Peyton Manning (1st Overall)
- *2006 Rex Grossman ( Round: 1 / Pick: 22)
- *2007, 2011 Eli Manning (1st Overall)
- *2009 Drew Brees (Round: 2 / Pick: 32)
- *2010 Aaron Rodgers (Round: 1 / Pick 24)
- *2012 Joe Flacco ( Round: 1 / Pick: 18)
- *2012 Colin Kaepernick (Round: 2 / Pick: 36)
- *2015 Cam Newton (1st Overall)
- *2016 Matt Ryan (Round: 1 / Pick: 3)
- *2018 Jared Goff (1st Overall)
- *2019,2020 Patrick Mahomes (Round: 1 / Pick: 10)
- *2019 Jimmy Garoppolo (Round: 2 / Pick: 62)
- *2021 Matthew Stafford (1st Overall)
- *Joe Burrow (1st Overall)
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