Quite simple, there are 2 ways to go here....

[eaglesnut]

How do the steelers pay for Brown, Timmons, and pouncey?

 

[eaglesnut]

How do the Packers pay for Matthews, Peppers and shields?? The cap is 150. There's plenty of money to be found to pay for anyone we want to keep.

 

[Iron Eagle]

I wonder what the price is now.

 

[Birds4life81]

Here's some contracts other QBs have signed recently.

Ryan Tannehill 6 year contract extension worth $96 million, $45 million guaranteed

Joe flacco 6 year deal with $52 million guaranteed and up to $120.6 million in total.

Matt Stafford 3 year extension will be $53 million, putting his five-year haul at $76.5 million. Stafford will receive $41.5 million guaranteed and a $27.5 million signing bonus. The extension pays Stafford nearly $18 million on average per season

Jay Cutler 7 year, $126.7 million extension 54 million guaranteed

Tony Romo 6 year extension worth $108 million, 55 million guaranteed

Eli Manning 4 year extension $84 million of new money, including $65 million in guaranteed. Tom Condon

Phillip Rivers 4 year extension 84 million of new money with $65 million in guaranteed

Matt Ryan 5 year contract extension worth $103.75 million, $59 million guaranteed

Sam Bradford's agent Tom Condon has a reputation for getting the most for his QB clients. Condon also represents Eli Manning, Matt Stafford, and Matt Ryan, amongst others.

 

[Birds4life81]

Haha check out my post, 1 min after yours. I've been saying this for a while -- Tom Condon knows how to get every penny and then some out of his QB clients. Tag and trade Bradford is my stance, and will remain.

 

[Rey]

I think the previous salary scenario I cooked up is pretty fair considering where Bradford is at this point in his career as compared to those other contracts (all things considered including the injury history).

 

[L.Freamon]

Sam has never had the chance to showcase in the playoffs, for all we know he could be good if he did get that opportunity.

He's had a hand in that.

 

[L.Freamon]

How do the steelers pay for Brown, Timmons, and pouncey?

Maybe you should advise them:

The problem is that the Steelers have struggled to surround that young talent with the sort of solid depth that would raise Pittsburgh's ceiling to that of a perennial Super Bowl contender. That's been primarily related to the salary cap, and it's a problem which is going to impact the Steelers for the foreseeable future.
The Steelers didn't feel the pinch of the salary cap quite as tightly in 2014, thanks to the remarkable health among their offensive talent.
Look at Pittsburgh's cap page for 2015 and you'll see where the problems are this year. Pittsburgh owed $19.5 million in dead money to players who are no longer on the roster, including LaMarr Woodley ($8.6 million), Polamalu ($4.5 million), and Scobee ($2.5 million). The good news is that all of that money slides off of Pittsburgh's cap this offseason, and the Steelers have less than $800,000 in dead money assigned to their cap in 2016.
The bad news? All of that money has already being gobbled up by raises for Pittsburgh's star players.
It's the Timmons deal that signifies how Pittsburgh mismanages its cap. While Timmons is an above-average inside linebacker, the Steelers have been forced to restructure his contract twice in three years to create much-needed cap space. Now, in the final year of the 29-year-old Timmons's contract, they're stuck. His $15.1 million cap hit is the highest for any inside linebacker in football by a comfortable margin, and it doesn't reflect his production.
That's a necessity, because the Steelers are losing all kinds of contributors and have just $10 million in cap space before re-signing any of them. No fewer than six starters are hitting unrestricted free agency this offseason, and Pittsburgh can't afford to lose them all.
And so, the Steelers will have to dip back into the piggy bank and create more space. They can save $4 million by cutting Heath Miller, $1.8 million by releasing Shaun Suisham and $4.4 million by designating Cortez Allen as a post-June 1 release. That also leaves them without starters at three positions.
[FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif]Barnwell: Steelers will need young stars to emerge[/FONT]

Enut; you're a genius!

 

[eaglesnut]

So where is their problem? They managed the cap. You are falling for a writer's story again. Suisam won't be their kicker next year anyway. They drafted a TE to replace an old injury prone Heath Miller. And Cortez Allen was no good. Did you even vett that article?

 

[eaglesnut]

Maybe you should advise them:

Now you're starting to get it.

 

[Northern Eagle]

He's had a hand in that.

Flacco and Eli had really strong defenses and good running games to fall back on during their championship runs; theoretically we have pieces in place for a strong run game, especially now that we're going to more of a ball control offense, and if Gym Shorts can get the D back on track, Bradford could get that chance if he sticks around.

 

[WIZ]

Bradford went for over 3700 yards at a 65% clip. That's bigtime production for how last year developed for him.

 

[Taz]

25 million a year or 1/6th of your salary cap should be reserved for special players only. Guys like Tom Brady, Peyton Manning who can take mediocre lesser value players and make them better. Sam Bradford has no history of making mediocre players better. To pay him 25 million off of 7 good games in a year where he only played 14.5 games is silly. He is worth right around 17-18 mill per year if you really like him. Even with that you are taking a risk that as soon as he gets on the field he tears an ACL and you are stuck with 50-60 million in guarantees. It is simply too big a risk for this organization to take. Sign a lesser guy in free agency, draft one and develop that QB along with all the other positions that need to be developed like offensive line, wide receiver, linebacker etc.

 

[WIZ]

If you spend $25 million on players and don't have a QB you may as well throw it out the window. You have to get a QB or you better have a top D.

 

[eaglesnut]

He is worth right around 17-18 mill per year if you really like him. Even with that you are taking a risk that as soon as he gets on the field he tears an ACL and you are stuck with 50-60 million in guarantees.

Any player can tear their ACL. Big contracts are always a risk. Bradford's guaranteed money will likely be lower than his talent level would earn because of his injury history, though. Still high enough to hurt if he gets hurt, but there is risk with everything.

In Sam's first year he will get 20-25 million (SB+2016 salary) and affect the cap less than half of that because most of his take will be in the form of a signing bonus. You sprinkle in roster bonuses where you are comfortable to give Sam the earning potential he wants should he prove to stay healthy and valuable.

Only 20-30 million in guarantees would be at risk after year one, in the event he got hurt or played poorly enough to want to move on from him. And that's only in the form of a guaranteed salary or a prorated signing bonus over the remaining 3-5 years. It doesn't hurt you for as long as missing on a first round draft pick, that's for damn sure.

 

[Northern Eagle]

I still say we try to franchise him first.

 

[Iggloo]

We already paid Demarco, Byron Maxwell. That's the problem with your thinking. We paid the wrong people and now we have cap issues. Paying Bradford big bucks would be more of paying the wrong people btw.

With the cap going up and these contracts escalating as usual, you will need to pay Bradford $20 million a year or more. That's just a fact. Anyone who thinks you can pay less than that is ignoring the numbers out there for all other starting QBs.

 

[eaglesnut]

I still say we try to franchise him first.

Well that's backwards to how it has to work. The tag is a last resort. And if he isn't tagged you don't necessarily get a shot at negotiating with him afterwards.

 

[eaglesnut]

We already paid Demarco, Byron Maxwell. That's the problem with your thinking. We paid the wrong people and now we have cap issues. Paying Bradford big bucks would be more of paying the wrong people btw.

So then let's take a deeper look at it so we understand the reality of the situation and not just a single fearful narrative.

Facts:
1) Both Murray and Maxwell can be cut before the 2017 season saving us 8.5 million.
2) In 2016 they take up 17.7 million of the cap.

Bradford will receive about 25 million in 2016 but all of that won't go towards his cap number. A large sum of it will be in the form of a SB spread out over 4-6 years. As such he will only contribute about 10 million towards the cap. Therefore an increase in Bradford's cap number to the 20 million range will be offset by removing some bad contracts. Obviously there are many other ways the Eagles can manage the cap as well. It is not hard to do.

I hope you all understand a little bit better now.

 

[Northern Eagle]

Well that's backwards to how it has to work. The tag is a last resort. And if he isn't tagged you don't necessarily get a shot at negotiating with him afterwards.

But as I understand you are in favor of signing him long term - I'm not convinced that's what they should do at this point. I realize a long term contract would give them cap relief up front, but IMO would be a big risk at this point to give it to him, given his history.