Julio Jones for JStew

[andrewfroboy]

One reason NFL action is so competitive is the league has a hard salary cap. The new collective bargaining agreement adds a hard salary floor, mandating that nearly all cap space be spent each year -- as cash, not as amortization of past bonuses. This is a provision NFL players are going to like quite a bit. Fans of perennial cheapskate teams will like the provision, too.

But the must-spend clause does not take effect until 2013. The result is that many NFL teams have oodles of unused cap space, yet made few if any moves in free agency. The Chiefs have nearly $33 million of unused cap space. The Bucs, Jaguars, Bengals, Bills, Broncos and Browns have at least $20 million each. Another six teams have at least $10 million unused. And cap space is not cellphone minutes. It doesn't roll over to next season.

http://espn.go.com/espn/page2/story/_/i ... aying-wins

[DynastyFeed]

The fact remains that the Panthers had a huge incentive to spend that money now to keep current players, rather than wait until 2013 and spend money on unknown rostered players and unknown FA's.

The Panthers were $50 million under the proposed $120 million cap.

They weren't mandated by the league, but anyone who thinks that the Panthers spent that money on DWill purely because of his numbers or the way the Panthers value him is mistaken. The fact that they were $50,000,000 under the cap played a huge part in it.

[andrewfroboy]

Maybe so, but they weren't forced to spend it

[nightmarion]

I hadn't caught the 2013 implementation

[Pullo Vision]

The cap floor doesn't come into affect for a few years. That's why TB didn't pay big money this year. The floor starts in 2013, I believe.