GumboBC

Increasingly we are seeing teams that are having to cut some of their "key" players in an attempt to get under the NFL mandated salary cap.

Most of those teams are teams that have either been to a recent super bowl, or teams who have made a strong push to get there

Examples:

1. Tennessee Titans: This has been a very good team for a long time. They have been a fixture in the AFC playoffs for years. Even making it to the big dance a few years ago where they lost to the St. Louis Rams. In one way or another, the Titans have spent large amounts of cash to get the players they wanted in order to try and win a championship. Unfortunately, for them, that didn't happen and now they are having to cut some of their "key" players to get under the cap!

2. Carolina Panthers: This is a team who came out of nowhere a couple of years ago to make it to the super bowl. John Fox and co., in one way or another, peaked-out their salary cap in an attempt to win it all! Unfortunately for them, they weren't quite able to win the championship. Now they are facing big cap problems and are having to release "key" guys who helped them make it to the big dance.

3. Tampa Bay Bucs: We all know the story here. Gruden took over a team Tony Dungy built team and was able to get them over the hump and won it ALL! But, they are faced with a dire situation today! Give them credit though, they paid what they had to pay and won a super bowl. I'm sure their fans are happy even though they don't appear to be a very good team today!

All of these teams have ONE thing in common. And winning the super bowl isn't one of them. What they all have in common is they spent the neccessay money to make them contenders, with only the Bucs having won the super bowl.

And now they all 3 have something else in common! They are all in salary cap hell!!

Was it worth it for the Titans and Panthers? That's a tough question to answer.

But, the bottom line is: Neither the Titans or Panthers gave their fans what they wanted. Which was a super bowl victory.

Now those fans are faced with the real possibility that neither of those teams will even make it to the playoffs for the next few years. Both teams are very weak in certain areas and even if they do somehow manage to make it to the playoffs, they sure don't look like they could advance very far.

The Titans really appear to be a bad team these days having had a terrible season last year and now having cut some of their better players.

The Panthers are coming off a 7-9 season and just cut a pro bowl receiver and a pro bowl linebacker to try and get under the salary cap. And the year after their super bowl appearance they lost some of thier best offensive linemen which really hurt them last season. This team is only a former shadow of their super bowl year!

Which brings me to the Saints. They've done a masterful job managing the salary cap. But, they haven't sniffed the playoffs for 4-years. Could this be because they haven't been willing to take risks in free-agency like the Bucs, Panthers, and Titans? I think that's a big part of it.

The bad news is the Saints haven't been to the playoffs for 4-years. The good news is that we didn't fail to win a super bowl like the Titans and Panthers and we aren't in salary cap hell like both of those teams.

The only remaining question is will the Saints be aggressive in free-agency this year and give our team a chance to compete. And can they do it the right way? Can they keep us out of salary cap hell?


[Edited on 27/2/2005 by GumboBC]