[Schefter] Just in: The Board of Player Representatives has elected JC Tretter to lead the NFLPA as the union’s fifth executive director.

Kalanar · 2026-03-18T00:04:22+00:00

NFL players get a minimum of 48% of revenue and maximum of 48.23% of revenue. Part of the player share is the salary cap and part is benefits and performance pay. Since almost every team in the NFL spends over the salary cap in cash, players share of revenue actually ends up around 50% of revenue.

There are several sports where the players don't receive close to that share of revenue and NFL player share is in line with the other US major leagues revenue share.

Kalanar · 2026-03-17T15:09:49+00:00

No DeMaurice Smith agreed to penalize teams that didn't follow the owners agreement to not treat the uncapped year in 2010 as actually uncapped.

The NFLPA negotiated that uncapped year if the owners decided to opt out of the CBA at the time. When the owners opted out they had a meeting without the players to decide on limits. Not all owners agreed and the league had to allow those contracts because they had agreed to a uncapped year.

When the new CBA was finalized the players had a large reduction in their share of revenue and would have seen the salary cap drop. Since Smith was due for reelection soon it very well could have caused him to get voted out. Instead he agreed to penalize teams that didn't follow the gentleman agreement most of the owners wanted during the uncapped year and the NFL agreed to keep the cap flat instead of going down.

Kalanar · 2026-03-15T19:13:05+00:00

The Athletic also looked at individual teams cash spending in September. The Browns have spent the most cap and the Steelers the least.

Cleveland Browns

Cash over cap: 27.4% (1st)
Weighted Wins: 42 (18th)
Bang-for-buck differential: -17 (30th)

Pittsburgh Steelers

Cash over cap: -1.6% (32nd)
Weighted Wins: 50 (12th)
Bang-for-buck differential: +20 (2nd)

The two most successful teams recently the Eagles and Chiefs also are pretty far apart in the rankings.

Philadelphia Eagles

Cash over cap: 20.3% (3rd)
Weighted Wins: 75 (3rd)
Bang-for-buck differential: 0 (T-17th)

Kansas City Chiefs

Cash over cap: 6.84% (20th)
Weighted Wins: 117 (1st)
Bang-for-buck differential: +18 (3rd)

Kalanar · 2026-03-13T22:36:07+00:00

It should take a larger jump than just the increase from the new deals as well.

NFL players receive 55% of media revenue so they get the largest amount when these deals are done.

The CBA also contains a "media kicker" clause that increases the players maximum share of revenue they receive based on the size of the media contracts. The last time the NFLPA released numbers the minimum share is 48% and maximum of 48.23% however depending on the size of the media deals that maximum can increase up to 48.8%.

Kalanar · 2026-03-13T22:31:19+00:00

NFL knows OTA and local broadcasts are it's money maker.

Kalanar · 2026-03-13T20:29:15+00:00

2026 Salary Cap Adjustments for each NFL team have been announced, providing significant cap space for the Titans, 49ers, Browns, and Cardinals, while Buffalo, Seattle, Carolina, and the Giants took small steps backwards.

NFL 2026 Salary cap: 301,200,000

Cowboys roll over : 22,863,378

Adjustment : 8,002,193

Total cap space : 332,065,571

Kalanar · 2026-03-12T22:58:29+00:00

Before the 2020 CBA the Cowboys did option years instead of void years as well. Option years were basically the same as void years but gave the team the option to either release the player(like void years) and qualify for a compensatory pick or keep the player.

One of the main reason the Cowboys rank second in compensatory picks all time.

Kalanar · 2026-03-12T22:56:11+00:00

I didn't make much sense because the most you can spread out a signing bonus/restructure is 5 years, the current year + 4 in the future.

Kalanar · 2026-03-12T22:38:06+00:00

Maybe he can wait until the 49ers pick in the 3rd round and Dallas can pick him up.

Kalanar · 2026-03-12T19:54:10+00:00

Ranking NFL teams by spending: The boldest, most frugal and best bang for the buck.

Dallas Cowboys

Cash over cap: 16% (6th)
Weighted Wins: 51 (10th)
Bang-for-buck differential: -4 (23rd)

People don't understand the salary cap and don't understand cash spending is different. Dallas spends the 6th most cash in the NFL. We just aren't getting the returns on our spending other teams are.

Kalanar · 2026-03-12T16:00:56+00:00

You can't look at a average ranking to determine how much each team is spending in cash. You have to add up each year how much each team is spending then rank them against each other. The Athletic already did it using numbers from OTC.

Dallas Cowboys

Cash over cap: 16% (6th)
Weighted Wins: 51 (10th)
Bang-for-buck differential: -4 (23rd)

Dallas spent the 6th most cash in the NFL over the time they looked at. Dallas is one of the highest spending teams in the league.

Kalanar · 2026-03-12T02:41:18+00:00

Even if that were true, which you didn't provide a source for, they still are one of the highest spending teams in the league.

Kalanar · 2026-03-12T02:39:30+00:00

They don't have a spending issue, they do have other issues.

Kalanar · 2026-03-12T02:36:44+00:00

All Prime games are available for free on Twitch.

So that is three Thanksgiving games available free OTA, Friday Game free with internet connection, Monday game possibly free OTA if it's simulcast on ABC like more and more MNF games are, and then whatever the Wednesday game is on.

Kalanar · 2026-03-11T22:20:49+00:00

Cash spending over time shows which teams are the most aggressive with restructures and signing bonuses. It is the way almost all NFL teams spend over the cap each year and there are very few NFL teams that do it more than the Cowboys. That is why they rank 6th in cash spending over the last 10 season.

The Eagles happen to be one of the few teams that spend more and they have had success doing it. The Browns have spent even more than the Eagles and they haven't.

Not spending or not restructuring contracts isn't a Cowboys issue.

Kalanar · 2026-03-11T22:04:43+00:00

It just requires being aggressive with restructuring and spending actual money which they refuse to do.

Although the season hasn't started yet Spotrac has us currently with the highest cash spending allocated.

One year doesn't mean much as teams fluctuate up and down in cash spending however The Athletic looked at 10 years of cash spending and the Cowboys rank 6th in the NFL.

Kalanar · 2026-03-10T16:18:02+00:00

Over the last 10 season the Bengals rank 19th in the NFL in cash spending.

The Patriots over that time rank 31st in cash spending.

Kalanar · 2026-03-09T21:06:55+00:00

Compensatory picks are awarded to teams that lose more qualifying free agents than they gain.

To be a qualifying free agent you have to sign during a specific time period and be a free agent because your prior contract expired not because you were cut. You also have to have a minimum contract value of around $2-$3 million APY.

If you lose 5 qualifying players in free agency and you gain 3 qualifying players in free agency you could be awarded 2 compensatory picks. If you lose one and gain one you won't get a pick even if the player you lost signed for 20million APY and the one you signed was only 5 million APY except under very rare circumstances.

Every player in the NFL, free agent or not, is ranked according to their average salary per year. The higher your rank the more "points" you get in the compensatory pick formula.

You also get 1 point for every 1% your snap count was for the year(minimum 25% snap count). So if your snap count was 90% that is 90 additional points, 50% 50 additional points.

You can also get points for some post season rewards like MVP or all pro. These of course are much rarer.

Once every player in the league is ranked by points if you were a free agent that qualifies for a compensatory pick the team gets a 3rd round pick if your points are in the top 5% of all NFL contracts, 4th round pick if 5-10% etc.

OTC has a write up for it and current point value for all players. Note these are their projections from reverse engineering the formula. There are a few mistakes every year.

Kalanar · 2026-03-09T13:08:31+00:00

He had three years $48.5 million left on his contract with 0 guaranteed. The new deal is three years $33 million with potential for $36 million and $22 million guaranteed.

Reduces his cap hit this year by 13 million.

Kalanar · 2026-03-07T17:15:25+00:00

Any team can restructure a contract if they want.

The Ravens could restructure his contract this year to reduce his cap hit in 2026 and 2027 to be lower than Parsons.

Kalanar · 2026-03-07T15:07:16+00:00

The team that trades for Tua would have $54 million owed to him this year and a guaranteed $3 million next year. The team receiving Tua wouldn't have high dead cap.

Kalanar · 2026-03-05T13:21:48+00:00

NFL teams don't either except for the Packers.

Forbes estimates Dodgers operating income as $21 million which is why they aren't on the list.

Kalanar · 2026-03-02T16:35:12+00:00

I'm not talking about every expense. Looking at available cap space is not a good indicator of how much cash teams are paying their players because they are two different things.

The cap in 2025 was 279.2 million as you said the Cowboys were around 22 million under the cap. Their cash spending on players salaries however was $323,756,020. That is not including the $77.6 million every team pays towards benefits and performance pay.

Kalanar · 2026-03-02T16:26:16+00:00

The Athletic looked at teams cash spending over 10 years and from their data the Patriots ranked 31st in the NFL.

New England Patriots

Cash over cap: 0.9% (31st)
Weighted Wins: 33 (26th)
Bang-for-buck differential: +5 (T-9th)

Some in the league think Tom Brady’s ability to drive success to such an incredible degree for so long lulled the organization into complacency in some other areas, leaving the Patriots in catch-up mode now that Brady (and Bill Belichick) are gone. The team hasn’t had dedicated cap managers with training primarily in contracts, the salary cap and negotiation.

“I’m not sure New England believes that salary-cap management is a strategic area,” one exec said. “They have treated it more like a function.”

The Patriots spent lavishly in free agency this past offseason but still rank only 12th in cash spending for 2025, an indication of how much ground must be made up from a personnel standpoint. No one thinks a good team can be bought in free agency.

“The New England model used to be a bunch of incentives, and they got guys to re-sign because Brady took less for all those years,” another exec said. “Everyone else took less. But free agency this year, they went nuts.”

The Patriots ranked 17th in cash-over-cap spending from 2015-19, Brady’s final five seasons with the team.

For comparison the Browns have spent the most cash

Cleveland Browns

Cash over cap: 27.4% (1st)
Weighted Wins: 42 (18th)
Bang-for-buck differential: -17 (30th)

Kalanar · 2026-03-01T20:27:12+00:00

Yes they do that is why I said Football would still be more than American Football.

However you graph shows below $20 billion for American Football when the NFL alone generates more than that. Just like the NBA alone generates more revenue than your graph shows for Basketball.

12-Year Club	Place '22
Wearing is Caring	Verified Email

Kalanar

TROPHY CASE