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Thursday, February 23, 2006
You Be the Eagles GM 2: Salary Cap Bingo! OK, to be upfront, you might find this exercise a little lame. It has no bells and whistles or blinking fireworks. But it does have movable chips! (I can tell you're impressed.) Anyway, the idea is to help fans visualize the limitations of dealing with the NFL salary cap, expected to be about $92 million for next season. Where would you spend it? Which positions on the Bingo board below get the biggest chips, those $7 million babies? Which get "peanuts" -- in the low to mid six-figures? Go ahead, click on any chip and drag it into position. You may find, as the Eagles have, it's not easy to pay big bucks for skilled positions if you're giving monstrous salaries to monstrous linemen. To simulate the Eagles situation for 2006, put your $7M chips on QB, RB and one DE. Put $5M on the other DE and both OTs. Put a peanut at FB; $1M at MLB and SS (strong safety); an extra $1 and a peanut at QB for backups; $2M at FS, C, one OLB, K and both WRs; and $3M at the positions that remain. Toss a few more peanuts here and there, for spots that were rounded down. Now figure out where to spend the rest: Beef up SS to re-sign Michael Lewis? Target bonus squares for now and later to land free agents? See anywhere to save? OT, if Runyan leaves? OLB if Jones (the $3M) is let go? Whatever you do, save at least a couple of peanuts. In case you need to sign stiffs to fill in for injuries.
