We’ve been using this space to share the insights of former Redskins cap guru J.I. Halsell, who’s worked for the league as well as for one of the biggest agencies in the business, Priority Sports, as a contract advisor. I think he does a good job of making the cap understandable for the layman (like me). You must agree, because his posts have been pretty popular.

Here are a couple more questions and answers from J.I.

Former Jets GM John Idzik was criticized by some and hailed by others for creating several million dollars in cap space, then sitting on it during the final year he ran the team, contending that there weren’t quality players available and that he’d rather spend the money the next year. In general, is this a wise strategy?

In personal finance, it is normally ill-advised to spend money just because you have it. However, if there is need in your household that must be addressed, then spending the money is most likely prudent.  Some would argue that the Jets under Idzik had many needs in their proverbial household; Idzik obviously differed in his opinion.  Clubs like the Packers eschew veteran free agency and instead prefer to build through the draft and reward those home-grown players with cap dollars on their second contracts. In my opinion, given the various uncertainties (scheme, comfort, et al) with signing a pricey veteran free agent, the most prudent use of cap dollars is on your own because you know what you’re getting.  The key to this philosophy, however, is that you have to draft and develop players.  If you unsuccessfully develop players, then you have to go into the uncertainty that is free agency to address your needs.

For a healthy team that enjoys success over the long run, what does the team’s cap picture look like? Where is the money spent? What percent of the cap is usually bundled up in how many players? Is most of the cap space devoted to defense or offense? On average, how much of a team’s cap space is devoted to the starting QB?

Sustained organizational success in the league is often correlated to the presence of an established franchise QB.  Accordingly, a club’s biggest cap allocation is (usually) at the QB position, where the average allocation per player is 3.1%, compared to an average of 1.3%-1.8% for all other positions per player.  The split between offense and defense in terms of cap allocation is fairly even at 44.8% and 42.9%, with the balance of cap allocations consisting of specialists and players no longer on the roster.

As always, don’t forget to follow J.I. on Twitter, and if you’re serious about finding a niche in the game that few people pursue, give serious consideration to joining his site, NFL Contract Metrics.

By now, if you read this blog regularly, you already know who J.I. Halsell is and how highly I hold him in respect and regard. J.I. is The Guy when it comes to making the salary cap easily understandable by layman, and we’ve had him on to answer a few questions I’ve submitted in the last couple weeks.

However, today he’s answering a question that was submitted by Troy Chapman of TexansCap.com.

I’ve seen a few former GMs on Twitter speak about keeping cash spending in line with cap spending.  With the 140-character limitation on Twitter there is not much follow-up on this statement.  Could you explain?  Would you include dead money in the cap spending as part of this statement?  I follow the Houston Texans and there is a good $15 million difference in cap spending versus cash spending for 2015 (excluding the $12.9m dead money).

J.I.: “During the Mark Dominik regime in Tampa, the Bucs became the poster child for matching cap dollars with cash dollars.  This approach to contract structuring and cap management is aimed at reducing – if not, eliminating – the risk of incurring “dead money” (dollars counting on your cap for players no longer on the roster) from traded or terminated contracts. Eliminating dead money ensures that your cap space is maximized through utilization on players currently on your roster.”

“For example, Ndamukong Suh currently takes up 6.7% of the Lions’ 2015 salary cap though he’s no longer a member of the club; this dead money on the Lions’ cap reduces the salary cap resources the club can use for players currently on their roster.  The 9.7M of cap accounting dollars left by Suh with the Lions (which perhaps would be better utilized on offensive line help) are a result of signing bonus and option bonus cash dollars that have already been paid to Suh by the Lions but were allocated into future years from a salary cap accounting standpoint, as mandated by the CBA.

“Therefore, clubs who seek to keep cash equal to cap do so by not having cash dollars allocated into the future (this is achieved by not using signing bonus and option bonus mechanisms in contracts), as it is these future allocations that become dead money when a contract is terminated.  By keeping cash as close as possible to cap, clubs maximize the amount of their cap space allocated to players who are currently on the roster and currently addressing the club’s needs.”

Make sure you check J.I. out on Twitter and at his excellent website, NFL Contract Metrics. It’s highly affordable and the gold standard for use by NFL types and sports media across the country.

Last week, former NFL agent and Redskins cap guru J.I. Halsell answered a few questions about how NFL teams spend money and how cap decisions often lead to personnel decisions. It was very well-received, so I wanted to bring him back to answer a few more questions. Got something for J.I. to answer here? Drop me a line at nstratton@insidetheleague.com.

On to the questions.

We’ve seen successful teams constantly work around player contracts, pushing against the cap due to a couple of big contracts paid to key players. Is this wise? How long can a team generally pursue this strategy before it strangles them?

What once use to be the hallmark of the Redskins’ cap management tool kit has now become the hallmark of the Steelers cap management approach.  The risk with pushing cap allocations into the future is that a club increases the amount of dead money that they can be on the hook for if they terminate the player whose contract they have continually pushed cap dollars out on.  With the Steelers, a player like Antonio Brown, who shows no signs of decreased productivity, while having his cap dollars pushed out in each of the last three seasons, is the perfect candidate for pushing cap dollars, but a veteran player with diminishing skill level and multiple years left on his deal is a risky candidate due to the likelihood of the club having to part ways with him sooner rather than later.  The obvious reward in pushing cap dollars out is the immediate cap relief garnered by this move, and presuming significant increases in the salary cap in future years provides comfort that the money pushed out into the future will not reduce the club’s cap flexibility as it continues to build its roster.

Which teams have the most cap space tied up in 2-3 players?

The Lions lead the league in percentage of cap allocated to 3 players, with WO Calvin Johnson, QB Matt Stafford and, interestingly, DT Ndamukong Suh’s dead money hit all accounting for 33.3% of the Lions’ 144.3M salary cap.  Following the Lions are the Panthers with 30.0% of their cap tied up in DE Charles Johnson, QB Cam Newton and OC Ryan Kalil.

Make sure to visit J.I.’s website, NFLContractMetrics.com, and follow him on Twitter. You won’t find a more insightful, easier-to-understand breakdown of the money behind the game than you’ll find in J.I.’s work.

One intriguing person I’ve worked with over the years is J.I. Halsell. He’s intriguing for a number of reasons.

No. 1, he turned his job in college stats into a job with the Washington Redskins, mostly on his own hustle (here’s that story). No. 2, he walked away from a successful job as an NFL agent with a big firm, primarily because he wanted to work closer to his West Coast roots. No. 3, he’s very entrepreneurial, and has actually turned his knowledge of the salary cap into something entertaining and profitable with his website, NFL Contract Metrics. If you haven’t checked out his site, which I’ve discussed in this space before, you’re missing out on a valuable resource for evaluating the NFL.

The salary cap is something I don’t pretend to fully understand, but that’s OK, because I have J.I for that. Occasionally, I wonder about certain things related to salaries and the running of a team, and I reach out to him for answers. Here are a few recent questions I had for him, with his responses.

In the offseason, the Seahawks signed QB Russell Wilson to a megadeal and acquired TE Jimmy Graham, who’s also making big bucks. How does this kind of ‘overnight bonanza’ impact a team’s roster? Where does this put pressure?

J.I.: “When one analyzes the Seahawks’ cap allocations, it’s not just Wilson and Graham who make their cap management a challenge.  Pre-existing high-end deals for Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas and the recent extension of Bobby Wagner have created a cap allocation composition that has proverbially ‘pinched’ the offensive line, and it has shown on the field through four weeks of the season.  As the Seahawks entered Week 1, they had allocated just 8.9% (13.26M) of their 148.26M 2015 salary cap to the offensive line.  Only the Lions (8.2%) have allocated less to their offensive line; not surprisingly, both clubs have struggled along the offensive line this season.”

Conversely, the Saints shed Graham. In your estimation, given the Saints’ cap situation, do you think this was primarily a financial move? Also, in your estimation, was it something the team had to do, given its cap situation?

J.I.: Graham’s 2015 cap hit to the Saints went from $11M prior to the trade to $9M after the trade (by virtue of his future-year signing bonus allocations accelerating into the Saints’ 2015 cap). Therefore, because there was not a significant amount of cap relief achieved by trading Graham, one cannot directly attribute his departure to the goal of improving the Saints cap situation.  However, because the draft provides cheap labor and theoretically the quality of that labor is improved in the earlier rounds, the Saints indirectly took a step in improving their cap efficiency by using the first-round pick acquired in the Graham trade on ILB Stephone Anthony (not to mention the acquisition of veteran OC Max Unger via this trade to solidify a viewed position of need).

We’ll have more to come from J.I. next week. In the meantime, make sure to check him out on Twitter and register for his website (it has free sections, and it’s very reasonably priced).