Nfl Free-Agent Market Lags Behind The Nba’s
While the National Basketball Association shuffles its star players through free agency, the National Football League reflects.
Two leagues. Two salary caps. Two different headaches. Few can comprehend the NBA’s $100 million contracts. Those who follow the NFL see a league going a different direction in buying unsigned players.
At $100 million or so, the NBA might be getting more bang for its free-agent megabucks than the NFL. Shaquille O’Neal, Alonzo Mourning, Gary Payton, Juwan Howard and others have a better chance of making it to the end of their seven-year contracts than some of the NFL big signings.
No, this isn’t a plea to ban free agency from the NFL. Players won that right in court. It’s here forever and should be. The fascinating and maybe scary part about how the NFL is spending its free-agent dollars is how much money is wasted and how little is the return.
Already from last year’s free-agent market, Baltimore Ravens receiver Andre Rison (a five-year, $17.8 million contract), Miami Dolphins tight end Eric Green (six years, $6 million) and Denver Broncos defensive tackle James Jones (four years, $6.4 million) have been cut.
Go back to 1993. There are only nine players from the free-agent class still starting for the teams that signed them. From the class of 1994, there are 25 remaining starting free agents - less than one per team.
Several of those 1994 players, including Seth Joyner and Clyde Simmons in Arizona and Sean Jones in Green Bay, were threatened to be cut this week if they didn’t take pay reductions.
The theory of a team building itself through free agency in the NFL isn’t working. Those megabucks might be a matter of survival in the NBA, but three years from now, most of those top players will still be playing and starting. The NFL, as in Not For Long, is about to turn more cautious.
“I think the caution slowed it down this year,” said Oakland Raiders senior assistant Bruce Allen. “It will slow down again. People will be more cautious, but there’s no money next year anyway.”
Until the NFL extends its television contract after the 1997 season, the salary cap isn’t expected to grow much above its current $40.7 million. That’s not to say the NFL is going to turn cheap. It’s not. Except for the Seahawks, teams in the AFC West spent an average of $19 million on signing bonuses to retain players or add a few agent or two.
Most of that money was spent on re-signing players. From all the spending, the only significant additions in the division were defensive end Alfred Williams (Denver), Bill Romanowski (Denver), linebacker Kurt Gouveai (San Diego Chargers), free safety Darryl Williams (Seattle), defensive tackle Russell Maryland (Raiders) and cornerback Larry Brown (Raiders).
Heading into last year, the Cleveland Browns considered themselves a contender. Coming off an 11-5 season the year before, owner Art Modell felt the addition of Rison would win a Super Bowl. The Browns went 5-11 and moved to Baltimore. The purges of three key free-agent additions over the past couple of years - Rison, middle linebacker Pepper Johnson and cornerback Don Griffin - leaves them less competitive this year and with $4.5 million less in cap room.
Around the league
Among the 10 players not selected in last Thursday’s supplemental draft were former Washington State quarterback Chad Davis and 336-pound Southern University defensive tackle Andre Davis, a 20-year-old who quit a security job at a grocery store a month ago to get ready for the NFL. … The Raiders were pleased that defensive tackle Jerry Ball arrived in camp weighing only 317 pounds. … Shante Carver has left the Dallas Cowboys for what coach Barry Switzer termed “personal reasons,” while news reports said the defensive end faces an NFL suspension for substance abuse. Two Dallas papers reported in their Sunday editions that Carver faces a suspension for repeated violations of the NFL’s substance-abuse policy.