Inbox: It's always a cat-and-mouse game

[Cheesehead]

Duane from Oak Creek, WI


I miss the combine. Is everyone else going through combine withdrawal?


I almost hit the road last week just to find a Steak-n-Shake.


Markus from Aurora, CO


Wes and Mike, as we have moved into March, what is worthwhile to keep in sight?


The next significant date is March 9, the deadline to apply the franchise tag, which Gutekunst said is definitely in play for Aaron Jones.


Cam from Pekin, IL


Good morning, regarding Aaron Jones, my question is would the Bears allow Walter Payton, the Lions allow Barry Sanders, or the Vikings allow Adrian Peterson to walk away in the prime of their careers? Gute needs to find a way to keep him, he's a winner.


Let's not go comparing Jones, after just a pair of 1,000-yard seasons, to three Hall of Famers. That's not fair to anybody in this discussion.


Phil from Madison, WI


If a player receives a transition tag but then goes to another team when his current team declines to match an offer, does he count toward the draft compensation formula?


I don't believe so.


Tony from Bronxville, NY


Mike, I was reading about the new TV deals and, using my great math skills, see that revenues will be north of $8B across all networks. That is quite a bit higher than last year. How is it that the salary cap will be lower? Unless the $8B will be for the following year?


I've read the new TV deals, even if they are completed soon, won't affect the 2021 salary cap. Gutekunst even questioned Tuesday how much they would impact the '22 cap, presumably because the '22 cap will be based on '21 revenues, and the current TV deals with the big networks already run through '21 (ESPN Monday night) and '22 (FOX, CBS, NBC). So if the new TV money isn't actually coming on the books for a while, the owners would have to "advance" some to the players in the cap calculations to ease whatever '22 cap crunch is left over from this year. I guess we'll see.


Gretchen from Dousman, WI


Good morning, Mike. I'm going to try to find the words for this thought that keeps spiraling in my mind. Perhaps it's hard for me because I grew up in the era when players tended to stay with a team throughout their careers. It just seems puzzling that the team drafts and develops players and they find great fit and chemistry, but then players are reshuffled in free agency. Is this a parity thing, a money thing, or something I just don't understand?


The salary cap rules the game, Gretchen, and it didn't exist until 1994.


Julius from Providence, RI


Last summer, there was a question about whether teams would get credit back on their salary caps for offseason bonuses players were unable to earn because facilities were shut down. Do you know whether/how that has been resolved?


I believe players ultimately received those bonuses for participating in the qualifying percentage of virtual offseason program days, similar to how they had normally earned OSP bonuses.