Baltimore Ravens Manage Salary Cap Better Than Any NFL Team

Want to know why the Baltimore Ravens are consistently a playoff team with very few contract issues? Just take a look at some of the contracts handed out around the National Football League yesterday.

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The Dallas Cowboys were the first to strike with wide receiver Dez Bryant and the Denver Broncos were not too far behind with a new deal with Demaryius Thomas. Each signed a five-year, $70 million contract with their respective clubs. Stephen Gostkowski became the highest kicker in the NFL when he agreed to a four-year deal worth $17.2 million. Justin Houston hit the jackpot as the richest linebacker in history with his six-year, $101 million deal. That is a lot of money being thrown around in one day.

The Ravens’ brass are well aware of what is going on around them and have to chuckle a bit.

As Sarah Ellison of BaltimoreRavens.com noted in her piece today, the 11 wide receivers on the Ravens roster do not have the same cap figure as Thomas or Bryant. Thomas will count for $13.2 this season against the cap, while Bryant has a cap hit of $7 million. Those numbers are staggering because the 11 wide outs on Baltimore’s roster will count for $7.6 million, which ranks 29th in the league.

It is tough to compare each team’s cap scenarios because every team is different. The Ravens do not have a receiver with the skills that Thomas or Bryant present. They are in the upper echelon of pass catchers in the NFL and they are certainly deserving of getting paid top dollar. Baltimore’s top receiving option is a 36 year old who will count for just $4.166 million and Steve Smith has made $75 million in his 14-year career.

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General Manager Ozzie Newsome is hopeful that rookie Breshad Perriman can make the same impact that the aforementioned names have done since entering the league. Perriman was selected with the 26th pick in this year’s draft, basically in the same position as Thomas at No. 22 and Bryant at No. 24 in the 2010 draft. Newsome selected Perriman because he has the tools to be the same kind of player. All three players are freakishly athletic with big hands and great speed.

There are obvious differences between the three players. Thomas and Bryant have proven the entire league that they are some of the best at the position while Perriman has shown us nothing. The veterans signed those contract in large part to set them up for the future, but also pay for their past performance.

The small advantage the Ravens have is that if Perriman does become the star that the team is wishing for, he is at a significantly cheaper price similar to the rookie deals that Thomas and Bryant played under.

The front office has always done phenomenal work managing the cap and cutting ties with players at the right time. A perfect example is the Haloti Ngata situation this offseason. Ngata was not willing to restructure his contract so he was sent to Detroit for a few draft picks. Lardarius Webb was asked to take a pay cut or risk being released. The Ravens just do not let the contracts impact them and why they place such a high value on those compensation picks.

They also are not afraid to give money were it is deserved. Joe Flacco is on record for the most lucrative contract in Ravens history when he signed his six-year, $120.6 million contract following the 2012 Super Bowl run. It was the largest contract in NFL history when Flacco signed the deal, and Flacco is likely to get a new deal following this season.

Justin Tucker was excited to see Gostkowski get his money because he knows he is up next. Tucker has proven he is the best kicker in the league and will likely attract even more cash. The Ravens will likely go with the same route next offseason as the Patriots did with Gostkowski, slapping him with the franchise tag before working out a long-term deal.

Remember those numbers I listed above for Thomas and Bryant? The legend of Baltimore that is Ray Lewis earned $95.725 million in his 17 years of battle in black and purple. Not only the best player in Ravens history, but one of the best to every play the game and a no-doubt-about-it Hall of Famer earned just $25 million more. It also should be noted that he earned over $6.5 million in just three of those years.

Sure, we all know that NFL contract are almost never played out in full. When Flacco signed that contract years back, everyone knew that next offseason the Ravens would have to come up with a new deal. The same could be said for Ngata and that’s why they parted ways with the talented defensive tackle. Flacco is someone that cannot be replaced. John Harbaugh has a formidable replacement for Ngata in Brandon Williams.

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Not saying that the Cowboys and Broncos were wrong to pay up. Their players have performed and deserved it. Then again, neither team has won a Super Bowl since the start of the millennium and have crazy spending habits on their marquee players. If you take into account the contracts of both team’s quarterback-wide receiver combinations, the numbers are surreal. Tony Romo and Bryant will count for roughly $22 million of the Cowboys cap space. Peyton Manning and Thomas are a whopping $30.8 million of cap room. Next season, it’s $34 million for the Cowboys and $36.7 million for the Broncos. That’s a lot of cheese.

It is possible that the Cowboys and Broncos face off in this year’s Super Bowl and the money is well spent. Every team will deal with the financial mess for the glory of winning it all. The Cowboys were kind of forced to make the deal happen because of Bryant’s threat to sit out games. You can be assured that anyone making those threats to the Ravens won’t be sticking around on Baltimore for long.

The Ravens do not work that way. There is a reason why they have been so successful since coming to Baltimore. Harbaugh and his staff stress the importance of everyone being held accountable, regardless of the price tag that comes with. That is why they can make a bold move like trading Ngata. It was the same scenario when they sent Anquan Boldin to the San Francisco 49ers.

Ozzie is a financial genius and has what is necessary to win. That is why so many people are high on the Ravens this season. That’s the reason why the Ravens have won two Super Bowls and those teams have not.

Next: Justin Tucker Ready For New Deal

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