The worse thing that a team could do is to completely go out of control with player salaries. You dont want to spend 300 million dollars on player salaries and then be left holding the proverbial bag if an agreement is reached and you find yourself WAY over the new cap. It would be an economic diaster.
I think teams will proceed with caution at first to see what the market will dictate. The only thing that could escalate salaries is that in this uncapped year, demand is far greater than supply. Those players in the 5 to 6 year service range (guys really in their prime) who would have been unrestricted free agents are now restricted free agents. This severely limits the free agent pool. There would have been major bidding wars for some of these high talented players (i.e. Brandon Marshall, Elvis Dumerville, Miles Austin, etc.) Now the only players avaialble are the guys who have played in the league a long time (i.e. 28-32 year olds). While they are good players, they definitely are on the downside of their careers.
A player like Julius Peppers would have been paid even if there was a salary cap in place, so expect him to receive a very large contract.
But there should be some excitement...more trades could happen (i.e. Jets/Chargers with Cromartie) especially with the restrictions on what the final 8 playoff teams are allowed to do in free agency
all this turn out, and who will get Julius Peppers? Stay tuned, because this could get interesting.
The worse thing that a team could do is to completely go out of control with player salaries. You dont want to spend 300 million dollars on player salaries and then be left holding the proverbial bag if an agreement is reached and you find yourself WAY over the new cap. It would be an economic diaster.
I think teams will proceed with caution at first to see what the market will dictate. The only thing that could escalate salaries is that in this uncapped year, demand is far greater than supply. Those players in the 5 to 6 year service range (guys really in their prime) who would have been unrestricted free agents are now restricted free agents. This severely limits the free agent pool. There would have been major bidding wars for some of these high talented players (i.e. Brandon Marshall, Elvis Dumerville, Miles Austin, etc.) Now the only players avaialble are the guys who have played in the league a long time (i.e. 28-32 year olds). While they are good players, they definitely are on the downside of their careers.
A player like Julius Peppers would have been paid even if there was a salary cap in place, so expect him to receive a very large contract.
But there should be some excitement...more trades could happen (i.e. Jets/Chargers with Cromartie) especially with the restrictions on what the final 8 playoff teams are allowed to do in free agency