Mike Florio

As one GM explained to me, this is a great safe harbor for Matt Ryan where he can have his cake and eat it too.

If things go sideways, I didn't do it.

Ian Cunningham was in charge of free agency in the draft.

And you know what?

Wouldn't be the first time that a high level executive with an NFL team was in position to take the credit when things go well.

And then when things don't go well, that wasn't me.

That was that guy.

I think it gets overblown.

It's very easy to create cap space by restructuring contracts.

Most contracts now, second contracts, third contracts, big money deals, they have a provision in there that gives the team the automatic right to restructure.

And it's simply, and I'll keep the numbers as basic as I can, just so I don't short circuit my own brain.

If somebody's due to make $30 million this year in salary,

You take that $30 million, you reduce the salary down to the minimum for that player's years of experience, and the rest of it gets treated as a signing bonus, and the money gets spread over five years.

And so 80% of those cap dollars get pushed out to future years.

That's the easy way to do it.

Every year, oh, what was this team?

What was that team?

Oh, they're never going to figure it out.

And they always figure it out.

The Saints are the best example.