Zone = Defending area of the field.
Man = Defending a specific person.
Linebackers can hit WR's to throw them out of line as long as it's witihin 5 yards of the LOS. Otherwise, it's a penalty.
Screens are used to protect the RB in order to try to get a long run.

Here is a slowed-down video of a screen pass.

Note Wiegmann and Waters in the first frame as they release their blocks, before slipping out into the flat to clear space for Priest. 50-yard gain, all because the defensive linemen got too agressive in their pass rush.

http://uranus.ckt.net/~gochiefs/screenpass.gif

Nice video.

You got it. It goes down on the stat sheet as a pass, however.

Also, the way the refs call illegal contact is incredibly inconsistent. I guarantee you Tony Gonzalez gets ridden like a mule farther than five yards down the field.

Ah! I know something else I can learn! Penalties.

Any defensive penalty is 10 yards? Well, I was thinking off sides was 5 yards.

No. Defensive penalties cover 5, 10 and 15 yards and more, if it's pass interference.

Off the top of my head:

Offsides - 5 yards

Encroachment - 5 yards (this is like offsides, but occurs when a defensive player touches another offensive player before the snap. If you go across the line but don't touch anyone, you can try to get back on your own side of the line of scrimmage before they snap and there's no penalty)

Facemask - 5 yards if you just graze the facemask, or 15 yards if you grab the facemask and pull.

Illegal contact - 5 yards, automatic first down

Late hit on the quarterback - 15 yards, automatic first down

Defensive holding - 10 yards

Pass interference - spot foul. If a defender interferes with an offensive player attempting to catch a pass, the offense gets possession of the ball where the interference occured. Even if it's 50 yards down field. In college, the penalty maxes out at 15 yards. They need to change it in the NFL.

I can't recall the name for it, but if you're a defender and you run out of bounds during a play, you can't be the first guy to touch a ball when you come back in bounds. As soon as you touch it, it's a dead ball, and possession is awarded to the team that last had it. This prevents a defender from running out of bounds to avoid a player and then recovering a fumble.

Oh, here's another one:

Hands-to-the-face - 10 yards, I think.

Defensive players can't club a guy in the face with their hands. This is most frequently broke by defensive linemen.

Spearing - 10 yards? You can't lead with your helmet when tackling someone. Risk of injury to both parties.

Off sides and false start are basically the same thing. Offsides is when the defense crosses the LOS before the ball is snapped, and a false start is when the offense does so.

Not exactly. The defense can move around as much as they want before the snap.

Offensive players, once they are set in their stance, are not allowed to move before the snap - unless a receiver, back or tight end goes in motion.

They can move, but they can't cross the line.

Then there is the Neil Smith rule.

Bingo. But most false starts are due to an offensive player flinching before the snap - like a Chiefs offensive lineman backing up early in pass protection because he can't hear the quarterback.

Basically anything that simulates the snap is a false start.

The Joe Phillips rule supercedes the Smith rule.You nOOB!

Band-aids and semantics are of no use when you consider
that stormtroopers get a 15 yard penalty by default.

It's so easy.

Wow, I already forget how bad ass our OL was. Talk about a perfectly executed screen pass.

this rule works the same way for offensive players. unless you are forced out of bounds.

Just a note for those of you who will be on at about 1AM. Tonight, I want to learn more about the salary cap and cuts/adds. While my department is slow tonight, I do have some work to get done. See you all later.

Are you confused beyond belief about the NFL Salary Cap? Is it impossible for you to understand why some teams are WAY over the cap, while others are way under?

Fear not. The Commish is here to help. Our goal is to provide you with a quick course in Capanomics so that you can understand what is going on here. By the time we're through with you, you will have the knowledge and power to second guess your favorite team's General Manager!

The notion of the Salary Cap itself is a relatively simple one. Each team is granted a specific amount of money they can spend on player salaries. For 2001, that amount was about $67.4 M. For 2002, that amount was about $71.1 M, and in 2003 it was about $75.007 Million. For 2004, even higher revenues pushed the cap to $80.582 Million, and in 2005 it reached about $85.5 Million.

Originally, the NFL informed teams that the 2006 figure was going to be approximately $94.5 Million. However, once the owners and NFLPA voted to extend the CBA, which was due to expire after the 2007 season, their model for calculating the cap changed. Thus, the revised salary cap for 2006 was set to $102 Million.

Had the CBA not been extended, 2006 would have been the final capped season, and there would NOT have been a cap in place for 2007. Additionally, had the 2007 season carried on WITHOUT a salary cap, the NFLPA warned that they would never again agree to reinstate another cap. Mercifully, both sides averted out-and-out labor war with the extension of the CBA. For 2007, the cap will be $109 M.

Unfortunately, the rules governing the manner in which the cap is administered are so cumbersome, it takes a team of attorneys to understand them. Indeed, most NFL teams have attorneys and accountants on hand whose sole responsibility is to monitor the Salary Cap. With so much convoluted paper to go through, the Commish has decided to give you the quick and dirty details of the NFL Salary Cap.

Background


The NFL Salary Cap as we know it came about through the NFL's Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) back in 1993. The CBA was an agreement between the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) and the NFL owners to reach an equitable agreement in terms of the sharing of the pie, if you will.

Basically, through the CBA the parties have realized that the goal of the players and the management should be the same—increasing the revenue pie instead of fighting over the existing amount—and the NFL has tailored the CBA to achieve that end.

The NFLPA was rewarded with the concept of Free Agency, whereby players have the freedom to market their skills after a specific period of service. As a system of checks and balances, the owners sought a means of cutting back on the escalation of the players' salaries. This is accomplished by -- you guessed it -- the NFL Salary Cap.

Compromise is an abundant theme found throughout the CBA. The Free Agency system is slightly limited by the team’s ability to protect certain athletes (franchise and transition players) from leaving by paying a salary equal to an average of the top players at his position. On the other hand, the salary cap is flexible by allowing owners to pay signing bonuses up front that exceed the cap, but the amounts are amortized over the life of the contract. More important is the agreement that the cap, which is defined as a percentage of revenues, will grow as team and league revenues grow. This aligns the goals of labor and management because as teams make more money, so do the players.

The NFL Salary Cap has been in existence since 1994, and it will continue to rear its head at least through 2011, thanks to the new extension. On March 8, 2006, the NFL Management Council and the NFLPA agreed on the 5th extension to the original CBA.

In side-stepping labor war in 2006, and agreeing to extend the existing CBA , the league owners and players have jointly decided to dispell the fear of entering the 2007 season without a salary cap -- and labor peace remains on the horizon for the immediate future.
--------------------------------------------------------

This is a start but even more detailed.

Salary cap in the NFL

The NFL's cap is a so-called "hard cap", which no team can exceed for any reason under penalty from the league. A lesser-known fact is that the NFL also has a hard salary floor—a minimum team payroll that no team can drop beneath for any reason. The cap was introduced for the 1994 season and was set at $34.6 million initially. Both the cap and the floor are adjusted annually based on the change in the league's revenues. As of 2006 the NFL salary cap is approximately 102 million US dollars per team, while the salary floor is roughly $75 million per team. This number has increased every year since 1994 and will reach approximately $109 million in 2007.

Under the NFL's agreement with the NFLPA, (with a few rare exceptions) the salary cap effects of guaranteed payments to players are prorated over the term of a contract. A $10 million dollar signing bonus on a four year contract counts as $2.5 million towards the cap during each of those four years. If a player retires, is traded, or is cut before June 1st, all remaining bonus is applied to the salary cap for the current season. If after June 1st, the current cap is unchanged, and the next year's cap must absorb the entire remaining bonus.

Because of this treatment, NFL contracts almost always include the right to cut a player before the beginning of a season. If a player is cut, his salary for the remainder of his contract is not paid, and never counted against the salary cap for that team. A highly sought-after player signing a long term contract will usually receive a guaranteed signing bonus, thus providing him with financial security even if he is cut before the end of his contract.

Incentive bonuses require a team to pay a player additional money if he achieves a certain goal. For the purposes of the salary cap bonuses are classified as either "likely to be earned" which requires the amount of the bonus to count against the cap, or as "not likely to be earned" meaning it will not count against the team's salary cap. Large NLTBE bonuses are written into contracts to make them sound larger in the media. A team's salary cap may be adjusted downwards for NLTBE bonuses that were earned in the previous year and upwards for LTBE bonuses that were not earned in the previous year.

Teams usually design contracts so that the player's cap salary is highest in later years of the cap. They accomplish this by setting the player's base salary at lower amounts in the first years of the contract than the higher years.

The effect of the salary cap has been the release of many higher-salaried veteran players and their replacement by lower-salaried younger players. The salary cap prevents teams with a superior financial situation from the formerly widespread practice of stocking as much talent on the roster as possible by placing younger players on reserve lists with false injuries. This was often used to allow an inexperienced player to learn valuable skills, and some money, while not counting as a player on the active roster. This practice allowed teams to keep an experienced, capable quarterback, whose skills were beginning to decline with age or who was merely nearing retirement, to train a potentially great, but inexperienced young quarterback. (A notable example is the case of the San Francisco 49ers playing Hall of Famer Joe Montana while grooming Hall of Famer Steve Young.)

Generally, the practice of keeping older players who had contributed to the team in the past, but whose abilities have declined, had fallen out of favor, as a veteran's minimum salary was required to be higher than a player with lesser experience. To prevent this, a veteran player who receives no bonuses in his contract may be paid the veteran minimum of up to $810,000, while only accounting for $425,000 in salary cap space.

It is widely believed that the salary cap has increased parity in the NFL. Although the system has allowed a greater turnover in playoff teams than at any other time in the Super Bowl era, it has not prevented the New England Patriots from winning three Super Bowls in four years (The seasons beginning in 2001, 2003 and 2004). Media reports have attributed this to New England's aggressively unsentimental use of the salary cap in trimming veterans (such as Lawyer Milloy, a key member of the 2001 team who was cut just before the start of the 2003 season.)

The salary cap has also served to limit the rate of increase of the cost of operating a team. This has accrued to the owners' benefit, and is widely regarded as being responsible for the NFL being overall the most financially stable of the major North American sports organizations. While the initial cap of $34.6 million has increased to $102 million, this is due to large growths of revenue.

Brian Waters just punched that dude with one hand.

Of course, Brian's still a badass but our whole line used to be that way. God those were the days.

starting with GR!

She'll school you.

...A contradiction in terms.

"To prevent this, a veteran player who receives no bonuses in his contract may be paid the veteran minimum of up to $810,000, while only accounting for $425,000 in salary cap space."

O.K. I had it all down until this part...

And sent his ass flying. Beautiful.

Luv, the cap is simple.

The Chiefs, and every other team, basically have a set amount of money to spend on 53 players every year. I think it's about $110 million at the moment.

It increases every offseason to account for...inflation, or some bullshit.

It's done this way so the NFL doesn't become like major league baseball. Where the Yankees are the best team more often than not because they have the most money to spend on players.

This will be fun to think about then. My analytical mind LOVES numbers.

You are basically right with the exception that many of the teams have the money to spend but the owners just don't want to spend like old George.

It would be interesting to see how rich each of the owners might be and how much they actually invest of their own money. As far as investing their own money I'd bet that George is #1.

Alrighty, work is slowly nearing an end. A quick trip to Wally World, and you guys are mine <insert evil laugh here>!!

BTW luv, the team with one of the cheapest payrolls won the Super Bowl last year.

Okie dokie. Is there a chart of some sort that has players listed and how much they're making spread out over the time of their contract? Like ESPN or kcchiefs.com or something?

Well Fox Sports has a page that is supposedly the salaries for this year. Not sure how accurate it is:

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/teamSal...tegoryId=67049

Failing that, NFLPA.org has a player search feature, not sure how accurate the numbers are:

http://www.nflpa.org/Resources/ActivePlayerSearch.aspx

Here is LJ's page, as you can see he's been paid peanuts:

Salary cap is something I'll have to research on my own, I think.

Any other need to knows?

Hey! Look! This thread seems to be helping more than just me. That makes me feel good.

Well, when a player signs a contract, it'll usually be reported as "7 years, $50 million dollars." That figure strokes their ego, but in reality they won't see all that money. The only portion that is guaranteed is their signing bonus.

So don't freak out when LJ signs an $80 million dollar deal sometime in the next few months. :)

Why won't they see it? And how is the signing bonus figured?

Because usually contracts are backloaded, with huge portions of the salary dumped at the end of the contract - if the player is old or declining, the team can just cut or trade him in order to avoid paying that money.

A good example is Eric Hicks, who was cut yesterday because he's being paid 4 million dollars to sit on his ass basically.

The signing bonus is just negotiated on and agreed upon by the player, his agent and the team.

$50 over 7 years comes out to $7.14 million per year. THey don't get paid each year?

They get paid by the week during the season I believe (i.e the term "game checks"). It is not always evened out. A player might get a few hundred thousand one year and a few million the next year.

A player will get cut because he is making too much money one season compared to the year before - unless he is worth that money. Kendrell Bell was asked to restructure his contract this year or the year before because he's basically a waste of skin.

He was also denied a $10 million roster bonus (money awarded for being on the roster at a certain date), because he sucked ass basically. That's just one of many incentives that might be built into a contract. The Chiefs may have put incentives in Trent Green's contract like "throw X number of touchdown passes and get paid this much."

Basic example, a team signs someone to a 5 year deal worth 30 million. In year one they make 2 million, year two 3 million, year three 5 million, year four 8 million, and year five 12 million. Teams backload the contract to make it seem that the players are making more.

I don't get how you can make more one year compared to another. Not counting bonuses and such. Or are the bonuses what make the figure different each year. And, if that's the case, then how can you make more one year from the next if you're doing less?

Ah. Making more sense.

Because the team that signed you was stupid. That's why Willie Roaf and Priest Holmes are being paid several MILLIONS of dollars this year for sitting on their ass.

SO, if these guys are not producing, why are they still on the payroll? Why not cut them? Do we eat that money if we do?

Bingo. Their signing bonus for the remaining years on their contract would accelerate, and they would could for several millions of dollars against the salary cap all at once. So we can't cut them.

That is where the Chiefs are with Holmes. They can pay out his bonus for a few more years, or cut him and pay it all at once. If he retires, he doesn't get that money, so he's not going to retire.

So we're paying him a bonus PLUS his salary? If we cut him, we pay just his bonus. Hurts us now, but wouldn't it help later? How much longer before his contract is up?

I'm not sure.


Probably, but it would probably count against the cap too much this year. The Chiefs just have to take it. They are in a pretty good cap situation right now as it is, so they're not too bad.

I think his contract is up in 2-3 seasons.

So what's the deal with Roaf then? I thought he retired.

Oh. I have no idea. The cap and the CBA (collective bargaining agreement) is way too complicated for the average fan to understand at it's most intimate of levels. I don't think I even want to know, anyway. Leave that crap to the GMs and agents. I prefer talking about football, not contracts.

Fine with me. Trying to figure that out was starting to give me a headache.

I think this is probably the single most helpful thread, I've ever seen on this board...I think more people needing football 101 should read.

Thanks, luv for getting this going!

I wholeheartedly agree. Awesome thread.

These types of threads are what made the Planet GREAT...

As I understand it when PH restructured he dropped his yearly pay low.
I'm guessing that means his 2008 or 2009 yearly salary will jump up, basically the money his old contract said he would get in 2006 & 2007 got pushed back a year or two. I figure the Chiefs think they'll have the issue worked out somehow by the time his salary jumps back up. This allows us to keep counting a pro-rated part of his bonus without giving him stupid money as salary.

You may just be the perfect woman.

One of these days, someone will let me prove it... :p

Wow. Now that is a compliment that will keep me going for awhile. Thanks!

Actually, IMO, the ones that made this thread great are GoChiefs, Direckshun, and the others who were patient enough to answer questions as simply as they could.

Thanks guys. I appreciate it!

I'd answer questions but I was busy downloading porn.

Bullshit Mecca. You can do both at once.

Well I have to find the porn, I'm selective about the porn I watch.......

Wow I think that's a pretty good sign I watch to much porn, carry on.

ANYWAY.....


Lets focus on history. What are some historical Chiefs facts that every fan should know? Greats?

In my book, I'm on some chapter going over really basic stuff. The field, the ball, the game clock, the teams, the officials, the scoreboard, and how the game is played.

I'll ask it here instead of the thread I thought of it in. Besides position on the field, what are the differences between playing guard and tackle?

It's easier to play guard.......speed rushers play DE, and if you are just a big slow guy they'll run around you.

We won the Super Bowl in 1970, though it seems closer to 1870.

We haven't won a playoff game since 1993. :shake:

Since that last playoff win, we've had home-field advantage in the playoffs twice (that means every playoff game you play is played in your home stadium). We've lost in the first playoff game both times.

The Chiefs have never drafted and developed a quarterback of their own.

The Chiefs were really good from 1960 - 1973
Then they really sucked from 1974 - 1988
They were really good from 1989 - 1997
We've been mediocre since 1997, with only one season that qualifies as "great."

Here's a great site for Chiefs history:

http://pro-football-reference.com/teams/kanindex.htm

QB Len Dawson - SB winning QB
DT Buck Buchanan (SB team)
WR Otis Taylor (SB team)
LB Derrick Thomas
LB Willie Lanier (SB team)

And many, many more.

Basically you have to be much more talented to play tackle. It requires quick feet, balance, long arms, agility and good strength.

You'll often see offensive tackles that can't hack it moved inside to guard - like we're doing with John Welbourn this year, a guy who has played some offensive tackle for us in the past (poorly, most of the time).

I'm hoping we can develop Croyle.
[QUOTE]Here's a great site for Chiefs history:

Cool.

Tackle is the more demanding position because the tackles are often responsible for a larger pass rush lane. The DL can rush wide of you, inside of you, or over the top of you. For some plays, the tackle may be responsible for the widest rusher. In other words, if the LB blitzes, the tackle may have to slide off the DE and go after the blitzing LB. In general the tackle faces athletic rushers that combine both power and speed. The tackle that protects the QBs blind side (LT for a RH QB or RT for a LH QB) is especially important since if he blows his assignment the QB could fumble or be injured. Another reason the LT is the most important position on the line is that the TE often lines up next to the RT, so the RT typically gets more help than the LT.

In contrast, the guard has a more narrow passing lane to defend and is typically going against a more powerful but less athletic pass rusher. The job of the guards and center is to keep the DT (and any blitzes from the middle) from collapsing the pocket and applying pressure up the in the middle of the line. Pressure from the middle is the most difficult for the defense to achieve, but also the most disruptive to the QB and the other team's offense. This is because when the QB passes, he wants to step up into the pocket. QBs throw better when their momentum is moving forward when they release the ball. Pressure from the middle disrupts this.

In general, the job of OL on passing plays is to engage the DL while moving slightly backward. An OL wants to keep his body between the DL and the QB.

On running plays things are the exact opposite; the OL are trying to push the DL and LB down field to make room for the RB. Normally the OL is trying to open a hole for the RB. This normally involves coordination between the movement in the backfield and the angles that the OL engage the DL. This can get extremely complicated and is almost impossible to show without diagramming plays. The run blocking skills that you want from your lineman depend on the running game strategy that your team employs. However, in gerneral, guards need to have enough foot speed that they can pull our of their normal position in the line to lead a sweep around the end of the line.

This is only the tip of the iceberg, but gives a basic idea.

If you have to be more talented to play tackle, why would it be difficult to move in to guard?

Well, most of the time, it isn't.

I don't know that I've ever heard of a guy moving from tackle to guard and failing, but a player did it might be because he wasn't strong enough.

I can understand that. THanks.

Then what's the big deal about moving Taylor to Guard? Well, besides the fact that we could have just drafted a guard.

BBZZZZTTT.

The '60's and early '70's greatness ended on Christmas Day, 1971. We still had many of the great Chiefs on the roster in '72 and '73, but we were on the down hill slide due Stram's decision to hold on to aging veterans for too many seasons. We were 8-6 in '72 and 7-5-2 in '73 and both of those seasons were filled with bitter disappointment, so much so that Hank Stram was fired as head coach after the '74 season.

All you really need to know about football is that the Chiefs should cut Rich Scanlon.

Stram was fired? I didn't know that.

Some speculate that we moved Black to so many different postions in his first couple years that he got confused. This might be another reason for the failure of moving a young OL from T to G. Or maybe Jordan Black just sucked.

It's not really a big deal. It happens all the time.

But Taylor might be quicker than the average college offensive guard, so he'd be an ideal candidate. Good guards have the ability to get out on the edge and lead sweeps.

Sad day in KC, like watching your father get fired. That was the last coach we had that was competent on both sides of the ball.