Report: NFL owners have discussed radical change to QB contracts

Dec 11, 2011; Denver, CO, USA; General view of a NFL logo on a communications center inside Sports Authority Field before the start of the game between the Chicago Bears and the Denver Broncos. The Broncos defeated the Bears 13-10. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

NFL quarterback salaries are continuing to surge, forcing some owners into conversations about whether something needs to be done about that.

In an appearance on “The Rich Eisen Show” Wednesday, Tom Pelissero of NFL Network reported (roughly 6:14 into the video) that some owners have had low-level discussions about essentially placing a separate cap on quarterback salaries.

“There certainly has been discussion within the league among certain owners about even the idea of a quarterback cap, that at some point you want quarterback numbers to not go over a certain percentage of your salary cap,” Pelissero said. “To my knowledge, that hasn’t really gained traction, in part because so many teams have paid their quarterbacks. If you went to suddenly an NBA model where all of a sudden you have the max and the super-max and there’s really only a couple levels that guys can get paid at, it kind of changes the dynamics in terms of how you set yourself up salary cap-wise.”

As described, this would essentially be a hard cap on quarterback salaries. Nothing sounds imminent, since these discussions are happening after a new wave of quarterback contracts, not before. Plus, the blunt reality is that if owners think the salaries are going too high, they could simply refuse to pay them. So far, nobody has really been willing to do that.

On the other hand, there is no indication that the rise in salaries is going to stop anytime soon. The bubble may burst eventually, but as long as the salary cap itself continues to rise year-to-year, we are not there yet.