People are posting that the team has to throw money at questionable FA's so that we meet the mandated 89% payout level. Please read this explanation posted on the BigCatCountry.com website regarding this subject:




"The penalty for not reaching the 89 percent spend requirement over the four year cumulative period really isn't that bad. A team will have to give the money they're short by to their own players (via NFLPA-determined distribution). This means there really isn't much of a penalty, other than your own players get somewhat of a bonus, for a lack of a better word. You do not incur fines, you do not lose draft picks. You just have to spend the required money in some manner.


The real bad thing would be the public perception that would follow, as it appears like you're not trying to win because you're not spending money, but we all know it's not that black and white with most teams. Teams need to spend money, but that doesn't mean they need to pay mid-level free agents like top-level free agents, because then you wreck the market.


This means that it doesn't really behoove a team to throw around massive deals and signing bonuses to get to the mark. It's still likely going to have teams handing out big signing bonuses rather than allowing the NFLPA to divvy up the unspent cash, but it's not really something fans should be stressing out over.


Basically, don't worry about it. It's not that big of a deal."

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