I couldn't let this fade away without commenting on it!

Trying to prove either side of this argument with just a couple theoretical contract scenarios never really works; the opposite side can always say, "But,... blah, blah, blah." So, instead of examples, I will simply state my conclusions from following what has actually happened over the past thirty years that the cap has existed. As some of you may remember, I followed the cap very closely long before "OverTheCap" "Sportrac" and others existed. I kept notes about Packer players contract details when they were published, because finding the information 6 mos later was next to impossible. I found, printed, and actually read the bargaining agreements going way back, and could answer salary cap questions back in the days of the Journal-Sentinel fan site long before Packerrats and its immediate predecessor existed.

- Contrary to what some have implied, for the most part GB has been conservative in it's cap management approach. Gute wandered from that starting a few years ago, but I think he is finding his way back. (The subject of another thread I will start in the next day or so.)

- GB has been innovative in finding ways to use the cap conservatively. Others followed, and in some instances salary cap rules were changed because of it.

- Can the cap be "cooked"? Sure, but that doesn't mean it should be routinely.

- Salary cap carelessness tends to be cumulative. Like tolerance stacking in machine structures, any one individual deviation can be tolerable, but the combined impact of numerous deviations can cause difficulties. The solution is never "more of the same". You must compensate or correct.

- GB was in such a correction last year and is again this year. They have made a lot of decisions necessitated by the salary cap situations. By and large these were decisions to rely on many more inexperienced players than a team competing for playoffs will do intentionally. Normally, as a result, this team would have been crap last year. With just average drafts it would have been bad. Fortunately for them they put together back-to-back rookie groups the likes of which I do not think I have ever seen. They essentially replaced 2/3 of their front-line players in just two drafts. They found capable players, more than just stop gaps. They didn't hit back-to-back homeruns, they hit consecutive grand slams in the drafts of 2022 and 2023; or so it seems.

- But for the vast number of first contract players performing much, much better than anyone could reasonably expect, salary cap hell would have been a real experience for a couple years in GB.