There’s a common belief among those in the know that cover the NFL. Any team looking beyond the next three years when planning for their organizations future is wasting their time. Certainly teams want to remain competitive year after year, but there’s so much flux in the way teams are constructed and players’ careers play out that a three-year plan is way more in line with reality than anything looking too far out in the future.
Second and third contracts are structured in a similar fashion. They might be five and six-year deals on the surface, but most deals have the guaranteed money tied into the first three seasons with escape hatches should a player’s performance dip. So when evaluating how well a team is setup for the future, look no further than a three-year window.