The Ravens football season may have officially ended in the divisional round of the playoffs, but a new season is underway for Senior Vice President of Football Administration Pat Moriarty.
While players and coaches enjoy a few weeks of down time before getting back to the grind of preparing for another season, Moriarty sits in his office crunching numbers feverishly as the one responsible for the planning of the Ravens salary cap.
To gain a better perspective on just how hard of a job Moriarty has, I spoke to our own highly respected salary cap guru Brian McFarland, who offered his insight on such a highly demanding role in the modern day NFL.
“It’s a tough job,” stated McFarland. “You’ve got to balance your ‘win now’ present needs and your ‘don’t mortgage the future’ future needs, all while trying to anticipate what those future needs will be. And then, injuries or unexpected changes in performance occur and totally change those future expectations instantly.”
In order to get to the future one must look at the past. Moriarty’s is extensive and impressive.
His NFL career began in 1979 as a rookie free agent running back for his hometown Cleveland Browns. The Georgia Tech graduate scored two touchdowns while mostly playing on special teams. After spending the next two seasons in training camp with the Browns and Miami Dolphins, the future capologist went to work in the commercial banking industry, forgoing his playing career.
After his ten-plus years in the banking industry working in the corporate lending field, Moriarty was back in the NFL, this time as the Browns Director of Business Operations. During this time, he forged a relationship with Ozzie Newsome, who was Cleveland’s Director of Pro Personnel at the time.
Newsome knew he had his man in Moriarty and the two have been together ever since.
In 1996, when Art Modell moved the franchise to Baltimore, Moriarty was named the Ravens Chief Financial Officer, tasked with the crucial job of keeping contracts under the unfriendly confines of the NFL salary cap.
“Pat is an ‘impact player’ in our organization,” said General Manager Ozzie Newsome in a quote given to the media at the start of last season. “He is thorough and sound, plus creative in the structure of contracts.
“He has a working knowledge of every team’s salary cap structure and knows the ins and outs of working with the league off. His management of our cap helped us win our two Super Bowls.”
In his 19 years with the Ravens, the salary cap guru has played a key role in the day-to-day operations of the player personnel department, including negotiating all of the  player contracts.
While the Ravens didn’t coin the term ‘right player, right price,’ it’s long been their motto for building one of the NFL’s most successful franchises since their inception. Moriarty even served as part of the committee who hired John Harbaugh in 2008.
The Ravens haven’t made all the right moves in the salary cap department over the years but the good has far outweighed the bad. Moriarty has found ways to bring key free agents to town while also tackling the daunting task of advising other front office personnel of cap restrictions. It can’t be easy reminding the “football” guys that they can’t afford to keep some of their current players at their present cap numbers. From time to time though, it’s Moriarty’s job to do just that.
Over the next few months Moriarty will again advise the Ravens front office as to who fits and who doesn’t. Plenty of questions surround the team in 2015 regarding contracts ,including those of Haloti Ngata and Lardarius Webb, just to name a few. There are also the pending free agents the organization will have to address.
McFarland again offered his insight, this time on what lies ahead for Moriarty this offseason.
“This year is going to be especially tough because they’re already looking at being over the Cap (which hasn’t occurred since 2011), so they’ve got a lot of work to do before even considering signing or re-signing free agents,” said McFarland. “Then next year, they’ve got to deal with extending Joe Flacco’s contract because his Cap hit almost doubles.
“The good thing for Ravens fans is that the team always spends to the Cap and is always looking to improve.”
While business will be slow coming out of the Castle over the next few weeks (knock on wood), for guys like Moriarty and McFarland, their season is just ramping up.
For Ravens fans and Russell Street Report fans alike, both do a hell of a job.
Follow me on Twitter @sportguyRSR
