To put it another way: NFL teams are smarter than they were a decade ago. Franchises like the Cowboys, which routinely needed to perform economic voodoo to get under the cap, now have room to maneuver. There are fewer terrible contracts with guaranteed money past two to three years. One-year deals were all the rage last free-agency period, a trend that is likely to continue. With the salary cap exploding and most young key contributors re-signing early -- the current rookie pay scale is a big factor here, keeping initial contracts low and motivating players to re-sign early -- it's incumbent upon teams to get more creative finding talent from outside the organization. That's one reason why we could see an uptick in veteran trades this offseason, with Alex Smith's move to Washington being the first of many headline-grabbers.