The NFL salary cap creates an environment which is similar to a continually downsizing a company.
In this context, it’s often not a case of “what have you done for me lately?” Rather the question becomes, “How much can you still do for me cheaply?”
I’m working on a separate piece to help quantify the value of options held on a player, but the easiest way to illustrate the impact of option value is to look at a successful drafting team and count the number of players by years of service.