What is a reasonable amount of dead cap space?

[JesterBlaze]

I currently have $4,830,00 in lost cap room for my 2nd season and $2,060,000 for the next. Is this good, bad or par for the course?

[stevew]

Thats pretty good. Its hard to say when its "unreasonable." It depends on what you are doing with your team, and what you are planning to do. If you are trying to win a superbowl, a lot of dead space is gonna hurt. If you are trying to rebuild, you may have a lot of dead cap as you are dumping vets for rookies.

[Darkiller]

In the IHOF (season 2005), the Paris Musketeers already have $20,000,000 of lost cap room for the 2006 season...We're in the midst of a 3-year rebuilding plan.

[Francis_Cole]

pretty good I'd say as most nfl teams in real life are probably above £2m in dead space

[Fritz]

we don't use pounds

[GrantDawg]

Does it mean anything that a SI guy is talking "dead cap space?" Hmmmmmmm......

[QuikSand]

Jester, I think it's completely a function of the players you are dealing with.

If you are in the business of granting huge, bonus-heavy contracts to players who don't really work out, then you're going to end up carrying a lot of dead cap space, and will be getting less out of your team than you would otherwise. But if this is the result of something unavoidable -- contracts you inherited, players who retired, trades you couldn't pass up -- then there's nothing to worry about.

I guess the question is -- what did you get for the dead cap space? That's the only way to judge whether it's a problem, I think.

[Passacaglia]

I never look at dead cap space -- to me, that's a measure of what's in the past. I look more at how much room I have under the cap, and my cap used for next year (which includes dead cap space), as well as what kind of prorated signing bonus deals my players have. I think that gives me a better feel of what my options are for this year and the next.

I think previous posters were right in that the answer is pretty much "it depends." For example, my eNFL Bills are sitting at a sweet 720K in dead space right now, 6th lowest in the league. The higest is division rival Miami, with 18.46 million. However, they still have a pretty good team, and they're still ten million under the cap, so they can spend a bit more to improve. Meanwhile, we have a good team here in Buffalo too, but we're just 2.74 mil under the cap, which means we still need to clear space to make room for out draft picks. Also, we're only in stage 3 of FA, so there's a lot that's going to happen on both sides. I know I'm working on trading at least one player with a large signing bonus, so my dead cap space will go up. But the dead space isn't really what I considered in the trade -- I thought about his salary (what I stand to get back if I trade him away) and the salary of the player I'm going to receive. The trade will cause dead cap space for both teams, but we'll both end up with a guy who will be making only salary, and will have no pro-rated bonus for us to deal with.

So I'd say 'don't worry about it' -- there are way too many other more important things to think about.

[albionmoonlight]

I had a SP career where I kept putting off the inevitable by continuing to cap out offers and the like. When it all caught up to me and I roster purged, I had two years of $30 mil + dead money. But those two years were a natural result of stacked rosters the years previous and were worth it. So, in conclusion, it depends.

[JesterBlaze]

Thanks to all those that responded!! I'm getting the hang of this game and it's getting addicting!! :)


I guess the question is -- what did you get for the dead cap space?
???

I'm confused as to what I could get for the dead cap space?

As of now it appears I have nothing but a lower salary cap. :D



BTW - This is a Chicago Bears' career in which I started (without intention) with the worst roster in the league according to the power rankings. I'm in the 2nd season and all the dead space is simply from cuts, not trades.

[stevew]

Thanks to all those that responded!! I'm getting the hang of this game and it's getting addicting!! :)



???

I'm confused as to what I could get for the dead cap space?

As of now it appears I have nothing but a lower salary cap. :D



BTW - This is a Chicago Bears' career in which I started (without intention) with the worst roster in the league according to the power rankings. I'm in the 2nd season and all the dead space is simply from cuts, not trades.


He means what did you get out of making that dead cap space. Did you get 2 good years out of a RB that you normally couldnt have afforded? Were you able to keep an Oline together for an extra year by signing some high bonus contracts that you now have to get rid of? If you lost the cap space cause you made some bad moves, at least you are getting rid of them and getting on the right track.

[albionmoonlight]

???

I'm confused as to what I could get for the dead cap space?

As of now it appears I have nothing but a lower salary cap. :D


Quik means that if you are stuck with dead cap space because you gave lots of bonus money to underachieving players that you then had to cut, it's not good. If, however, the dead money comes from the retirement of the two stellar vetrans who led you to the Super Bowl last year--then it's probably a good thing.

In your case, you had to come in and clean house. Better to have cut those guys, take the cap hit early, and start building from scratch.

[Passacaglia]

I think what Quik is trying to ask is, "If all that dead space came from cuts, was the dead space you've accrued worth it, for the "live" space you've obtained by cutting that player?"

Keep in mind that if you cut someone with a large signing bonus and several years on his contract, you all the parts of his signining bonus that are prorated to years two and beyond become dead cap space for year 2. For example, I just started a new game, and I noticed that Rex Tucker is a complete scrub -- rated 15 current, 18 future. His salary is:

Year Current Salary Current Bonus
2003 610K 640K
2004 1.8 mil 640K
2005 2.3 mil 640K
2006 2.7 mil 640K
2007 3.25 mil 640K
2008 3.9 mil 640K

Quite a lot to pay. So I cut him, and this season, I save 610K (his current salary) and the 640K becomes dead cap space (since it's bonus money, I'm still accountable for it). So my cap situation improved -- I was 7.65 mil under the cap, but I save 610K, so I'm 8.26 mil under the cap. However, my lost cap room went up, from 0 to 640K.

However, the rest of his bonus becomes dead cap space for the NEXT season. There are five more years on his contract (not including this year -- just 2004 to 2008). 5*640K = 3.2 million. That 3.2 million becomes dead cap space in 2004. So my lost cap room, next year went up from 0 to 3.2 million. Meanwhile, my cap used, next year went up 3.2 million, but it also went down 1.8 million, because I no longer owe Rex Tucker his salary. So in total, my cap used, next year went UP 1.4 million. This seems like a situation where I'm not getting much for my dead cap space. I would probably hold on to him for another year or two, so that the prorated bonus is not so large -- probably waiting until 2004 to cut him.

Hope that helped.

[JesterBlaze]

He means what did you get out of making that dead cap space. Did you get 2 good years out of a RB that you normally couldnt have afforded? Were you able to keep an Oline together for an extra year by signing some high bonus contracts that you now have to get rid of? If you lost the cap space cause you made some bad moves, at least you are getting rid of them and getting on the right track.
Ahhh... I see.

Being a noob (and coming from Madden where you NEVER run into ANY type of cap trouble) I didn't even think of dead space one year being a trade off for possible success in another.

Thanks

[JesterBlaze]

Keep in mind that if you cut someone with a large signing bonus and several years on his contract, you all the parts of his signining bonus that are prorated to years two and beyond become dead cap space for year 2. For example, I just started a new game, and I noticed that Rex Tucker is a complete scrub -- rated 15 current, 18 future. His salary is:

Year Current Salary Current Bonus
2003 610K 640K
2004 1.8 mil 640K
2005 2.3 mil 640K
2006 2.7 mil 640K
2007 3.25 mil 640K
2008 3.9 mil 640K

Quite a lot to pay. So I cut him, and this season, I save 610K (his current salary) and the 640K becomes dead cap space (since it's bonus money, I'm still accountable for it). So my cap situation improved -- I was 7.65 mil under the cap, but I save 610K, so I'm 8.26 mil under the cap. However, my lost cap room went up, from 0 to 640K.

However, the rest of his bonus becomes dead cap space for the NEXT season. There are five more years on his contract (not including this year -- just 2004 to 2008). 5*640K = 3.2 million. That 3.2 million becomes dead cap space in 2004. So my lost cap room, next year went up from 0 to 3.2 million. Meanwhile, my cap used, next year went up 3.2 million, but it also went down 1.8 million, because I no longer owe Rex Tucker his salary. So in total, my cap used, next year went UP 1.4 million. This seems like a situation where I'm not getting much for my dead cap space. I would probably hold on to him for another year or two, so that the prorated bonus is not so large -- probably waiting until 2004 to cut him.

Hope that helped. This helped immensely since Rex Tucker was specifically one of the players I dealt with!! :)

I'm confused though because you said you cut him and then later said you'd probably hold on to him??

In my career I held on to him for fear of the huge cap hit.

[Passacaglia]

I said I cut him in my example. I only did that to show the effects of cutting him.

The way I see it, in 2004, his contract would look like:

Year Current Salary Current Bonus
2004 1.8 mil 640K
2005 2.3 mil 640K
2006 2.7 mil 640K
2007 3.25 mil 640K
2008 3.9 mil 640K

So if I cut him in the beginning of 2004, I save 1.8 mil in cap space, and I pay 640K in dead cap space. Then, in 2005, I pay 4*640K = 2.56 mil in dead space -- that's still more than his salary in 2005, so even then, it might not be worthwhile. In 2005, we have:

Year Current Salary Current Bonus
2005 2.3 mil 640K
2006 2.7 mil 640K
2007 3.25 mil 640K
2008 3.9 mil 640K

If I cut him in the beinning of 2005, I save the 2.3 mil, and pay 640K. Now, the next year, I pay 3*640K = 1.92 mil dead cap space in 2006. That's still a lot, but it's less than his 2006 salary of 2.7 mil.

Going back to 2004, it still might be worthwhile to cut him then, since saving 1.8 million is pretty nice, even if you end up having to pay more in 2005. If you really feel like 2004 is your year to go far, but don't like your chances in 2005, this might be a good plan. Since you're the Bears, however, your chances in 2004 aren't that great anyway, and there's no reason to hurt you 2005 chances by cutting him.

Of course, this is all assuming you never renegotiate his deal -- if he's as bad as he was in the game I loaded up, you can probably get him to sign a new deal with lower salaries -- just don't give him any more of a signing bonus, or else you'll only magnify your problem.

[Chubby]

I had a SP career where I kept putting off the inevitable by continuing to cap out offers and the like. When it all caught up to me and I roster purged, I had two years of $30 mil + dead money. But those two years were a natural result of stacked rosters the years previous and were worth it. So, in conclusion, it depends.

You don't have to roster purge if you're careful and plan ahead.

Like others have said, it depends on what caused the dead cap space. If it was some vet who retired right after you gave him a huge bonus then that's bad, but if it's due to trades that improved your team in the long run then that's good.

[albionmoonlight]

You don't have to roster purge if you're careful and plan ahead.
I agree--this was a career where I had a legendary QB and wanted to keep a superstar team around him as long as possible no matter the cost. I kept capping out guys that I would have cut or traded in another situation.

Much better than FOF2 where you could keep a team of superstars AND never think about the cap.