When To Cut A Player

[JetsIn06]

With NFL Free Agency starting a few weeks ago, I have been reading a lot about players being cut because of salary.

In the NFL, players earn bonuses at certain points in the off-season. I'm not exactly sure what the dates are, but my question is..

When is the best time to cut someone in FOF?

Is there any difference if I cut him right after the FOF Bowl? Right when F/A starts? Is there any penalty for keeping him until the beginning of Training Camp?

I guess the real question is, When does the next season's salary kick in?

Thanks guys.

[MartinD]

If you cut a guy before the season starts, you're off the hook for his entire salary for that season. If you cut him once the season starts, you get back a proportion of his salary (salary is assumed to be payable weekly, so depending on how far through the season you are - the further through the season, the less you get back). Any salary that would have been paid in future seasons disappears entirely - you don't have to pay any of this.

Bonus is a different matter - any bonus that applies to this season can't be changed (i.e. will count against your cap for this season no matter what). If you cut a guy on a multi-year contract, any bonus that would have applied in future seasons is brought forward and will be counted against next year's cap.

Trading a guy is basically the same as cutting him (from a salary cap point of view) - you can pretty much replace any use of 'cut' with 'trade' in the two paragraphs above.

An example may help here...

You have a player with the following contract:

Season 1: $1.70m salary/$2.00m bonus
Season 2: $1.90m salary/$2.00m bonus
Season 3: $2.50m salary/$1.30m bonus

Scenario 1: You cut him in free agency of season 1 - none of the salary for any of the three years counts against your cap, but you'll still need to allow for $2.00m of bonus this year (this will go into 'Lost Cap Room') and $2.00m + $1.30m = $3.30m of bonus next year (which will go into 'Lost Cap, Next Year')

Scenario 2: You cut him in week 5 of the regular season - I think that this would mean that he's received 5 weeks of salary (out of a potential 17), so you would have paid out 5/17 x $1.70m = $0.50m, and would save $1.20m. Bonus would be treated in the same way as in Scenario 1.

(I'm not absolutely sure how things work with salary on in-season roster moves - think that it's split into 17 parts (one per regular season week), but am not absolutely sure. The rest of what I've said above I'm fairly confident I've got right, though.)

Martin

[JetsIn06]

Martin-

Thanks a bunch. I really appreciate you taking the time to write that up, and I'm sorry if my question was a little unclear....

But my concerns arise during the off-season. I'll give an example...

I'm in week 16 of my franchise. It's 2006. Brandon Moore, my starting right guard on my team, is due to make 2.00M in 2007. He has been under-performing and I'll most likely end up cutting him after this season.

However...what if I don't cut him after the FOF Bowl. He stays on my roster through free agency. I don't find any better free agents and realize that he may be my best option. I end up drafting a RG in the 6th round, and don't think he'll be anything more than a backup.

In training camp, the rookie booms, becoming better than Moore. I decide I want the rookie to start, and I'm going to cut Moore so I'm not paying starter money for a backup.

So, now, have I paid any of Moore's salary for 2007? I know the bonus money has been paid, but I don't feel like it's fair that I can just keep guys around.

Like I said in my first post, I feel like there are things that prevent teams from doing this in the NFL, because I believe that many players have bonuses kick in on a certain date, sometime in March I believe, which is why players are cut before that date.

[Vinatieri for Prez]

Actually, for most NFL players in real life (mid level and below), there are no such bonuses (or at least significant enough) to prevent a team from keeping a guy around and then cutting him when they please. In fact, you often see that vet who finally has lost 2-3 steps get cut after training camp or preseason in the real NFL. Teams get the right to do that because of the signing bonus they paid him and their rights under the collective bargaining agreement that they negotiated in exchange for liberal free agency for players.

So, in FOF, there is no downside to holding onto a guy until just before week 1 of the regular season. However . . .

as was stated, if the guy is in a multi-year contract with a signing bonus, you can consciously decide when you want to take the accelerated cap hit for the remaining bonus. If you do it at the FOF bowl, then acceleration will occur the very next season. If you wait until FA of the next year, his bonus will not accelerate until the year after that.

[JetsIn06]

Thanks a lot! Thats exactly what I was looking for.