I see a lot of questions asked about cap, etc.. both real world as well as how Madden handles it (which isn't always intuitive). NFL cap rules are even more complex than what is represented in Madden, but let's take a look at the cap as it exists in Madden 17. When managed well, you can give yourself a very real edge over any teams that don't pay close attention.
First, the Basics, or: Capology 101
Spoiler
The Salary Cap
Each team is subject to a "hard cap." This means you can never go over the cap for ANY reason (unlike the NBA's "soft cap" which allows teams to go over in particular situations).
The cap goes up each year. You can see what the current cap is in your CFM in the Team-->Salaries menu. I tend to assume it will go up $3-4M each year when I'm projecting what my free cap will be like.
Contracts
Contracts are comprised of two components: salary & bonus. They each hit your cap in a different way.
Salaryis non-guaranteed and escalates gradually over the length of a contract. For example, if you signed a free agent to a 4-year, $40 mil contract with $0 of bonus (in other words, all salary), your cap hit wouldn't be $10m, $10m, $10m, $10m. It'd be something closer to $7m, $8.5m, $10.5m, $14m. But since salary is not guaranteed, you could release this player at ANY point in the contract with no penalty whatsoever.
Bonus is effectively an up-front signing bonus and is fully guaranteed. So in the above example, if you added a $10m bonus to that $40m salary, it would be as if the player received that $10m bonus all at once when they sign their name to the contract. However, the cap hit for that signing bonus is spread out equally over the length of the contract, to make it easier on the teams. So that $10m would be spread out into a $2.5m cap hit each of the 4 years. In the example of the $40m salary + $10m bonus contract, you would add the $2.5m cap hit from the bonus to the escalating salaries listed above, and the cap hit for the player in question would look something like: $9.5m, $11m, $13m, $16.5m.
Cap penalty! Remember how I said bonus money was fully guaranteed? This matters when you're trying to cut OR trade a player. In the above example, we doled out a $10m signing bonus. That means if you change your mind the year you signed him, you are on the hook for that $10m regardless. You can cut his giant salary, but you will take a cap penalty for $10m--the amount of the bonus. The penalty goes down each year as a player plays out his contract. So if you tried to cut him in year 4, when he has a giant $16.5m cap hit, your cap penalty would only be $2.5m--because you've already had the other $7.5m hit your cap over the first 3 years of the contract! Below we'll talk about how to use all this knowledge about bonus & salary to our benefit.
Capology 201
Okay, so you understand how salaries & bonuses work, but you still tend to find yourself in binds. Here's some tips & strategy which should help you avoid this in the future.
Understand Your Future Cap
At the end of the day, nothing beats brute force planning. If it's 2016 and you have 53 players on the books and $25m in cap space, you might want to go hog wild and sign 1 or 2 impact free agents to a long-term deal. Why not? You have $25m in cap, after all! What could go wrong?
Here's what: how many players do you have under contract for 2018? What if the answer is you have 39 players signed through the 2018 season, and their contracts will have escalated by that time so you are already projecting to be over the cap for that year--and you still need to find 14 more players! Meanwhile, you just signed 2 more players to 4-year deals starting at $10m apiece (because $25m free cap, right?). By the time 2018 comes, their deals will be $15m apiece, so you just added $30m in cap to a year where you are already over the cap. Ever heard of cap hell? You're now in it, but you won't realize it for another season or two.
This is an extreme example to make my point, but I see lesser versions of this ALL the time. The point is, free cap is not free. Here's a smarter version of that same scenario above:
Because you know you are going to be really tight in 2018, but you have $25m to play with THIS year, you sign two aging impact veterans to 1- or 2-year deals. This way, their contract is expired & off the books when 2018 begins. Meanwhile, you have started planning ahead for that year. Is there anyone who will be be on the last year of a giant deal in 2018? Maybe there's a WR who will be down to 88 SPD that year whose cap hit will be $12m. You can plan to cut him then or perhaps even trade him prior to the season. Meanwhile, all those 78 OVR backups you'd like to re-sign in the offseason who all want $3-4m/yr? Yeah, don't re-sign them. You can't afford them and they aren't crucial to you team. Draft cheaper alternatives.
Contract Strategy
NFL teams all the time sign players to deals knowing they will cut them in the last year or two of their deal. We can do the same. There are two advantages to contracts with a low bonus and a high salary: they start with a very low cap hit (because, again, salaries escalate each year) and you can cut the player without much penalty. I've given deals that I figured I'd probably cut in the 2nd to last year of the deal. This is good for fitting aging veterans who want big money under your cap for a year or two, knowing you'll need to cut them by year ~3 when they've regressed and their cap hit has ballooned too high.
Meanwhile, use a higher bonus when you know you're going to want to keep the player for the duration of the deal. The higher bonus will be appealing to the player, so you'll be able to sign him for less total money (and thus a lower cap hit!)--but again, be careful. A large bonus means you don't have flexibility to cut him when things get tight. Give your superstars who you have no intention of cutting or trading these large guaranteed money deals, and you will actually save a bit of cap in the process.
The Opportunity Cost of Trading
Team A receives 2nd round draft pick
Team B receives an 85 OVR 27 yo player
Who wins the trade? Obviously the real answer depends on a number of factors not shown here, but most reasonably savvy players would evaluate that deal based on how good the 85 OVR player is, how long they'll stay good before regression kicks in, and how good is the player Team A can expect to get in the 2nd round. All reasonable factors, of course--but it doesn't tell the whole story. There's a hidden opportunity cost the savvier players also understand, and it's one major reason you don't see NFL teams trading away their draft picks NEARLY as often as I see it in online CFMs: cap space. We all understand rookie deals are inexpensive. But many players don't appreciate just how valuable of a commodity that is. It allows you great flexibility to always have a pipeline of cheap 4-year deals, sometimes even very good players on cheap 4-year deals. It allows you the flexibility to retain the best drafted players who will want big deals. It allows you the flexibility to play in FA for short bursts in some years (again: 1-2 yr deals unless you know what your long-term future is like!). It allows you flexibility to swallow a giant franchise tag when you never planned on it, because a core player you need to keep surprisingly rejected your offer(s). Trading away a 2nd rounder, in the above scenario, you not only lose that drafted player, you lose all the things you could do with the $8-10m/yr in cap you're going to have to pay the 85 OVR 27 yr old.
I'm not saying it's never good to trade a pick for a veteran--I'm just saying you NEED to consider cap flexibility as part of the cost of doing so.
The Tough Decisions
You need to consider your strategy. I will tell you mine, and most NFL teams': identify your core players and always re-sign them. Everyone else is expendable. Everyone else. If I have a quality backup, sure I'd *like* to keep them. But they're expendable if I look ahead & see that cap is going to be tight. Can't afford a $3.5m/yr backup RG. I'll draft a RG instead. Solid starting NT asking for $6m/yr? But he's my starter! Do I know, deep down, that I can get a guy 90% as good for 1/10th the cost, and I need that cap money for my stud WR about to come off his rookie deal? The NT walks. At times you'll need to let decent, even solid players walk. But that's far better than letting your core players get away. Identify who is not easily replaceable, who you can't go out and easily get 90c on their dollar, and keep them. Let most of the 78 OVR backups who want $4m walk and draft 73 OVR rookies at 1/10th the price.
Re-Signing & Free Agency
During the offseason (whether re-signing or free agency or whatever), it says I have $16m in cap space, but when I go to re-sign or sign someone, it's only showing $800k. WTF?
In the Team-->Salaries screen, what it shows for "Cap Space" is a true snapshot of how much cap you have at that moment in time.
But that $16m in cap space doesn't include:
Rookie reserve. The game automatically looks at what draft picks you have and reserves that much cap space for those rookies. Typically around $7m. The game knows you'd F it up otherwise. And if you're still reading this far, you would F it up. You know you would, eventually. So now you're really down to $9m in actual free cap that you can use.
In the case of RE-signings, it's looking at the cap for NEXT year. Remember, re-signing a player means you are giving them a new contract beginning next season. So the game is looking at how much is on the books for next year. That is often way higher than what you are showing in the Salaries screen, or it could even be lower. But be careful. It might show you with $39m cap free when you go to re-sign guys, but you might only have 25 players under contract for next year. $39m in cap with 25 players under contract is a VASTLY different scenario than $39m in cap with 52 players under contract.
In the case of free agency, it's counting up all those outstanding offers you have on the table, including the window you currently have open. This way you can't offer 5 different players each $5m and suddenly find yourself $10m over the cap.
Hopefully this helps a few of you plan a bit better for the rest of this cycle & for Madden 18. What else have you run across that has confused you or given you problems?
Nice overview. Cutting aging veterans in the last year of their deal with minimal cap hit and massive cap savings is practically my calling card. Just cleared $40m+ by cutting four guys who started the cycle on my team, were in the last year of their contract, and in three of the four cases were no longer starters.
Salary screen is definitely your friend. Sort by years left in contract, and get to planning.
I value draft picks very highly too. Typically favor trading back and stockpiling picks when possible.
Nice overview. Cutting aging veterans in the last year of their deal with minimal cap hit and massive cap savings is practically my calling card. Just cleared $40m+ by cutting four guys who started the cycle on my team, were in the last year of their contract, and in three of the four cases were no longer starters.
Salary screen is definitely your friend. Sort by years left in contract, and get to planning.
I value draft picks very highly too. Typically favor trading back and stockpiling picks when possible.
RE: cutting guys on the last year of their deal, absolutely--especially when you're giving contracts out knowing you will be doing so & planning for it. Thus you are acting proactively planning how you'll create cap each season rather than reactively cutting players in a panic.
I'm curious how my 'cap space' and 'cap room' still don't matchup even after you add up the rookie reserve and cap hit for the year. I'm having that problem currently.
01-25-2017, 07:34 PM
