Salary cap tips

[oldman]

I know the NBA CBA and rules really well, but over the years I have become less familiar with the way the NFL contracts work. I started a season with the Cowboys and resigned a few guys at the 'fair' price and quickly ran out of salary cap space. So here I am in the off-season and I decide to try and trade a big salary for cap release. I offer him to someone for draft picks, but every time I offer the trade, it says 'Trade declined because it would put the Cowboys over the salary cap'.

Can someone help me out with here? I don't understand how this works, I am sending a player out and taking back 2 draft picks, why would that make me go over the salary cap?

Thanks.

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[reyes the roof]

Everyone has two parts to their contract, their salary and their bonus money. When you trade or release someone the cap hit is the prorated amount of bonus money you owe them. As an example, let’s say you sign someone to a 5 year $50 million deal where each year his salary is $5 million and his bonus is the same. That’s a total of $25 million in bonus money, so let’s say you trade him in year two, your cap hit is four years worth of the bonus money, $20 million

[oldman]

Quote: Originally Posted by reyes the roof

Everyone has two parts to their contract, their salary and their bonus money. When you trade or release someone the cap hit is the prorated amount of bonus money you owe them. As an example, let’s say you sign someone to a 5 year $50 million deal where each year his salary is $5 million and his bonus is the same. That’s a total of $25 million in bonus money, so let’s say you trade him in year two, your cap hit is four years worth of the bonus money, $20 million

Ok. So if I want to trade someone to get cap relief, then I need to trade someone that has a lower amount of bonus money.

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[ggsimmonds]

Madden does a poor job of replicating real contracts but I believe the gist of what is happening to you is this:

In Madden there is salary and bonus that make up contracts.

Bonus is guaranteed money. The total bonus is prorated over the life of the contract.

When you trade a player who still has bonus money to receive for X amount of years, that money is applied the following season as a cap penalty.

Example:

You sign a guy to a 4 year $40 million deal. Half salary, half bonus. For this example lets just make the mafs easy. His cap breakdown per year is:
Year 1 $5 mil salary + $5 mil bonus for a total cap hit of $10 mil
Year 2 $5 mil salary + $5 mil bonus for a total cap hit of $10 mil
Year 3 $5 mil salary + $5 mil bonus for a total cap hit of $10 mil
Year 4 $5 mil salary + $5 mil bonus for a total cap hit of $10 mil

Trade him in year 2 and you save $5 mil in cap space, but he still has three years of that bonus, so thats $15 mil in cap penalties. If this trade is in the offseason, the total works out to losing $10 mil in cap space.

You're probably trying to trade a guy whose total bonus exceeds his salary for that year so its coming back as a cap hit.

Go into team>>>salaries.
There is a column labeled "net player savings" I believe its called. Sort by that to see where you can save.

[Mrfrosty]

Quote: Originally Posted by ggsimmonds

Madden does a poor job of replicating real contracts but I believe the gist of what is happening to you is this: In Madden there is salary and bonus that make up contracts. Bonus is guaranteed money. The total bonus is prorated over the life of the contract. When you trade a player who still has bonus money to receive for X amount of years, that money is applied the following season as a cap penalty. Example: You sign a guy to a 4 year $40 million deal. Half salary, half bonus. For this example lets just make the mafs easy. His cap breakdown per year is: Year 1 $5 mil salary + $5 mil bonus for a total cap hit of $10 mil Year 2 $5 mil salary + $5 mil bonus for a total cap hit of $10 mil Year 3 $5 mil salary + $5 mil bonus for a total cap hit of $10 mil Year 4 $5 mil salary + $5 mil bonus for a total cap hit of $10 mil Trade him in year 2 and you save $5 mil in cap space, but he still has three years of that bonus, so thats $15 mil in cap penalties. If this trade is in the offseason, the total works out to losing $10 mil in cap space. You're probably trying to trade a guy whose total bonus exceeds his salary for that year so its coming back as a cap hit. Go into team>>>salaries. There is a column labeled "net player savings" I believe its called. Sort by that to see where you can save.

Bonus is only calculated for the first 5 years of a contract.

For example, in my Bengals franchise Mahomes signed a 270m contract with like 150m guaranteed. His yr 5 cap is 48.3m but it falls to 23.6 (roughly) come year 6. Once you get to year 6 you can cut, or trade, the guy with no hit.

[oldman]

This information has really helped me out a lot.

Another question, I cannot get anyone to commit to anything below the fair value. They either want that as a minimum or want more than that. Is there anyway to get guys to take discounts?

I know your stars you have to pay, but it seems like when it says 'fair value' that basically means start here and good luck.

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[ggsimmonds]

Quote: Originally Posted by Mrfrosty

Bonus is only calculated for the first 5 years of a contract. For example, in my Bengals franchise Mahomes signed a 270m contract with like 150m guaranteed. His yr 5 cap is 48.3m but it falls to 23.6 (roughly) come year 6. Once you get to year 6 you can cut, or trade, the guy with no hit.

I know, I got the same situation with Lamar Jackson.

I just wanted to get the point across that the later in a contract you move on from a guy the cheaper it is.

[garry1221]

Quote: Originally Posted by oldman

This information has really helped me out a lot. Another question, I cannot get anyone to commit to anything below the fair value. They either want that as a minimum or want more than that. Is there anyway to get guys to take discounts? I know your stars you have to pay, but it seems like when it says 'fair value' that basically means start here and good luck. Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

I've never resigned anyone midseason for anything less than fair value. Frankly, its usually better to wait and sign em offseason for that kind of contract.

Generally speaking, I've taken a different approach to re-upping players. In years past, it was smarter to only re-up starters midseason and anyone else offseason. This year, I'll re-up anyone who a)won't turn 28 by contracts' end or b) won't regress past 75 OVR by contracts' end.

A depth FA will often sign if the total contract value exceeds fair value. Offseason: Instead of offering a depth guy $1.25 mil/1.0 mil bonus (2.25 total), offer 2.45/$0 bonus. It'll show up as ~ half likely (40ish pts), but FA weeks 2 and 3, you can generally fill out your 2nd string this way. If you draft like crap, you've got solid depth. If its a great draft, cut these players with no penalty.