Franchise Cap

[mestevo]

Quote: Originally Posted by JuicyJ

Ahh I see that, thank you. The problem that arose for me is that I noticed that the cap penalty compared to the last year on a big contract are dramatically different. I'm paying Eli Manning like $22.00M which is coming out of my cap. Instead I could release him before the season is completely over and rather than paying $22.00M, I would only have to pay 8-9M penalty. That's if I am comprehending this correctly.

Do you understand how NFL cap penalties are calculated? If Madden is at all close to real life in reflecting cap penalties, that's why it's different. Here's a simple example:

Sign a player, 3 years, $9m bonus, $12m salary.

Bonus money is accounted for over the life of a contract, so when you sign this guy, his salary is $4m/year for 3 years... and that $9m bonus is spread out over the life of the contract, so that player's bonus consumes $3m/year of cap room.

So his contract looks like this:

Year 1: $4m salary + $3m of bonus = $7m cap number
Year 2: $4m salary + $3m of bonus = $7m cap number
Year 3: $4m salary + $3m of bonus = $7m cap number

Now the reason the cap penalty changes, is because he is released before bonus money has been accounted for in the cap. If you release the player above in the first year of his contract, you should have a $9m penalty. If you release him in the 2nd year it's a $6m penalty, if you release him in the final year of his contract, it's a $3m penalty, but that's less than the $7m you were going to pay him so it suddenly becomes more reasonable to cut him.

Hope that kinda made sense, think I got most of that right. This is why in your example, you're in the final year of a contract, and it's a pretty straightforward cap hit. The number should vary over the life of it.

[JuicyJ]

Okay, I just had trouble explaining it apparently but that made complete sense. I appreciate it for breaking it down for me!

[funnyfiggy]

I thought all of the bonus money was guaranteed money in real lif as opposed to bonus money, and you have to finish paying the money you promised.

[kcchiefs1984]

The bonus money is paid the following season. It is the cap penalty you see on the team contracts page. At the end of the first season I usually re-sign some highly paid backups to one year deals. It can add up to a high penalty if your not careful, but it clears a lot of cap space for future seasons.

[mestevo]

Quote: Originally Posted by funnyfiggy

I thought all of the bonus money was guaranteed money in real lif as opposed to bonus money, and you have to finish paying the money you promised.

It's not that it's guaranteed, it's that it was already paid out. The cap hit is spread over the length of the contract, but if released then anything not already counted becomes the cap penalty.


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[football5680]

When his contract is up it no longer goes against your cap. If you cut him you will be hit with a cap penalty that will stick with you. Let him finish out his contract and then don't resign him.