Salary Cap Penalties

[BrnwsBucksFanNC]

I have been reading some of the dynasties that are appearing on here and I am curious about how all of you are managing your salary cap? I know some of the cap hits some of these guys carry and I am shocked that the cap is not a mess. So wonder how you manage it?

I admit, I dont like to run less than 3 million in space, and I rarely cut anyone that is going to cost me alot of money (that is why Jamarcus is still on my Raiders team, but he is gone next year) but I dont know how everyone is doing all of these trades and signing these big FAs and not running into trouble.

Thanks.

[Mike3207]

Cap penalties only hurt you for 1 year-as long as you plan for it, there is no reason they should hurt you. I've run penalties as large as 25 million when I'm starting out a dynasty.

[rdnk]

I always try to stay a good chunk of money under the cap, but I've run up to 30 M in penalties before. But this usually is only for a year or two when I join a new team. I was able to cut Russell in the third year.

[thedudescrew]

I just started a Seahawks Dynasty and cut a ton of players whose contracts were too big for how crappy they were. I am almost thinking about taking over a team year one and just running with the current squad and not cutting people because it would make for some interesting games and I would prob get fired after the season because I would go 0-16 but I am tempted to try it. I know the Seahawks have Deon Grant who has a 5 year deal with 10mil bonus. WTH!! They also have Babs who has 8mil Bonus and a few other absolute scrubs that have a big bonus. WTH do they do this? I remember the first time I did a Dynasty with the Seahawks I lost my job because of too many penalties. Kind of sucked but oh well. I was in such cap hell by year 3 that it was irrepairable...Thanks Jack English draft!

[cutter73]

Different teams start with different cap space too, so that plays a role maybe. Also, a lot of the dynasties on this forum just starting haven't really gotten all that far enough in to start to hurt on the cap yet I think. It's a lot easier to absorb cap hits when you're first starting out and cleaning house with a lot of players. After 3-5 years, when you have a roster you like and start having to meet the demands of players as they want to resign, then it becomes harder because you have to start making real decisions on who to keep and who to let go. And if you have a lot of good players by that point, you'll be running pretty close to the cap most likely so you're less able to take even small hits to let a player go.

You can take pretty much any team out of the gates, release a bunch of players, and spend the first couple seasons signing big time free agents and draft picks, even trading up to get 2-3 first round picks if you want even with big cap hits those years. It's not til your team is built, and the contracts start coming back up, that things really get hairy. Honestly, a lot of times, you're better off taking a huge cap hit the first year to release a player like Russell than you are to try and release him a few years in when you have less room to play with. The smaller hit 4 years in can hurt you a lot more than the huge hit the first year because of all the talent you've accumulated in that time sometimes.

[thedudescrew]

Quote: Originally Posted by cutter73

You can take pretty much any team out of the gates, release a bunch of players, and spend the first couple seasons signing big time free agents and draft picks, even trading up to get 2-3 first round picks if you want even with big cap hits those years. It's not til your team is built, and the contracts start coming back up, that things really get hairy. Honestly, a lot of times, you're better off taking a huge cap hit the first year to release a player like Russell than you are to try and release him a few years in when you have less room to play with. The smaller hit 4 years in can hurt you a lot more than the huge hit the first year because of all the talent you've accumulated in that time sometimes.

Thats very true. This is why I cut the players that I dont want regardless of the cap hit because you can manage the first year and after that the cap penalties are gone and you are free to do whatever.