[Wheeler Dealer]

I've been making notes, doing math and jumping to conclusions re the finances of my team. If you have evidence to contradict my guesswork, please offer your thoughts.

Incentives are not included in your cap space calculation until after they are earned. Once awarded they impact the next year's cap space.

Incentives don't impact your cap as a result of trades or cuts.

Performance incentives are awarded immediately when achieved.

Yearly accomplishments like Start 16 Games or Pro bowl are awarded after the Super Bowl.

Potential Incentives on the Salary Cap Screen refers to the next cap year impact. It starts as the total of all possible incentives for that year, decrements when incentives are paid and increases when new contracts that include incentives are signed.

On a related note, your next year cap space (but not other future years) assumes that all players with expiring contracts will re-up at the same salary and no bonus. In my case the result from 2010 to 2011 was a $10.75M increase to the 2011 cap space that was recognized after the Pro Bowl.

Maybe with a few judicious cuts I can resign my RFAs and sign my draft picks! On the bright side, I got my first Superbowl in 2010, probably as a result of my suicidal, uninformed spending.

I wish I had known this when negotiating Ronnie Brown's extension. I had lots of current year cap space and tight cap space for next year. I included $2M of annual incentives which didn't use the extra money I had in 2010 and will put an extra burden on 2011. A large bonus and low incentives would have fit my situation better.