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]

Re: Salary cap tips

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]

Re: Salary cap tips

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]

Re: Salary cap tips

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]

Re: Salary cap tips

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]

Re: Salary cap tips

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]

Re: Salary cap tips

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]

Re: Salary cap tips

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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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.

[reyes the roof]

Re: Salary cap tips

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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Yes or trade them towards the end of their contract. If you go in to the roster section there is a column called penalty or cap penalty, that will tell you what the penalty is for trading someone

[YumNug86]

Re: Salary cap tips

If I trade a player in the off season before the draft would it be considered the current season or the start of the next? I am going to shop Mike Williams and he has a hefty hit.

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[ggsimmonds]

Re: Salary cap tips

If I trade a player in the off season before the draft would it be considered the current season or the start of the next? I am going to shop Mike Williams and he has a hefty hit.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Operation Sports mobile app

Not 100% sure, but fairly confident it counts as the previous season in Madden terms. So if you trade a guy in the off-season the penalty is applied for the upcoming season.
I think if you wait until week 1 of the preseason the penalty will be applied in the next season

[reyes the roof]

Re: Salary cap tips

Not 100% sure, but fairly confident it counts as the previous season in Madden terms. So if you trade a guy in the off-season the penalty is applied for the upcoming season.
I think if you wait until week 1 of the preseason the penalty will be applied in the next season

There is some weird logic, I’ve traded some guys and it applied the penalty right away and then I trade someone else and it applies it the following year.

[alston4659]

Re: Salary cap tips

Quick question guys. So if I cut a high salary guy who lets say gives me a cap penalty of 8 mil will that only apply to the current season and then the cap penalty goes away the following year or does the cap penalty stick around for what would have been the length of that players remaining contract?

[Mattanite]

Re: Salary cap tips

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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The value demanded during resign is part of the team building mechanic and is a great addition. The demanded value is well above the fair value on purpose, it forces you to choose who's really worth retaining and paying the resign premium. You then let the other guys walk and enter Free Agency where steals can be made or you compete to resign your players back at a slightly lower cost. If you resign too many players then your cap will quickly go broke.


I go into the salary cap and resign problems in my thread:


https://forums.operationsports.com/f...hise-tips.html

[Jagsfan24]

Re: Salary cap tips

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 think you can use coach xp and there's a player resign you can spend xp on which basically can give them a hometown discount