Quote:I'm wondering how it works, for example the cowboys will restructure 3 contracts getting them to the capby spreading the money out. Does that mean that they will have the same problems every year due to sending the money into the future

 

This is gonna take a bit but what the hey, it's not like I got other stuff to do with my time during this conference call. I might get some stuff wrong in here, so I'll see if I can find a link to an old article that will explained it better than I can.

 

To understand restructuring, you need to understand how the Salary Cap works and how the different monies being paid affect the Cap, i.e. the Cap Hit. There are three basic kinds of monies paid that you need to understand; there's more than that but this should be enough for you to have a working knowledge:

1. Salary - This is the money that the player earns throughout the season, usually in terms of weekly payments
   
2. Roster Bonus - This is the money that the player earns simply by being on the roster at a given point as stipulated in the contract. Roster Bonus' Cap hit is on the books as soon as it is paid. That is important because it is different than the next kind of Bonus
   
3. Signing Bonus - This is the key term to know for restructuring. Signing Bonus is money paid in full to the player, but with the Cap Hit spread out evenly throughout the remainder of the contract. For example; Player A signs a five year contract that has a $10 million Signing Bonus. The Cap Hit for that Signing Bonus will be $2 million per year.
   

Here's where it gets tricky though. Rule is; if you pay it, it hits. As soon as you pay a guy a bonus it goes on the books with the exception of the Signing Bonus. So when you read that a team has restructured Player Umptyfratz to relieve the Cap Hit, what they have done is converted Salary to Signing Bonus. Where this helps the team out is that all of that Salary that would have been on this year's Cap is now being spread out over the life of the contract. Where it helps the player is that he gets his money up front.

 

And now, the catch; once a player is off of your roster, any and all of his remaining Cap Hit accelerates onto the year that he is released/traded/swapped for a ham sammich. You restructure a guy to smooth out that Cap Hit over four seasons and then you realize that he's lost both of his steps? You cut him and you are having to realize all of that Cap Hit in the current year.

 

Here's a Link from Bleacher Report (and don't I feel dirty having typed that) that goes into a little more detail.

---