Quote:I'm confused. I thought that would mean almost all of the money is in the signing bonus. Or is it like this for a 16 million deal for 4 years:


2m signing bonus

7m year one

3m year two

2m year three

2m year four

 

The only "money tool" that pushes out a Cap Hit - and has the potential to come back and bite you - is a Signing Bonus. In the four year contract scenario you just described that $2 million Signing bonus will get spread out evenly over the life of the contract. Essentially being a $500k hit each year. If you cut the player, all of the remaining Cap hit from that Signing Bonus will accelerate onto the current year. Roster Bonus is different though, it does not spread out over the contract and it is felt on the cap when it is paid.

 

Now, If you don't put in a Signing Bonus and all of the player's money comes from a combination of Salary and Roster Bonus, then the only hit that you will see will be in the money actually paid. So let's adjust your scenario so that the player still gets his contract value at $16 million, he still gets his upfront money - which is what we all want - but not use a Signing Bonus:

 

$2m signing bonus

$2m Roster Bonus

$7m year one

$3m year two

$2m year three

$2m year four

 

Now, the team only sees a cap hit for what it pays out. This means that the Cap hit in Year one is $9m due to the combination of the $2m Roster Bonus and the $7m Salary for that year. If the team has to cut the player before year three, then the remaining $4 million on the contract will not be felt on the Cap.

 

If you have the space for it, getting a player to sign with a Roster Bonus is the way to go in my opinion, due to the way that I understand the Cap working.

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