HawkHouse":2bmar9u0 said:
This is good stuff, totally debunks how I thought it worked, lol ...
I thought the signing bonus was given, right away, in it's entirety. But it's spread out evenly over 5 years, got it.
In this scenario, if you cut the player after year 2 and he was to receive 14mil guaranteed, that's covered by
6m year 1 (4m salary + 2m bonus)
6m year 2 (4m salary + 2m bonus)
6m in bonus money (2m for the remaining 3 years that comes due upon release)
And that's the 14 + 4 that's mentioned, right?
THe signing bonus is given to the player in it's entirety - the pro-rated money over time is just a cap penalty to the team for that amount basically, and then it all becomes due at once if the player is cut as a dead money cap charge for that year.
So the 14M would be covered already by the 10m signing bonus and his first year salary so technically they would have earned their gauranteed money already.
but if you cut them after year one, you'd be charged 8m to the cap for the remaning pro-rated money that year.
However if you were to restructure him and gave him a new signing bonus, the 2m proration of the original bonus is still there tagged to the same years, any new signing bonus would be prorated for the contract the same way as the original, just added on.
This is why teams renegotiate QB's a lot - you sate them by giving them a lot of guaranteed up front money, pro-rate it, and then give them a low salary and a back-loaded contract. but you only want to do this with usually QB's becuase you can count on them being around for a while, whereas with other players, you don't want to keep adding on to pro-rated bonus money because it would make it a financial disaster to ever have to cut them. Franchise QB's aren't likely to be cut, thats why you see guys like Brady restructure.
They get that bonus money in their pocket right away.
This is why I say we give RW a 7 year, 70m dollar fully guaranteed contract with a 70m signing bonus or something complete unorthodox and crazy.
It would put 70m in his pocket instantly. Go invest it however he wants and grow it to more than he would ever earn in a conventional contract.
Then his cap charge per year would be an even 10m dollars a year over 70 years for the pro-rated bonus.
This would be half the cap charge every year on average of say a Mat Ryan whom in 2016 will count 24m against the cap, but RW would also get nearly twice as much money gauranteed, and two and a half times as much up front.
Now whether an agent would ever do a deal like that, i dont even know.