Educate me!

[shula_guy]

From what I have read around here the Dolphins are somewhere around 21million under the cap right now. we are required to spend a minum percentage of the cap amount or face some type of sanction I'm guessing?

Considering we have dead cap space in future years due to signing bonuses or prepaid monies on the books, is there anyway to manipulate these contracts to relive us of that dead cap space by restructering some of these contracts?

In other words is there a rule that prevents a team from rewriting a contract so that it changes from a signing bonus and becomes front loaded. The actual money changing hands for the season would not change but on paper we would enter future seasons in better shape.

If this is the case it could allow us to go after higher priced drafts and FA's later when we are ready to rather then force us to spend extra money now on unproven or undeserving talents we already have locked up.

Im just curious if this is a flawed stratagy or their is some rule preventing teams from handling things this way?

Thanks in advance to anyone who can clarify.

[FinsKickArse]

I'm not sure if that is allowed by NFL rules, but just from a business standpoint it isn't the greatest idea...

alot of players would already have most of their money early in the contract and we'd be in holdout city in year 3, 4 , 5 etc of the contract....we would lose all leverage in the player staying the full length of the contract

[Philter25]

Originally Posted by shula_guy

From what I have read around here the Dolphins are somewhere around 21million under the cap right now. we are required to spend a minum percentage of the cap amount or face some type of sanction I'm guessing?

Considering we have dead cap space in future years due to signing bonuses or prepaid monies on the books, is there anyway to manipulate these contracts to relive us of that dead cap space by restructering some of these contracts?

In other words is there a rule that prevents a team from rewriting a contract so that it changes from a signing bonus and becomes front loaded. The actual money changing hands for the season would not change but on paper we would enter future seasons in better shape.

If this is the case it could allow us to go after higher priced drafts and FA's later when we are ready to rather then force us to spend extra money now on unproven or undeserving talents we already have locked up.

Im just curious if this is a flawed stratagy or their is some rule preventing teams from handling things this way?

Thanks in advance to anyone who can clarify.

Short answer: No, it cant be done.

Long answer: "Dead cap" results from cutting or trading a player before his contract expires. Dead cap is usually remaining guaranteed money left on a players contract that has not yet counted against the cap. Example: Say a player signs a 5 year deal with 20 million as a signing bonus. That 20 million is prorated at 4 million a year. If the player is cut after the 2nd year of the deal, 12 million of the 20 million has not yet counted against the cap and turns into "dead cap"

Because dead cap results from a contract from a player who is no longer on your team (because you traded or released him), that contract cannot be renegotiated to convert a previously paid signing bonus into an option bonus which would count for a single year rather than be pro-rated.

The only way you can manipulate dead cap comes right when you release or trade a player. Depending if that player is traded before or after June 1st depends on how the dead cap counts against the salary cap. Dead cap will either count fully towards 1 year or be able to be spread out over 2 seasons depending if the player is a pre or post June 1st release.

Therefore, no its not possible. What dead cap we currently have on the books stays that way.

What we SHOULD do with the 21 million this year is extend some of our key core players and sign them to long term deals before they hit free agency, like Vernon Carey and Channing Crowder and maybe even Ricky Williams who are in the last year of their deals and Will Allen, who has 2 more years left on his deal.

[FinFrenzy]

But IMO we can manipulate next years cap by signing some LTBE (likely to be earned) incentives on contracts that aren't earned and charged against our cap this year we would then get the rebate next year. We can use that in resigning some of our core players. If that makes any sense.......

[Philter25]

Originally Posted by FinFrenzy

But IMO we can manipulate next years cap by signing some LTBE (likely to be earned) incentives on contracts that aren't earned and charged against our cap this year we would then get the rebate next year. We can use that in resigning some of our core players. If that makes any sense.......

Thats a way you can "carry over" free cap from this year to next year. A lot of teams employ that practice, like the Eagles and I think the Vikings a few years ago carried over like 25-30 million.

The original poster was specifically talking about manipulating dead cap, which cannot be done once the player is no longer on your roster. The only way it can be manipulated would depend if the player is a pre or post June 1st release.

[FinFrenzy]

Originally Posted by Philter25

Thats a way you can "carry over" free cap from this year to next year. A lot of teams employ that practice, like the Eagles and I think the Vikings a few years ago carried over like 25-30 million.

The original poster was specifically talking about manipulating dead cap, which cannot be done once the player is no longer on your roster. The only way it can be manipulated would depend if the player is a pre or post June 1st release.

We got some extra this year too. I saw where he was going I just wanted to point out it can be don just a different way. But the player has to sign the contract and it's more of a gamble.

[kamron01]

hI,
I think most teams are going to have money to spend this year, so these free agents are going to get rich, rich, rich! Hopefully we can spend judiciously and not just throw money at career backups.
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kamron

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