Cap space

[Luvnit2]

(02-08-2022, 11:02 AM)fredtoast Wrote: No we could not.

The four you listed would cost 45.  That just leaves 23 million.

So how do we sign Uzomah, Hill, Ogunjobi, Apple, plus allm our other free agents for 3 to 8 million to be 15-20 million under the cap?

Planning on our #31-32 pick to be an instant starter as a rookie is not smart?

If the cap was as easy to manipulate as you claim then we would not see the wave of free agents that are cut for "cap reasons" every year.

Fred some teams like the Saints push the cap dollars to future years, thus why they did it to much and now are in cap hell. 2 years ago got a lot of teams in trouble that banked on the normal rise in cap dollars, instead there was cap reduction again adding to the woes of teams who pushed a lot of bonus money to future years to lessen te cap hit in year one of these contracts.

Bengals do not do a  lot of it but like I mentioned earlier in  the thread they did it with Reiff to keep his cap hit lower in 2021, sign him to 2 year deal  but year 2 is voidable so they have dead money in 2022 regardless for Reiff whether they sign him again or let him go in FA. Reiff is a free agent and Bengals have the dead money they would have paid him in 2021 and hit 2021 cap.

So, that is the tricky part some don't understand, many think if you sign someone for 4 years 40 million with 26 million guaranteed, the cap hit is 10 million per year, it could be but also could look like this.

1. 24 million dollar bonus year one and salary/bonuses of 1 million = 7 million cap hit year #1 (not 10 million)
Year 2 - 6 million bonus (out of the 24 million 24 million divided by 4 (# years of contract) + 2 million in salary/bonuses = 8 million cap hit year #2
 So after 2 years team has met all guarantees, but still has 12 million in dead money
Year 3 - 6 million in bonuses and non guaranteed salary and bonuses - 6 million so 12 million cap hit year 3
Year #4 - 6 million from original bonus and 7 million in salary and bonuses so 13 million cap hit in year #4

The danger in these contracts is if I guy gets hurt, team is on hook for the guaranteed money, but many teams do this with younger players. It is not the way to do all contracts, but like the Reiff contract, it is a way to push the cap hit down the road thus creating cap room in year one.