(02-25-2019, 10:57 AM)ochocincos Wrote: I have very high confidence that is the case with the cap for 1 year contract, actually.
Go look at Eifert's contract from last year. The cap hit totals his base salary plus all potential bonuses remaining.
https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cincinnati-bengals/tyler-eifert-12301/
The reason it is this way is because you have to make sure that you block off the cap space if a player is able to reach those incentives by the conclusion of the season. If that player is unable, that becomes unused cap at the end of the year that could be rolled over to the next year if the owner chooses to do so.

As for the Rams, it did work out pretty well for them, but they also have had the luxury of their QB playing on a rookie deal and therefore roughly $10 mill less against the cap per year than what Dalton was counting, so they had more room to work with. Once Goff hits FA (and likely Whitworth and Sullivan retire) in a couple years, it will become much more difficult to field as elite of a team.
The Rams took a gamble, and it has paid off a good amount (although didn't result in a championship), but do you really think the Bengals ownership would do the same? I sure don't. They (seem to) care more about the long run than the short run, and therefore they will not (likely) get into a cap crunch for 2020 and beyond just for the sake of hoping to go from zero to hero in 2019.