Four Year Spending Period Due to Expire This Year

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

Here's the thing about those numbers. It's total cash spent, not cap space spent per year. So it's kind of misleading.

So for example.. lets look at AJ Green's contract.

In 2015 his base salary was $11.75m, and 1/5th of his $15m signing bonus combined to give him a cap hit of $14.75m in 2015.

That $14.75m cap hit is not how they figure out that 89% and 95% thing, though. Though the cap hits are spread out throughout the contract, the signing bonus is paid all at once. So that $11.75m base salary is combined with the entire $15m signing bonus. [/b]So AJ Green counted as $26.75m in 2015 towards the 89%.[/b]

So look forward to there being large signing bonuses this year since it'll all count for that window, but the cap spending will probably stay the exact same.

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This is very likely why the Dolphins structured Suh's contract as they did. In 2015 and 2016 combined, Suh's total cap hit is $34,700,000... but for the sake of calculating that 89%? His number is $49,500,000. (Not a coincidence so much of the money came in the first two years.) So while the Dolphins carried over a little more than $9m in unspent cap space from last year, it was more than taken up by Suh's signing bonus, so they don't even need to spend that money to meet the minimum.

There's certainly ways to game the system without having to spend all your cap space.