Making Contact on Contracts
 

Making contact on contracts

By Pat Kirwan
NFL.com Senior Analyst

(June 8, 2006) -- The other day, I wrote an article about why trading players will take the place of June 1 cuts. I still believe trades are on the upswing and will continue that way for the next few years because of the growth in the salary cap, but I made a mistake in referencing the old Collective Bargaining Agreement rules about accelerating signing bonuses when trades are made today.

For years, when a player was traded, the team trading the player had to pay off the cap charges for an amortized signing bonus at the time of the trade. But the new rule under the CBA extension agreed upon in March says if a trade occurs after June 1, the assigning club's signing bonus acceleration is postponed until the first day of the 2007 league year. That means the Saints don't get charged the $2.5 million on the back end of Johnathan Sullivan's contract (traded to New England) until next year. As in the past, the club would continue to bear the cap charge for the current year's prorated signing bonus plus any amounts that have been earned under the 2006 contract.



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