It seems everyone is pushing for about 10mil a year. How can we do this with roughly about 1.5 mil left in cap room?

It seems everyone is pushing for about 10mil a year. How can we do this with roughly about 1.5 mil left in cap room?

Easily. You give a signing bonus of around $24 million on a six year deal worth $56 million with a base salary of $2.5 million the first year. Base salary will be back loaded over the contract term. That would count $6.5 million ($4M prorated bonus plus base) in year one. His franchise tag was $7.3M. That deal would actually free up $800K in the current year cap to make other moves.

That was great. You should do my taxes bro. I might be a rich man

Im still puzzled how the cap really works and the loop holes to get through them.

My degree is in accounting, but my wife has always done our taxes. I am a business analyst by trade.

That was great. You should do my taxes bro. I might be a rich man

Im still puzzled how the cap really works and the loop holes to get through them.

I posted a detailed example of a potential JG contract about 3 weeks ago. You can read it here:

http://blackandgold.com/saints/66411...tml#post597157

The cap really isn't that difficult to understand. Bonuses are divided evenly over the life of the contract. Salary is paid yearly. The cap number is the sum of the bonus part and the salary part. Bonus is guaranteed. Salary is not. The remaining bonus becomes "immediately" due if the player is cut.

So to Guido's example. A $24 million signing bonus over 6 years counts $4 million a year against the cap. With a $24 million check in hand, JG would be happy to take a $1 million salary for the first year. So the cap number is $1+$4 million = $5 million. But JG gets a $24 million check when he signs.

Now the cap number the last 3 years of the contract may be $12/$15/$18 million/year because the salary increases to $8/$11/$14 million/year by the end. But then you can renegotiate, cut another bonus check, and spread out the cap number by extending the contract. Or if the player isn't productive simply cut them and eat the remaining bonus money which at that point is a lot less than the cap number with the inflated salary.

Trust me that both sides are motivated to get a long term deal done by next week. JG wants his big contract and big bonus check now, while the Saints want the cap relief of the long term contract.

That's the reason that it'll get done.

SFIAH

That was great. You should do my taxes bro. I might be a rich man

Im still puzzled how the cap really works and the loop holes to get through them.

It's not loopholes. The signing bonus is pro-rated over the term of the contract. For instance, a $24 million signing bonus over a 6-year contract comes out to $4 million per year. To that is added each year's salary, plus any incentives, to come up with that season's cap hit. For instance, in Graham's case (we don't know any actual numbers yet except for the $7.053 million franchise tag for this season, which counts against the Saints' salary cap). So if Graham get $24 million in signing bonus, and a $2 million dollar salary for 2014, that adds up to $6 million against the cap for 2014 (if no incentives). In that case, the Saints would gain $1.053 million in this season's cap (the difference between the $7.053 million franchise tag and the $6 million pro-rated bonus + 2014 salary.

The signing bonus portion is guaranteed. If that player were to be waived before the end of the contract, the remaining portion of the pro-rated signing bonus would count against the salary cap... which is then "dead money." In some cases the cap hit can be spread over two seasons (I don't know the exact details of how this is done). Perhaps someone can post to this subject.