Cash to the Cap (1 Viewer)

[GroveDiesel]

Looks like there is a new GM philosophy out there called "cash to the cap." It's where teams will no longer amortize the signing bonus in their budgets. The league will still consider the signing bonuses amortized for cap purposes, but these teams will not spend over the cap in real dollars.

In other words, if they sign a guy to a 5 year $40M contract with a $5M signing bonus and a salary of $4M the first season, they'll factor in $9M against their spending for the season. And once they reach the cap number for that season they're done. So they'll essentially be spending less money than everyone else every single season.

The estimate I read said that there are possibly around 10 teams going to that approach now. My team, the Bills, is one of them.

So even though the Bills have ~$30M under the cap, the odds are that they won't be big players in the FA market.

Cash to Cap

 

[AB in DC]

I don't think this is a very new philosophy. Most small market teams are more concerned about available dollars than available cap sapce.

 

[code]

I don't think this is a very new philosophy. Most small market teams are more concerned about available dollars than available cap sapce.

Agreed...this is just a fancy name for paying players (in any form) annually out of only what they acquire in shared revenues...I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if the 10 or so teams are all smaller market teams with less independent revenue...

 

[Bri]

quite normal and it's been done for years

 

[GroveDiesel]

Anyone know which teams have traditionally done this? I can't think of too many teams that underspend the salary cap by a decent amount every year. The Eagles come to mind.

 

[Bri]

I wouldn't be surprised if this is Wilson's setup. Apply all the bonuses to this year then cry that they can't afford a guy like Clements. He's been pressing the NFL about smaller city team owner's issues alot the last couple years. IIRC Last year he was barking about the revenue sharing.

Nice man that's been around a long time but if Buffalo can't support a team, there will be a number of cities lining up to take the team. Orchard Park transforms into Billstown on sunday. Everyone wears Bills jersey's and/or sweatshirts, Bills flags on lawns, every restaurant or bar has "game specials", bills bills bills ....Orchard Park could not be any more behind that team. Wilson either needs a new business manager or to consider moving. He knows he can't ask for more support from the area and yet he whines about $.

rant over

 

[Bri]

Anyone know which teams have traditionally done this? I can't think of too many teams that underspend the salary cap by a decent amount every year. The Eagles come to mind.

To a small degree everyteam will do it each March. IE Suppose the Pats plan to pay Brady's bonus at 4 mil per year against the cap BUT this year they have 8 mil left under the cap. Before the year ends, they'll use up that 8 mil so it's freed up for future years.The Bills are saying they'll apply all bonuses now. That's much more extreme.

 

[Warhogs]

I would imagine this philosophy may flex a bit meaning if a team has a great chance of winning it all this year they may break that rule a bit to bring in a key player?

 

[Mungo Burrows]

The vikings have been paying a lot of roster bonuses instead of signing bonuses so the cap hit is not amortized over the life of the contract. My understanding is that under McCombs, this was intended to get them up to the spending minimum (the salary floor as opposed to the cap) with the least possible cash outlay. Not sure how the new ownership is dealing with this, but they are not nearly as cheap as Red.

 

[R.White]

From the News Blogger - Bills Team Page

February 20, 2007, 16:00

NFL :: Bills

Bills' New Business Plan, 'Cash To Cap'?

Jerry Sullivan, Buffalo News - [LINK]

GM Marv Levy announced recently that the Bills would no longer spread out signing bonuses. They'll still give bonuses, but they'll proceed as if every dollar counts against the current year's salary cap. From now on, as Levy explained, the Bills will spend "cash to the cap." It's difficult to believe any team would want to advertise that it won't be a big player in the open market, and that it's abandoning the most common mechanism for affording top free agents. Wilson says he can't compete on an uneven playing field. This is his way of confirming it, by taking the Bills out of the running for the elite free agents.

 

[ravnzfan]

Anyone know which teams have traditionally done this? I can't think of too many teams that underspend the salary cap by a decent amount every year. The Eagles come to mind.

Arizona leads the pack in this...and Philly???they're the king of "pay it forward" in the NFL, where every year they take unused cap space and roll it forward in the way of an unobtainable roster bonus for a player or 2, but as far as the NFL is concerned it is "an insentive likely to be earned", therefore counted in this years cap....when the bonus isn't made, that money can be rolled forward into the following years cap, because it was accounted for the previous year, but not paidthey've been up to this for 10+ yrs, and consistanly have the highest "adjusted cap" figure of any team out there

 

[Aaron Rudnicki]

I wouldn't be surprised if this is Wilson's setup. Apply all the bonuses to this year then cry that they can't afford a guy like Clements. He's been pressing the NFL about smaller city team owner's issues alot the last couple years. IIRC Last year he was barking about the revenue sharing.Nice man that's been around a long time but if Buffalo can't support a team, there will be a number of cities lining up to take the team. Orchard Park transforms into Billstown on sunday. Everyone wears Bills jersey's and/or sweatshirts, Bills flags on lawns, every restaurant or bar has "game specials", bills bills bills ....Orchard Park could not be any more behind that team. Wilson either needs a new business manager or to consider moving. He knows he can't ask for more support from the area and yet he whines about $. rant over

shame on you

 

[Gottabesweet]

cash to the cap cash to the cap cash to the cap cccccccccash

No Cato June or no Eric Steinbach for us!

No Clements or Fletcher

:(

 

[Bri]

It's difficult to believe any team would want to advertise that it won't be a big player in the open market, and that it's abandoning the most common mechanism for affording top free agents. Wilson says he can't compete on an uneven playing field. This is his way of confirming it, by taking the Bills out of the running for the elite free agents.

There ya go, knew that was coming