I could be wrong on this, but I thought that the signing bonus was prorated over the life of the contract. When a player is cut I believe the remaining portion of the signing bonus assigned to each unfulfilled year of the contract is totaled up and attached to that year’s cap figure. By trading him with 3 years remaining Tampa assumes the burden of that signing bonus over the remaining life of his contract instead of the Bears.
Just did some Googling and learned that signing bonuses are accelerated in the same way regardless of if a player is waived, released or traded. Looks like you were right.
Here’s to hoping that Griese wins the starting job and has a breakout season for the Bucs making that conditional draft pick a good one.
In the interest of full disclosure, I only know that because when Madden first introduced that feature I complained online about it being a bug, only to be told that that’s how it works in real life too.
It definitely adds an interesting dynamic, where trading for a superstar has a huge incentive of carrying a relatively tiny cap footprint. For example, if you could somehow stockpile enough picks to trade for Peyton Manning, Ladainian Tomlinson, Randy Moss and a few other superstars, you’d probably end up well under the cap since the original teams would be carrying the signing bonuses.
Of course the teams would never trade those guys because the cap penalties would crush them. This is an important dynamic that a lot of people miss. Detractors will kill the NFLPA complaining about unguaranteed contracts, but any contract with a signing bonus has a pseudo-guarantee built in. If there is a large signing bonus, the first couple years base salary is effectively guaranteed because the team can’t cut the player without torpedoing their cap.
That’s probably why teams like the Falcons, Dolphins and Browns were so aggresive in trying to recoup signing bonuses from Michael Vick, Ricky Williams and Kellen Winslow, respectively.
I’m sure this is no small reason why in the few instances where a star is traded his contract is almost always restructured as soon as he gets to his new team.
They still get the full value of their contract - the signing bonus (the cash) is given to them shortly after they sign the contract and it’s only broken up by year for salary cap purposes. So if they played out their contract with one team or with several, they’d still make the same amount of money total.
But… often teams want to lock up the new player with a long term deal, and the space is available, or the player sees a way to grab more cash, so deals are often redone after a trade.
But take Shaun Rogers for example - he still has 3 years on his contract left and Detroit paid the signing bonus and associated cap figure. I haven’t heard of trying to extend or redo his contract, so the Browns get him at a discount (paying only salary and year to year bonuses) for the next 3 years.
This is the angle I was going for. Players and their agents know that the new team is paying less than the previous team and therefore they use the opportunity to leverage a new deal. Granted this probably only works if you are a franchise QB or RB (maybe a WR in rare cases).
awesome video.
Phil “Stanchion” Dawson…
Man, he’s smushed the Lions more times than I care to count.
Maybe you should change your location to “Owned by Brett Favre”.
The Bears have won 6 of the last 8 meetings, with one of those losses in the final game last year with all our starters resting (and the other with Chad Hutchinson under center), and we’ve done it in dominating fashion. Favre has been our bitch since Lovie Smith arrived and Grossman and Orton are undefeated versus Favre.
I only wish Favre would have waited until after the draft so he could have further undermined the Pack’s plans for the future. Eh, who am I kidding, he’d almost certainly change his mind between now and training camp and send Aaron Rodgers into fits.
Wouldn’t be the first time that Aaron Rodgers cried in a green room.
Much as I dislike the Packers, I’m actually really looking forward to seeing Rodgers play. He really showed me something in the Cowboys game last season, and he’s had plenty of time to learn the offense, much like Tony Romo a few years back.
That said, without Favre I’m seeing a very 8-8ish season in the cards for the Packers.
I’m right with you. Rodgers showed some skillz and I’m anxious to see them for a full season.
Javon Walker signed with the Raiders today.
You know, it isn’t that I think Walker is an incredible WR, or even a great one, but I just want the Eagles to stop pretending they know what they’re doing at this position. At this point they are actively sabotaging McNabb. One and a half seasons with a #1 WR? Really? In his entire career, that’s all you can do? At least make an effort. Maybe Walker wasn’t worth the risk (as if the Eagles can claim that, they make a habit out of signing oft-injured, near-washed up veterans), but give the team SOMETHING to work with. The likes of James Thrash, Todd Pinkston, Freddie Mitchell, Reggie Brown, Kevin Curtis, Torrance Small, and Charles Johnson aren’t going to cut it. Other than TO for one and a half seasons, this is all McNabb has ever had to work with. It’s disgusting.
Just to note, I think that Curtis is a great 2 or 3, and Brown can be a very good 2 with some polish. Neither is a #1, though.
In a strange turn of events, Marty Booker will be returning to the Bears. He signed a 2-year deal and will presumably be the #1 guy coming into camp. I’m glad to have him back, he was good and consistent here, but they are going to have to find someone with a little more pop eventually.
There are 350-pound nose tackles in the league with more “pop” than Booker these days…
I can’t get my head around the Bears’ thinking here. Booker doesn’t seem to have cost appreciably less than Muhammad would have, but is certainly appreciably less effective even given Moose’s age.
The Bears are regressing on offense. You guys need a running back, quarterback, and receivers. Outside of that, you’re solid, but…damn.
I haven’t seen figures on either players contract, but I have to assume that Booker’s deal was quite a bit cheaper, and certainly both are cheaper than what Moose’s existing contract would have been to stay. Moose has been putting up respectable numbers over the last couple years while Booker was toiling under a even more inept QB situation than the Bears.
Obviously we have to hope that Booker is better than he has shown the last couple years and that his decline had more to do with the mess that is the Dolphins. Can’t say I’ve seen him play hardly at all in a couple years. Still, even if he has a renaissance he still shouldn’t be more than a #3 possession WR who has a nose for the first down marker…which he used to excel at.
LOUNE, yeah, things are looking bleak. I really hope they have a plan because right now they seem clueless. It all centers around the disaster that is Cedric Benson, something I predicted 2 months before they drafted the shitstick. Though, if we are able to land a first round OT, Joe Flacco and a productive mid-round RB in the draft and sign Bryant Johnson for a fair price we might at least have something resembling progress, even if it will take a couple seasons to develop.
Eh, who am I kidding, that’s a pipe dream.