Re: Here's what I think I think ... for now

Quote
AlbaNY_Ram
The screen shot below is from [overthecap.com] It reflects AD's deal after he restructured.

First thing, under 'Guaranteed Salary' there's nothing for 2024 so that $1.125M salary shown for 2024 is out the window.

Next, under 'Prorated Bonuses' there are separate columns for 'Signing' and 'Option'.

The Rams are on the hook for the pro rated signing bonuses shown for '24, '25, and '26. They already paid Donald that money and a cornerstone of cap math is that anything a team actually pays a player has to eventually go against the cap. Could be in the year it is paid (as with a salary), could be spread out over 5 years if a player gets a signing bonus and his contract goes at least 5 years into the future. But prorated signing bonus obligations can't be traded away, can't be negotiated away, can't be swept under the rug, and don't disappear when a player retires. So ... $17.1M in '24, $12.6M in '25, and '$12.6M in '26 will count against the cap.

They total $42.3M and that's dead money against the cap. As far as I know the Rams can eat all of that this year -or- since AD retired rather than being traded or cut, they have the option of just applying this year's dead money to this year's cap ($17.1M) and then applying the rest to the 2025 cap ($25.2M).

I have seen conflicting information about the option bonus. Spotrac.com does not count that as dead money when a player leaves a team but Overthecap.com does. I think Spotrac has that right so I'm going with their method for the time being. And if that's right then that's the bottom line: $42.3M in dead money either all applied to this year's cap or split across '24 ($17.1M) and '25 ($25.2M) at the Rams' discretion.

Note that if AD had played this year and then left his cap hit would have been $25M this year and then $25.2M next year so AD retiring nets the Rams $7.9M in cap space this year and makes no difference to 2025 (assuming the Rams opt to push most of the cap hit to next year).

[attachment 10899 AD.png]