"... 6 million of this years base salary from the 8.5 million and turn it into a prorated bonus ..."
If the Rams convert $6M of his salary into a signing bonus the cap hit is spread over the first 5 years of the contract. But the signing bonus is paid immediately! Cooks would want to do this because it's $6M up front with the other $2.5M paid week-to-week during the season as game checks (instead of having all $8.5M paid out as game checks).
Pro rating the bonus over 5 years is an accounting thing that isn't related to how the money is actually paid out.
Doing this would reduce Cooks' cap hit for this year from $8.5M to $3.7M (good for the Rams) while putting $6M in Cooks' pocket day 1 (which you would think is good for Cooks).
To take it a step further: Cooks' new contract could include a $1M salary for 2018 with a $10M signing bonus. Cooks would pocket that $10M immediately and earn the other $1M over the course of the season. So Cooks gets more money in 2018 ($11M vs. $8.5M) while the Rams get even more cap relief. In this scenario Cooks' cap hit would be $3M ($1M salary plus $2M of the pro rated signing bonus).
AlbaNY_Ram
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/04/2018 10:16PM by AlbaNY_Ram.
