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AlbaNY_Ram
1.) AD really was paid just $1.8M last year. He counted $3.2M against the cap for accounting purposes only. The entire signing bonus was paid day 1 but is is spread across the length of the contract as a paper exercise.
2.) The Rams can extend AD without affecting this year's cap. Here's one way to do it: They can sign him to a 5-year contract with a $29.5M signing bonus and a first year salary of $1M. That's $30.5M directly in AD's pocket and only a $6.9M cap hit in year 1. Just for arguments sake, salaries the last 4 years of $22M, $20M, $18M, and $16M. There's 5 years, $106.5M with no impact on the cap in 2018 and an average of $21.3M a year.
Salary bonuses are still in essence advances. See my post to Saguaro above.
I understand point #2. But as you can see from your numbers, three of the four salaries in each of those last 4 years are under the average because a bonus is an advance that is paid back.