I wrote this the other day and I'm confident that this is the way it works:
For accounting purposes the cap hit from the original signing bonus that Goff received was spread over the first 5 years of his contract. And then when he renegotiated to give the Rams some additional cap space the cap hit from that new bonus also got spread over the remaining years. So that's where the prorated bonus money comes from. And if Goff stayed with the Rams that's how it would be accounted for: $6.8M in 2021, 2022, & 2023 plus another $1.8M in 2024.
But if the Rams trade him all of that prorated bonus money comes due. And all $22.2M goes against the 2021 cap if the trade happens before June 1. If the trade happens after June 1 then only this year's portion ($6.8M) goes against the 2021 cap and the rest ($15.4) is applied in 2022.
The author makes this claim: " if the Rams trade Jared Goff before June 1st? The Rams will incur a $22 million dollar hit in their dead cap in 2021, another $15 million in 2022, and finally $8 million in 2023" but he's misreading the data.
Here the data (from overthecap.com [
overthecap.com] ) is in the chart below.
And the correct way to read it:
If the Rams trade Goff before June 1, 2021 they will incur a cap hit of $22.2M in 2021. Period. (None of the other caps hits apply!!)
If the Rams trade Goff before June 1, 2022 they will incur a cap hit of $15.5M in 2022.
If the Rams trade Goff before June 1, 2023 they will incur a cap hit of $8.6M in 2023.
And if the Rams trade Goff before June 1, 2024 they will incur a cap hit of $1.8M in 2024.
AlbaNY_Ram