NFL Contracts and Our Contracts (Very Important)

[Drew Rosenhaus -- CONTRACTS]

If you have not realized from going through the contracts of players on your team, real life NFL contracts are a little funky - they are very much based on signing bonuses that do not count towards a team's salary cap even though they do cost the owners money. Rookie contracts typically have huge signing bonuses. In other words, a team's payroll and a team's salary cap hit are not the same thing. It all gets pretty confusing due to the clever accounting methods used.

For our league's purposes, our Free Agent bidding employs an AAS (average annual salary) approach as stated in the rules. This obviously assumes there is no signing bonus. Rookies first season is typically not listed - FOR A PLAYER'S ROOKIE SEASONS ONLY, we will be doing a tier system of $1M for picks 1-5, $.8M for picks 6-10, $.6M for picks 11-32, $.4M for all 2nd round picks, and $.3M for all 3rd round picks ($.3M also for 4th-7th round picks for rookies drafted this season... next season our draft is only 3 rounds). After their rookie season, the contract's year by year breakdown should be evident.


IMPORTANT:

Please realize the impact of the salary structure on this league. Rookies -- even the best ones -- will most likely be very cheap relative to the older players who have later gone through Free Agency since Rookies will have their real life (no Signing Bonus included) salary for at least their rookie contract's end. Once players have hit Free Agency in our league, they will become much more expensive relative to those young Restricted players. Pay close attention to this as you plan your team and negotiate trades. You have been warned!

[Drew Rosenhaus -- CONTRACTS]

Also, for the players who were newly signed as Free Agents in real life whose year by year numbers are not out by the time the season starts, please employ the following logic for the 2011/2012 cap hit until the number is updated (should be within a month or 2 I would think but am not positive).

This will be the most math I will ask you to do ;D

Total Listed Contract Amount divided by 2. Then divide that number by the years and that will be what you use for this year's obligation.

For example, Ray Edwards: listed contract 5 Year, $30M. For our league's purposes, until it lists the year by year breakdown, I will be listing his contract at $3M for this season ($30M / 2 = $15M / 5 years = $3M per year)