Somebody explain this nonsense to me.
 

As we all know, I am not a very smart person.

So in a recent thread, with Just Passin' By posted a link about Brandon Flowers' contract specifics (to answer the question "how much would we save against the cap if we cut Flowers"), I, of course, became flummoxed.

Here's the link.

So, I want you to pretend you're talking to your 12 year old son (I like to think of myself as ChiefsPlanet's 12 year old son, anyway):

What do these words mean?

• Base Salary
• Prorated Bonus
• Roster Bonus
• Workout Bonus
• Other Bonus
• Cap Number
• Dead Money
• Cap Savings

Also:

• What's the difference between Cap Flow and Cash Flow?
• What's a Cash Bonus?
• What's a Cash Number?
• What's Cash-To-Cash?
• What the hell is on this page?

I thank you for your time.

Who the **** explains cash flow and shit to a 12 year old. Past your bed time anyway, jimmy.

You can sum up that page by simply saying Brandon Flowers is not playing up to his contract. And that it would hurt the team cap wise, to just cut him.

We paid a premium for what a shut down corner cost at the time and are not getting back the investment. The end, maybe our next investment will be a better one. Happens all the team in the NFL. A lot of teams have contracts like this.

You are like, the lamest dad ever.

That's it, no x box.

GOD DAMN IT.

HEY, WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE, OR ILL GET THE BELT!!

POOPY

ROFL

I can't help you with your homework tonight, Direckshun. I gotta get to happy hour if I want to meet a special woman to make your cheating whore of a mother jealous. And we're running out of food in the house, so I'm going to hit the blackjack tables after that and see if I can't whip up a little money. Go see if Mrs. Higgins next door has some extra SpaghettiOs like she did last week. That can be your dinner.

If any creditors call, tell them the excuse about the IRS probing my employer. They haven't heard that one in a long time and may have forgotten about it.

You better be in bed when I get back or I'll lock you in the closet again.

Bye!

Looking at the first link:

In 2011 Brando Flowers signed a $49.35 M contract. Broken down as follows:

Signing bonus: $14M ($10M in 2011 + $4M in 2013)
Base salary: $28.1 M over 6 years
Roster bonuses: $6M ($2 M each in 20014-2016)
Work out bonuses: $1.25M ($250,000K in 2012-2016)

The signing bonus is given to Flowers at the time he signed in 2011. He got a second guaranteed installment of his signing bonus in 2013. The effect of a signing bonus on the salary cap is prorated over the length of the contract. However if you cut a player the effect of any remaining prorated bonuses are immediately applied to the cap in the year you cut the player.

The base salary is what the player gets payed for the NFL season if he is on the opening day roster. It isn't guaranteed money until he makes the roster. The base salary goes directly to the cap.

The roster bonus is usually paid in the Spring if he hasn't been released. It goes to the cap in that year.

Workout bonuses are paid if the player participates in off season workouts. It goes to the cap that year.

The cap number in any given year is the prorated signing bonus + base + roster + workout.

Dead money only applies if you cut a player. It is the salary cap hit related to the unpaid prorated bonus in the remaining years in the contract. For example, if we cut Flowers before the 2014 season, the prorated bonus for 2014, 2015, and 2016 ($3M + $3 + $1M = $7M) would count against the Chiefs 2014 salary cap, even though Flowers wasn't on the roster.

Cap savings is the difference in the cap number and dead money. Cap number is how much the player will count against the cap if you keep him and dead money is how much the player will count against the cap if you release him.

Cap flow is everything I explained above. It relates to the salary cap.

Cash flow is how much money comes out of Clark's wallet each year if Brandon Flowers is on the roster. Clark cares about this number. Sometimes he will elect not to participate in FA if his cash flow is bad in a given year.

That is the important stuff.

An NFL contract basically consists of guaranteed money and non-guaranteed money.

Guaranteed money is the signing bonus. You earn that simply by signing the contract. Because this money is guaranteed, a team has to pay you that money. In order to make the contract more manageable under the salary cap, they will spread the signing bonus (or "prorate" the bonus) over X number of years. If you have a $10M signing bonus spread over 5 years, if you cut that player after year 1, they have to take an $8M hit on the cap. If you cut him in year 2, you take a $6M hit on the cap. Because you're paying for a player not on the roster, that's called dead money.

Non-guaranteed money means you have to earn it. Base salary is earned by playing in games. Roster bonuses are earned by making the roster. Workout bonuses are incentives to encourage players to work out in the offseason (because the players union limits mandatory workouts a team can hold). Other incentives can be earned if they make the pro bowl, etc.... If the team decides to cut you tomorrow, then you don't earn any of this money. Hence... non-guaranteed.



I don't know what the **** most of those other things are on the bottom of the list. If I'm explaining that to a 12 year old kid, I'd say "I don't know what the devil most of those other things are."

Cash bonus is the same as signing bonus.

Cash number is the total cash out of Clark's wallet in a given year.

Cash to cap is just the ratio of (Cash out of Clark's wallet)/(salary cap hit).

Shit I feel dizzy after reading that good info though thanks !

Oh, forgot one. Cap savings. Cap savings is the opposite of dead money. It's the amount you save on the salary cap by cutting a player. Not all cut players will lead to savings. If you cut a player, for example, that has $8M in dead money, but only counts as $3M against the cap, you're not saving money. Basically, if Non-guaranteed money for this year > Dead guaranteed money for this year, then you create cap savings if you cut that person tomorrow.

I feel smarter

How much would it hurt the cap when Robinson is cut?

It depends on when he is cut. If they cut him today it'll all be dumped into 2014 I think so 3 million.

Robinson's cap number for 2014 is $5.3M if he plays. If they cut him, Robinson will count $2M against the cap (that's the dead money). So they would save $3.3M against the cap by cutting him before the roster bonus is due.

I still don't understand how he got such a contract at his age and his previous performance the year before...

If you look at how it was structured it was essentially a 1 year deal for $4.75M. There is no way he was ever going to see year 2 and 3 of that contract. We'll release him in the Spring and suffer the $2M in dead cap money in 2014 and be none the worse for it.

Even so, it was a horrible signing. Clark set fire to almost $5M. heh.

A signing bonus isn't the same thing as guaranteed money.

Like with Bowes deal,

3/4/2013: Signed a five-year, $56 million contract. The deal contains $26 million guaranteed -- a $15 million signing bonus, Bowe's 2013 and 2014 base salaries, and $1.75 million of his 2015 salary. Bowe is eligible for annual $250,000 workout bonuses throughout the contract's life. 2014: $8.75 million, 2015: $10.75 million, 2016-2017: $9.75 million, 2018: Free Agent

That means if Bowe doesn't have a good year in 2014, sianara.

In terms of the cap, you're right. In terms of cash, it's absolutely the same.

I'm still wondering what they have cooking with the cash cap this year.

According to overthecap, we have like 125 million spoken for in cap dollars next year, but only 95 million or so in cash spending accounted for and the team needs to be at 99% of the total cap being spent in cash to be compliment with the cap floor that was instituted with the new CBA.

That leaves us about 30 million under the cash spending threshold.

Well, we're going to give a ton of cash to Houston plus there's some restructuring going to happen that is going to convert cap to cash to free up cap room, it will even out over the next few months.

Thats why I don't get caught up in the whole "we're close to the cap" stuff. The salary cap is basically an arbitrary number that can be moved around if you have smart people in charge.

I think Berry, Hali, Flowers, Alex and Houston all get new deals over the coming months.

Yeah, that's why I get. He'd be gone by spring.. But that contract is terrible. Who would we actually been in competition with to sign him? Are what I worry about with Dorsey... Daniels, Robinson, Bowe... In that order they get worse...

He also gave Colquitt a 5 year, 19 million dollar deal.

I agree.

Berry, Hali, and Flowers will convert cap to cash. Houston and Smith will push cash to the cap.

Yeah, I'm not intelligent enough to know if that's bad or not. To me, he's pretty ****ing amazing

It's crazy to think that they were slated to pay 12 million next year to Chase Daniel, Dustin Colquitt and Dunta Robinson.

Honestly, I'd have probably let all 3 go elsewhere and drafted a punter.

Actually i believe each team has an exception they can use for cutting a player before july 15th but still lets them prorate his cap hit for the current/next year.

40/60, 50/50 or 60/40

It's guaranteed money because no matter what the Chiefs do, they have to pay Bowe $15M. Bowe's $15M counts against the cap for the next 5 years. If they cut him today, they take a $12M cap hit. If they cut him next year, they take a $9M cap hit. That's a lot of money to pay for a player no longer on your roster, but it's also the point in his contract where you start to "save" money by cutting him.

You should leave a comment in the "Dorsey wins Executive of the Year" thread.

I made this same comment and got shredded for it. I like Dorsey's eye for talent, but as a negotiator... I'm not impressed with the contracts we handed out.

I don't know if thats right. The signing bonus can be spread over the deal, but they're on the hook for 26 mil, not just 15.

I'm hoping the contract issues is just a learning curve with him...

Bowe's contract shows how tricky contracts have become to interpret. I just read into his contract and have to retract my original post. Some base salary money is now becoming guaranteed (I didn't realize that was happening).

Essentially... Bowe is guaranteed $20M. It's pretty much a given that because of the huge cap implications of cutting him in year 2, the remaining $6M are pretty much guaranteed too.

His 2013 base salary counts against the 2013 cap. His 2014 base salary counts against the 2014 cap.

His signing bonus is prorated against the cap, so it counts $3M against the cap each of the contact's 5 years.

If he plays all 5 years, the signing bonus never counts more than $3M against the cap in any given year. However, if he is cut at any point, the remaining un-accounted for portion of that signing bonus is accelerated to count against that year's cap.

So if they cut him after year 3, there's no salary to account for against the cap. and the remainder of his signing bonus would count $9M against the cap. His base salary is not guaranteed, so the Chiefs would save a couple million against the cap by cutting him.

Thats why I was thinking he'd be a candidate to be cut after 14 if he doesn't have a good year.

Bowe's contract in guarantees:
(I am editing based on realizing that $1.5M is guaranteed in 2015)

GUARANTEED TODAY
YEAR 1: $15M signing bonus + $750K salary
YEAR 2: $4.25M of his base salary
YEAR 3: $1.5M

GUARANTEED IN 2014... conditionally
YEAR 2: $4.5M if he has a mostly healthy year in 2014

Within there, there are $250,000 in workout bonuses per year... which are pretty much guaranteed too.

There's your $26M guaranteed.

If they cut him after 2014, there's $1.75M of base 2015 salary guaranteed plus the remainder of his signing bonus ($9M).

I would imagine it's no coincidence that his 2015 base salary equals exactly $10.75M. The net savings would be his $250K workout bonus.

So you'd only save 250K cutting him then?

He's a candidate to be cut because his dead money hit (based on prorated signing bonus) is $9M. I'm seeing now that maybe he's also guaranteed $1.5M in 2015.

If you keep him, he'll cost you $3M against the cap on the signing bonus, $10M against the cap for his base salary, $250K against the cap for a workout bonus.

CAP CONSEQUENCE:
Keep him = $13.25M (plus incentives)
Cut him = $10.5M

He'll either be cut, or restructured at that point.

Probably restructured.

It always drives me crazy when people talk about players "taking one for the team" by restructuring. No. Restructuring happens because it's a win-win. The team converts cap-heavy parts of the contract into cap-friendly by spreading it out over several years, while the player benefits because it's harder to cut him.

Restructuring doesn't cost the player any money, so yeah, that seems like a dumb thing to say.

Adding Maclin, Chris Clemons, Ebron/whicheverTEfallstoyou, and Donald Butler would probably send me into a frenzy.

eh... 2-14 to 11-5/playoffs in a strong division. Not so worried about the $$. Players get overpaid all the time in the NFL. Dorsey did overpay for some, but he got players here and that's what this team needed.

Bowe's contract is bad, but there was no way to predict that he'd play that poorly after getting paid. It seems pretty obvious by his comments after the season that the FO talked to him about his performance. He said he's going to lose weight and work on his speed to better fit into this offense. Whether or not he follows thru is anyone's guess.

me too

http://employeesofthemonth.net/phpBB...ilies/jimp.png

Right. There's usually no loss or gain of money for either side. They're just moving numbers around.

I'm not a big fan of this approach. How many times has this model actually worked? The best approach is to build from within and focus most of your cap dollars on keeping good players, instead of overpaying for other people's scraps.

I'm more of a use FA to fill holes, opening up the draft to take BPA, type guy.

Dorsey and Reid have both stated that they believe in building thru the draft. I think they did what they needed to do in order to eliminate the stench left by the last regime. Now that they have a year under their belt, I think you'll see more of an emphasis on the draft. (On a lesser note, they also had to give up picks to get the QB they wanted, so FA became even more of a necessity. Getting rid of Cassel may have been one of the best personnel moves in franchise...er...NFL history.)

I'm the most bothered by the Robinson deal... I don't know why, really. He's terrible and it didn't break the bank, but damn did he not do shit this year, or what? He got money for nothing. Bowe is overpaid, yeah... But looking at previous years, he fit the bill for a decent number one...

He did what he had to do. We had nothing behind Smith and at the time....we had no legitimate NB.

Agree. They took a chance on Robinson and it didn't work out. That said, they got a surprise in Cooper, who hopefully makes the sophomore jump next year. Look at what Dorsey/Reid saw at CB when they came in:

1. Stanford Routt (currently unemployed)
2. Javier Arenas (backup / Special Teams AZ)
3. Jacques Reeves (currently unemployed)
4. Neiko Thorpe (currently unemployed)

That's F'd up.

Yup. Fully agree.