Mikie2times

The player never sees the last few years of a back loaded contract anyway so that points irrelevant.

Yes you can structure it like this. It's just not a popular format because you need so much cap room and it's not an efficient way to clear immediate cap space. For our situation it would be a very good strategy to employ.

For combat or entertainment?

He never learned to scroll down.

If you have any questions about how contracts are structured this is a great source of information. http://www.falcfans.com/features/capmain.html

I would say that’s a very reasonable and accurate take on things. Good post.

As Cinci pointed out 53*32= 1696 roster spots in this league. Less then 5% of those players will demand a signing bonus in excess of 10 million if they hit the open market. It's probably even less then that. For every Nate Clements Free Agency has 50 John Doe's. John Doe might not win you a championship but neither does dropping 20 million on a FA signing bonus.

Would you say our future is doomed? We seem to disagree most the time but I respect your opinions and feel you’re a very knowledgeable guy when it comes to football. I guess I would be disappointed if you thought that way. All things aside I do see a world of obstacles ahead for the franchise, and I'm very worried about our future. I'm just trying to stay positive by looking at ways we can remain competitive.

I don't disagree but did you see McGee play zone last year? The man was picked on more then a thong.

I'll agree with you I've been saying the same thing for a while. Coverage wise we dumped the cover 2 at the midway point. With the way McGee played zone we needed to. To say I'm concerned about next year’s strategy would be understatement.

He would be stupid not to take deal one, but that’s assuming deal one is even on the table. I'm not making that assumption; I just used it as an example to show that even a wide gap in bonus money can be eliminated with front-loaded base salary. Tweak the numbers a little more and I'll show you a deal that’s more lucrative to the player after just his second year. You can even guarantee the first year of the deal. My point isn't to make our position sound better from a buying perspective, I'm just showing some of the things we can do and how we will still be involved in Free Agency.

If your point is a player would rather get guaranteed money then non guaranteed money your right. If your point is we can’t be competitive under this structure your wrong. The front loaded structure we can layout before a player in base salary can actually be more lucrative an offer then a team that invests more with guaranteed money. Some players will take to it and others won’t but we will still make some very competitive offers. Take two 25 million dollar 5 year deals. A.The first team signs a guy to 10 million dollar bonus and amortizes it over the 5 years. The cost in cap terms would be 2 million per year for the bonus. His base salary is made up of the remaining 15 million on the deal and will be back loaded. It would probably be something like 8% in year 1, 12% in year 2, 20% in year 3, 25% in year 4, and 35% in year 5. The total value of the contract adding in the bonus would be. Year 1- 3.2 Mil Value after first year 11.2 Million Year 2 -3.8 Mil Value after second year 13 Million Year 3 –5.0 Mil Value after third year 16 Million Year 4- 5.75 Mil Value after fourth year 19.75 Million Year 5- 7.25 Mil Value after fifth year 25 Million B.The second team signs a guy to a 2 million dollar bonus and amortizes it over the 5 years. The cost in cap terms would be 400,000 per year for the bonus. His base salary is made up of the remaining 23 million on the deal and will be front loaded. It would probably be something like 25% in year 1, 20% in year 2, 20% in year 3, 20% in year 4 and 15% in year 5. The total value of the contract adding in the bonus would be. Year 1- 6.15 Million Value after First year 7.75 Million Year 2- 5.0 Million Value after Second year 12.35 Million Year 3- 5.0 Million Value after Third year 16.95 Million Year 4- 5.0 Million Value after Fourth year 21.55 Million Year 5- 3.85 Million Value after Fifth year 25 Million By year 3 the second deal is already more lucrative then the first deal. It’s damn near the same after the 2nd year. It’s important that we have a GM people trust because trust is what we will need to convey to players without a lot of guaranteed money. Again all Marv is saying is show me you can play and I’ll pay you well. Some guys will understand that, some won’t but lets not get over dramatic about the situation.

I don't think they do but it's almost irrelevant anyway. If they had a policy that truly covered them from risk the premiums would be just as big a burden as the dead cap would be. It's not uncommon for 10-30% of the annual cap to be made up of dead cap space. The average is around 12% so dead cap will make up over 10 million for the average team this year. Some will pay upwards of 30 million in dead cap. This number doesn't even factor in any base salary that teams pay because they usually keep an injured or uninspired player a few more years if a big bonus is invested.

Talk about a classic example of point 1, look at LeCharles Bentley. 12.5 million dollar signing bonus, all guaranteed. His annual salary being eaten because the investment is to large to just let him walk. When it's all said and done Bentley could cost the Browns 20 million or more for a couple weeks of football.

Your response is one more then I usually get.

1. Show me and I'll pay you Teams incur more financial risk by increasing bonus money. The hits teams take on guaranteed money or dead cap is what Buffalo is trying to remove with this strategy. We will offer very respectable to high end contracts without much guaranteed. The Bills are asking a player to keep performing, and if you do we will compensate you well. They might even jack up the player’s first year salary to show the commitment a signing bonus does. 2. Build threw the draft We won't bring in many guys demanding a ton of up front money so that shifts emphasis to building threw the draft. Isn't the draft how you build championships anyway? 3. Keep your own guys We will look to the draft but we will also look to renegotiate as early as possible. It's a method Buffalo has struggled with before but has shown some progress in recently. We will only get better at it as our emphasis shifts away from other FA's to our own. 4. FA Bust Hand a guy in his mid to late 20's over ten million dollars and see if he's plays as hard for you the following season. These guys are human, this is the payday they've waited for and the expectation of the next one is not a priority. 5. Character Good players who will play for us without demanding a huge bonus are guys who will have a high degree of character. It shows the player is willing to be compensated for actual performance and doesn't have the sense of entitlement that many players do.

As I understand it this is what Marv was saying/I'm thinking Bonus money is ultimately the biggest factor in signing a player. It is the only thing in the contract that is guaranteed to the player. The league allows teams to spread out bonus money over the life of the contract. What Marv is saying is the Bills will no longer spread out the bonus money over the life of the contract. Instead they will apply all of the bonus money dished out that year to fit under the current seasons cap. So essentially if we bring in a big name guy or two our massive cap room will shrink to just about nothing. Other teams are dishing out bonus money and spreading it threw the life of the contract while knowing that the future cap will only increase. To them a 20+ million dollar bonus on a 7 year deal would only count about 2.86 million against the cap for that season. For us it will cost 20 million toward the cap. Edit- One more point I wanted to make. While this sounds like we can't be competitive this approach will significantly lower our player liability costs. Bonus money is guaranteed, so teams like the Redskins have a much stronger attachment to a FA then a team operating under our new structure. For the Redskins the money has already been invested, to us we can simply part ways without the massive money up front clouding the decision making.

I must admit it's a topic I nearly posted about last week. I decided against it because I felt people would find it distasteful. Ralph and Marv are two of the most influential men in Bills history, and to talk about their demise before it happens is in bad taste. I just wanted to point out that this is something some of us are concerned about. If those people are anything like me they have the utmost respect for these men but it doesn’t clear the worry. I hope because of that we can possibly discuss it. For those that still find it disrespectful my apologies. My two questions would be……….. -If Ralph passes will he leave a statement behind with his intentions for our franchise, or will it be completely up to who he wills the Bills to? -If Marv passes do we already have his successor in house, and if not how hard will it be to find a GM with our Cap limitations?

Sounds like an Ohio driver.

Did he have his cowboy collar on underneath is T-Shirt?

Let me know when you find out the criteria. I hope after 17 years I would become a "worthy" Bills fan. Apparently after 28 years you become an entitled one.

Steinbach or Dielman would be my number one priority for outside FAs

Just learned one other thing I hate about Ohio women. Big Hands

Maybe it's just my area. I just got back from Cleveland a few days ago and they seemed better off. The spots I've lived at in Michigan have had some incredible looking women, but somethings truly wrong in Toledo.