New Salary Cap Rules

OK. So lets get this straight. Is there a capologist that can help explain the new rules to me?

I don't really need the exact numbers for 2012, I don't think anyone will have them for sure yet but I really don't know exactly what the new rules are. I was hoping that we could sticky a thread (maybe even this one) which has the proper rules laid out about how contracts and different player movements effect the salary cap numbers. If you answer these questions please cite a reference? I'll start with a list of questions and then when I read them I will scroll back and answer them in this post. That will give us all a good reference when we are coming up with our dream scenarios and hopefully educate all of us on how things changed. If its not worth stickying then let it die. Here are my first few questions:

1. How are bonuses applied to the cap if someone is traded or released? Under the old agreement they were accelerated all to the next year. This made trading someone with a long deal and a large bonus left virtually impossible. Is that still the case?

2. How does the new franchise tag work? Is there such a thing as a "sign and trade" anymore? For example in Mario's case. If we wanted could we franchise him and then trade him to another team?

3. Have waiver wires changed at all?

4. How have RDA's changed? With restricted free agents? What exactly are the new time periods? Can you still apply a tag for compensation?

5. Have compensatory picks changed at all? Not that we ever knew exactly how they were figured out but are they still part of the process?


That's all I can think of for now but I will reserve two more posts so I can keep the list going. I'll check probably daily until the thread either dies or I run out of room.

Mike

reserved for new info

Texanmike said:

Here are my first few questions:

1. How are bonuses applied to the cap if someone is traded or released? Under the old agreement they were accelerated all to the next year. This made trading someone with a long deal and a large bonus left virtually impossible. Is that still the case?

2. How does the new franchise tag work? Is there such a thing as a "sign and trade" anymore? For example in Mario's case. If we wanted could we franchise him and then trade him to another team?

3. Have waiver wires changed at all?

4. How have RDA's changed? With restricted free agents? What exactly are the new time periods? Can you still apply a tag for compensation?

5. Have compensatory picks changed at all? Not that we ever knew exactly how they were figured out but are they still part of the process?


That's all I can think of for now but I will reserve two more posts so I can keep the list going. I'll check probably daily until the thread either dies or I run out of room.

Mike

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1. No change - if a player with unamortized bonus money is traded or released, that bonus money is accelerated. If it's before June 1, the full amount is included in the current year. If it's after June 1, the "amortized amount" (based on the contract length) is included in the current year, and the remainder is included the following year.

2. I've heard some folks on this board say that you can't trade franchise players period, but I've heard the media characterize the new CBA as "discouraging" trading franchised players, but not precluding it. In looking through the language of the CBA, the only thing I can see that applies is that you cannot trade the rights to negotiate with a franchise player, nor the right of first refusal that goes along with applying the trasition tag. Essentially you can't trade them unless and until they've signed the tender. Also, the CBA prohibits agreeing to a multi-year contract with a franchised player after July 15th, so if that prohibition attaches to a traded player (and I'm not sure if it does or doesn't), it makes them effectively untradeable after that date.

3. No changes to waivers from the previous agreement. One thing that surprised a few of us (including me) this past year is the rule that if a player is cut after the trade deadline, he has to go through the waiver process even if he's a vested veteran. That was the same in the last CBA, but it was not a rule that I was aware of. Prior to the trade deadline, essentially any player with less than four years of service goes through waivers, any player with more than that becomes a free agent immediately, and can negotiate with any NFL team.

4. First, players with less than 3 years of service are exclusive rights free agents (if tendered as such), and can only sign with their current club.

Players with 3 years of service, but less than 4, can be restricted free agents. This is different than the uncapped year allowed players with less than 5 years to be restricted, but is the same as all other years under the previous CBA. Essentially, teams tender RFA's offers, and depending upon the amount of that offer, they get rights to match and possibly receive compensation if they don't match. The minimum offer grants the team a right of first refusal only (no compensation if they choose not to match). Here are the levels of compensation a team can receive if choosing not to match any offer:
a.) Draft selection at players original draft round
b.) Second round draft selection
c.) First round draft selection
I believe the old CBA also had a compensation of a first and a third rounder, but it appears that option is no longer available.

Players with 4 years of service or more are UFA's upon expiration of their contract unless they are franchised.

5. There are no changes to the compensatory picks. In fact all the new CBA says about it is that they will use the old rules.

I think the franchise tag is entirely impossible for Mario this offseason. Casserly said yesterday that the franchise tag number for Mario is in the neighborhood of $22 million.

so is mario an UFA after this season comes to an end? or is he an RFA?

hot pickle said:

so is mario an UFA after this season comes to an end? or is he an RFA?

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Unrestricted

TheCD said:

I think the franchise tag is entirely impossible for Mario this offseason. Casserly said yesterday that the franchise tag number for Mario is in the neighborhood of $22 million.

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So the owners got the numbers tamped down in the new deal. The players will get smaller percentages of a larger cap, but until there is a real cap boom, the resulting number will be lower than it has been.

The safety franchise tag, for instance, accounted for 8.8 percent of the $120 million salary cap last season, but will now be worth roughly 5.1 percent of the cap.

So what’s the difference between a tagged linebacker and end going to look like under the 2012 cap, expected to be about $125 million?

The defensive end number will be roughly 8.8 percent of the cap, down from 12.9.

The linebacker number will be roughly 7.3 percent, down from 10 percent.

So as an end, Williams would get an $11 million tag, and as a linebacker it would be $8.125 million. If the Texans choose to hold onto Williams with a tag, the sides could argue about the $2.875 million difference.

Is Williams an outside linebacker in the Texans 3-4 system? Yes. Have the Texans maintained it’s not very different from what he did as a defensive end, particularly in the nickel package? They have.

So despite clear CBA language that says the tag is determined by the position “at which the Franchise Player participated in the most plays during the prior League Year,” there could still be a debate over semantics -- is Williams a linebacker if he’s not in a three-point stance, or if he’s lined up where an end lines up is he an end no matter his stance or the team’s scheme?

Williams’ agent, Ben Dogra, didn’t answer an email inquiry about the possible debate.

“If it comes to [a franchise tag], then so be it,” Williams said. “I’m open to whatever, we’ll discuss that. I understand the way things work with salary caps and so forth. Whatever could help the team out, me and my agent will look at every option and go through that.

srrono said:

So the owners got the numbers tamped down in the new deal. The players will get smaller percentages of a larger cap, but until there is a real cap boom, the resulting number will be lower than it has been.

The safety franchise tag, for instance, accounted for 8.8 percent of the $120 million salary cap last season, but will now be worth roughly 5.1 percent of the cap.

So what’s the difference between a tagged linebacker and end going to look like under the 2012 cap, expected to be about $125 million?

The defensive end number will be roughly 8.8 percent of the cap, down from 12.9.

The linebacker number will be roughly 7.3 percent, down from 10 percent.

So as an end, Williams would get an $11 million tag, and as a linebacker it would be $8.125 million. If the Texans choose to hold onto Williams with a tag, the sides could argue about the $2.875 million difference.

Is Williams an outside linebacker in the Texans 3-4 system? Yes. Have the Texans maintained it’s not very different from what he did as a defensive end, particularly in the nickel package? They have.

So despite clear CBA language that says the tag is determined by the position “at which the Franchise Player participated in the most plays during the prior League Year,” there could still be a debate over semantics -- is Williams a linebacker if he’s not in a three-point stance, or if he’s lined up where an end lines up is he an end no matter his stance or the team’s scheme?

Williams’ agent, Ben Dogra, didn’t answer an email inquiry about the possible debate.

“If it comes to [a franchise tag], then so be it,” Williams said. “I’m open to whatever, we’ll discuss that. I understand the way things work with salary caps and so forth. Whatever could help the team out, me and my agent will look at every option and go through that.

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This is all pointless when it come to Mario. The CBA continues to require a player be franchised at the greater of 120% of the previous years salary, or the amounts you reference. Since 120% of Mario's 2011 salary is considerably larger than any number you reference, franchise amount and/or position is not relevent when determining the amount of his franchise tender.

ChampionTexan said:

This is all pointless when it come to Mario. The CBA continues to require a player be franchised at the greater of 120% of the previous years salary, or the amounts you reference. Since 120% of Mario's 2011 salary is considerably larger than any number you reference, franchise amount and/or position is not relevent when determining the amount of his franchise tender.

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the guy is talking about Mario in this article.

Little was made of it at the time, but the change in calculating procedures for franchise tags could have major implications on several contract negotiations, including those with New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees and Chicago Bears running back Matt Forte.

The collective bargaining agreement between the league and the NFL Players Association includes a new formula for the franchise tag, and league sources have said those tags will be considerably lower this offseason than in years past.

League sources have provided figures that will be extremely close to what those salary totals look like, by position, when teams being placing those tags on players in February.

In the past, a franchise tag was derived from averaging the top five salaries at a particular position from the previous season. The new formula is much more complicated and is formed by determining the franchise tags at that position over the last five years as a percentage of the overall cap figure in each of those five years.

The yearly cap itself now plays a bigger role -- the 2012 cap projects to be very close to the 2011 cap of roughly $120 million -- thus these tags will not go up much.

Furthermore, with 2010 being an uncapped year, a number of teams threw massive years of spending on particular deals into that contract year, which in turn drove up 2011 franchise tags. Years like that no longer will be the case, and despite all the record contracts given out just after the lockout -- like ones signed by Carolina Panthers defensive end Charles Johnson and linebacker Jon Beason and San Diego Chargers safety Eric Weddle among others -- figures in most position groups will drop by several million dollars and in some cases upwards of 20 percent, according to the figures we have obtained.

So at a time when Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick averages $16.6 million per season, and Tom Brady and Peyton Manning receive $18 million per season, Brees could receive a franchise tag for just $14.5 million. The NFLPA and NFL Management Council still are going back and forth over the salary numbers used for some of these calculations, sources said, but the QB tag will be between $14.4 million to $14.5 million.

New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez is receiving $14.75 million in 2011 alone, while Manning is in line to collect $35 million in total for 2012 if the Indianapolis Colts pick up his options, making Brees an extreme bargain.

The Saints could use franchise tags on Brees in 2012 and 2013 and end up paying him about $32 million total. The goal is a long-term deal, but these tags are more than affordable. The QB tag in 2011 was $16.1 million.

According to league sources, Forte is looking to receive $20 million guaranteed or more, but the running back tag for 2012 will be just $7.7 million, down from $9.6 million in 2011. If Forte receives the franchise tag, expect a lengthy holdout as he refuses to sign the tender.

Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice also is a candidate to be tendered. Given that Wes Welker is 30, the $9.4 million franchise tag for wide receivers might make the most sense for the New England Patriots.

No doubt the new formula will impact several negotiations, and teams could end up using the franchise or transition tag in abundance this offseason.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000...ise-tag-figures-will-be-down-across-the-board

Srrono, you posted this somewhere else, but whoever wrote that (you didn't cite the article), is overlooking the 120% rule. F-tag compensation is now either the new formula percentage based over the last 5 years OR 120% of the player's previous year's salary. We went over this in another thread and the 120% is definitely in the new CBA. Mario made 13.8 million in base salary alone, so his F-tag cost is at least 16.6 million. It could be more if other bonuses are included in the figure, but as far as I know it only applies to base salary.

srrono said:

the guy is talking about Mario in this article.

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What part of the article makes you believe that?

TheCD said:

I think the franchise tag is entirely impossible for Mario this offseason. Casserly said yesterday that the franchise tag number for Mario is in the neighborhood of $22 million.

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With the switch to 3-4, Mario switched positions. His FT for DE would be different than his FT for OLB. I think $22MM is the tag for the DE position. If the Texans were to franchise him, it would have to be to a negotiated tag somewhere between the DE and OLB numbers. I've heard other sources mention $18MM range as an alternative, which is still too much.

I know there are several Mario specific threads here, that I haven't been paying attention to. They probably provide a lot more detail.