How does the cap work

[Wit]

We have signed a bunch of guys and they announce the highest amount the guys can make. What happens to the cap when these players reach the bonuses? Does it not count against the cap? Why not offer your QB a 50 million dollar bonus for playing three games?

[Skeptable]

24 minutes ago, Wit said:

We have signed a bunch of guys and they announce the highest amount the guys can make. What happens to the cap when these players reach the bonuses? Does it not count against the cap? Why not offer your QB a 50 million dollar bonus for playing three games?

https://overthecap.com/salary-cap/new-york-jets

[rex-n-effect]

1 hour ago, Wit said:

We have signed a bunch of guys and they announce the highest amount the guys can make. What happens to the cap when these players reach the bonuses? Does it not count against the cap? Why not offer your QB a 50 million dollar bonus for playing three games?

There are slightly different rules for incentives and roster bonuses and when they hit the cap but eventually they always hit the cap.

There are two types of performance incentives: likely to be earned (LTBE) and not likely to be earned (NLTBE).

Likely to be earned are incentives that pay out if the player hits a goal they hit in the preceding year. Like a WR made 50 catches last year and this year his contract has an incentive if he catches 40 passes. Those incentives count against the salary cap this year. If the WR fails to achieve the incentive goal, the performance incentive is credited to the following year's cap.

Not likely to be earned work the other way around. A WR caught 40 passes last year. The incentive this year pays if he catches 50. These incentives do not count against the salary cap this year. If he receives the performance incentive this year, it attaches to the salary cap for next year.  

Roster bonuses work similar to LTBE incentives. You look back at how many games the player played the prior year and multiply that by the per-game roster bonus. That amount falls under the current year's cap. If the player plays more games than expected, each additional game hits the current year's cap. If the player plays fewer games than the prior year, the cap is credited the remainder in the following year. 

[usanyj]

[OtherwiseHappyinLife]

7 hours ago, rex-n-effect said:

There are slightly different rules for incentives and roster bonuses and when they hit the cap but eventually they always hit the cap.

There are two types of performance incentives: likely to be earned (LTBE) and not likely to be earned (NLTBE).

Likely to be earned are incentives that pay out if the player hits a goal they hit in the preceding year. Like a WR made 50 catches last year and this year his contract has an incentive if he catches 40 passes. Those incentives count against the salary cap this year. If the WR fails to achieve the incentive goal, the performance incentive is credited to the following year's cap.

Not likely to be earned work the other way around. A WR caught 40 passes last year. The incentive this year pays if he catches 50. These incentives do not count against the salary cap this year. If he receives the performance incentive this year, it attaches to the salary cap for next year.  

Roster bonuses work similar to LTBE incentives. You look back at how many games the player played the prior year and multiply that by the per-game roster bonus. That amount falls under the current year's cap. If the player plays more games than expected, each additional game hits the current year's cap. If the player plays fewer games than the prior year, the cap is credited the remainder in the following year. 

Thank you.  

[Sarge4Tide]

Not this way....

 

[Jetsfan80]

@Sperm Edwards

 

[Claymation]

Like this.