It was you who said whoever said that is "trolling". So I believe that derr comment applies to your comment.
And I don't like it. It's what we have to do too often. It's bad business. One of the many things this front office doesn't do well. I'm not going to applaud it just because it's out of our control.
We gambled on Miles Austin in the uncapped year and got hosed. The NFL has to approve all contracts so for them to approve it and then come back a year later and punish us for it is just ridiculous. So a lot of decisions that were made the last few years probably included an extra $10 million that the league has now taken away from us.
Educate me if I'm wrong (I'm not, btw)....
This is what we're doing.... we're taking Dick McNuttsandballs 7 mil salary this year, and we're converting say, 5 million into a SB over the remaining three years of his deal. So his cap # is, instead of 7 mil, is now 2 + prorated portion of new SB (1.66 mil) in this example... thus saving 3.4 mil (approx) against this years cap. But we're adding 1.6mil in salary to 2014/2015 years. Or, if McNuttsandballs is cut after this year, then we have 3+ mil dead money (plus whatever other guaranteed money was already there.
I don't get how you can say we'll never pay the bill. When it's guaranteed money, we pay it regardless. Hence, guaranteed
I've explained this before but the only thing that gets pushed is a larger pro-rated bonus which is a number that only exists for cap hit purposes, it's no longer real. the Money was paid up front. What people have to realize is that we are not going to restructure anyone that we realistically think will be cut a year later.
Using your example, Dick M had a $7 million base this year. You aren’t including whatever pro-rated bonus hit he had from his past signing bonus. Let’s say it’s $1M so that he has a 2013 cap hit of $8M. Now, let’s say Dick is a player we see playing for us as least another 2 years, 2013 and 2014.
Without restructuring him we will pay out $ 7 million in actual money over 17 weeks and then pay him a much bigger salary in 2014. Let’s say $8M so including that $1M pro-rated bonus, a $9 M cap hit.
So, since we have no cap room AND intend for him to play for the Dallas Cowboys for at least 2 years, we ask him to restructure. So we give him the $5M restructure bonus. This brings his 2013 cap hit down from $8M all the way to $4,666,667 ( $2 million base + $1M original pro-rated bonus + $1,666,667 new restructuring bonus). The $5M restructuring bonus is gone, it’s paid. Dick M went from getting $7 million over 17 weeks to $5M cash up front and $2M over 17 weeks. Either way Dick M costs the Dallas Cowboys $7M in actual cash this year. They key, is it freed up $3,333,333 in immediate cap room which means we can sign an additional free agent to improve the roster. So now we have Dick M. and our new free agent. Before we only had Dick M.
Now, in 2014 Dick M will have a cap hit of $ 10,666,667 instead of the $9M he would have had if we did not restructure. So yes, it does give us a bigger CAP number but in actual money paid out it will still be $8M spread out over 17 weeks just like it was in 2013. Same exact money as before the restructure, just a slightly larger cap hit.
In 2015, Dick M, now age 32, has a cap hit of $11,666,667. The team has decided he is not playing up to the level of his contract and cuts him. The cap hit is $2,666,667 and the moves free up $9M in cap room. Actual money paid out to Dick M in 2015 is ZERO DOLLARS. That final bill never comes. The $2,666,667 cap hit is not actual money paid out, it’s only purpose is cap space. He already got that money from his original signing bonus and then restructure bonus in 2013.