Salary Cap

[Andrew]

Can somebody explain the Salary Cap info to me. For my team it says:

Cap used next year: 53,870,000
Salary Cap: 108,600,000
Lost Cap Room: 890,000
Room Under cap: 12,240,000
Max for new player: 5,980,000

How much do I have to spend in Free Agency?

[Mistwood]

answer = $5980*

You have $12,240 open space but $6260 is dogeared for draft picks. **

* you can increase that amount by releasing or renegotiating players to a lower cap number

** you can decrease that number by trading away draft picks

Considering you have at least 16 players to sign as FA's you have a bit of a cap problem (avg $373k isn't going to get you much in FA).

Feel free to trade me draft picks

Free Thoughts: Hampton DT is paid a lot for his ratings, as is CB Johannenmeier (sp?), and OG Pegues, and you've got one too many overpriced, old Center. And I don't think any FB is worth $2m in cap space.

[Andrew]

OK, I definitely need cap help. I offered a bunch of renegotiations for the upcoming sim, but have no sense of how much to low ball these guys without pissing them off. What general strategies should I be looking at?

[Cotton]

On the left of the player screen it'll tell you what their current cap cost is (salary + prorated previous bonus). Sometimes you have to drag the negotiation screen to the right to look at it underneath if you forget. Then compare that with the top line of what they're interested in re-signing for. If it's lower, you'll save some cap room for this season (often increasing it for future seasons). There's also a Cap Out option, that will basically offer the player their salary up front as a bonus, which allows you to lower this season's cap, and pass it on to future seasons - so be careful with that. :) Capping out can really nail you in future seasons, but it's a nice little 'emergency' option. Not all players will go for it, but if the "Cap Out" button is available, they most likely will.

Remember that the longer the contract, the lower the effect of the bonus on your cap room picture because it's divided by the total years of the deal. So if you offer a guy a 10,000,000 bonus for four years, it's a 2,500,000 cap hit for four seasons, but if you can squeeze in a fifth season for the same bonus (not always likely, but worth a try sometimes), you reduce it to 2,000,000.

[Cotton]

Also, if you do a Contract View of your roster and sort by the guys who'll save you the most money by being released and look for a release saving that's close to their actual current cap cost. Those are usually guys that can save you some cap room by re-doing a deal. If the Released Savings is WAY lower than their current cap cost, you've probably already milked their deals enough. ;)

[Guest]

OK, I definitely need cap help. I offered a bunch of renegotiations for the upcoming sim, but have no sense of how much to low ball these guys without pissing them off. What general strategies should I be looking at?

To answer your specific comment, it's very difficult to lowball them on renegotiations.

[Cotton]

Generally, by looking into all those options - and look at guys that had subpar seasons - they might actually request a pay cut for a small bonus up front - you'll find you don't have to lowball at all. If you can, that's even better.

[aholbert]

OK, I definitely need cap help. I offered a bunch of renegotiations for the upcoming sim, but have no sense of how much to low ball these guys without pissing them off. What general strategies should I be looking at?

To answer your specific comment, it's very difficult to lowball them on renegotiations.

I'm finding that out the hard way w/ Justin Lyle.

[Andrew]

Same here with Amos Grimm. Having a DE, no matter how talented, eating up $15 mil of my cap is killing me. I would blame it all on the AI, but part of it is my own fault in being lazy and just giving guys what they asked for.

[Dave]

Same here with Amos Grimm. Having a DE, no matter how talented, eating up $15 mil of my cap is killing me. I would blame it all on the AI, but part of it is my own fault in being lazy and just giving guys what they asked for.

It's not laziness. Rarely, in my experience, will a guy take anything much less than what he's asking for. Very different from OOTP where you can lowball players and actually have back and forth negotiations. I like the cap management in this game a lot more, but I wish there was a little more back and forth. Right now it's basically your players saying, "No, this isn't what I asked for" if you try to lowball them. And that's if they don't cease to deal with you entirely for insulting them.

[Guest]

The exception is the whole free market thing. If a free agent isn't generating offers for his asking price, he'll eventually sign for significantly less. But when you're trying to extend one of your own players, you're going to have to either get creative, or offer his asking price. It's not as simple as "same contract, 5% less money%," or anything like that.

I hate to sound like a broken record, but this is another area where experimenting in SP can be very, very valuable. I was able to ink my star RB in IHOF to a *very* cap-friendly deal last season due to ideas I'd learned in SP. The contract was structured VERY different from what he'd requested, and it saved me 2 or 3 mil in cap room, if I recall.

[Cotton]

That's why I mentioned some of those other ideas. I've never been able to kill much room by lowballing. Like ever. But there are options. Unless you're WAY over the cap, then it's time to start up the ol' Trade Block.

[Cotton]

I hate to sound like a broken record, but this is another area where experimenting in SP can be very, very valuable.

Bingo. Everyone should have an SP career or two. It's a huge help.

[Andrew]

Good advice guys. Thanks!

[Guest]

Cotton addressing the various FOF forums on the celery cap. ..