This time of year, fans and journalists spend a lot of time focused on salary cap, but often struggle to really understand the nuances of how salary cap works.
It relies on the principles of accrual accounting, which can be complex and difficult, and since some pretty smart lawyers are involved with crafting contracts that are controlled by the league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement — a document typically renegotiated every ten years or so — the player contracts and cap implications are often based on arcane principles that defy common sense.
I have published a couple of articles previously aimed at explaining the basics of salary cap and NFL contracts:
I thought I’d take the opportunity today, in this short window between the ‘frenzied’ part of free agency and the college draft, which is about 5 or 6 weeks away, to look in a bit of detail at some concepts that some people sometimes struggle with.