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The 5 O’Clock Club: A deeper dive on the salary cap - Rule of 51 & the Rookie Pool

The 5 o’clock club aims to provide a forum for reader-driven discussion at a time of day when there isn’t much NFL news being published. Feel free to introduce topics that interest you in the comments below.

People have a lot of interest in salary cap right now

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.