Rumors circulating about Jeff Bezos buying the team

[That Guy]

Originally Posted by Pervis_Griffith

It was an example. Not a suggestion.

Some franchises seem to find a way to do it all - keep their players, signing them to big deals, while ALSO attracting mega free agents, and signing them to big deals.

And I think it has to do with how deals are structured and favors franchises who are led by owners who aren't squeamish about spending money. They work around the salary cap somehow. Which is what I was asking about.

It's a hard cap, but bonus money is spread out over the remaining life of the contract (and comes due if a guy is cut early). Most contracts tend to be backloaded and some have essentially joke years just so the player/agent can say they made more than they actually did (tends to only be high profile guys, and not super common).

Either way, yes, you can pay more upfront in signing bonuses and backload the yearly pay, and if the cap keeps going up that can work out. If it doesn't or you're not great at managing it, you're mortgaging your future.

The Russel Wilson deal is horrible for example and they can't cut him because they can't afford the cap hit (they could designate him a post-june 1 cut and then ONLY have a dead cap hit of 70m or so I believe). Dead cap is money you're paying a player that's no longer on your team.

TLDR: you can massage the cap, but no, you can't actually get around it.