The landscape for the NFL is constantly changing amid the coronavirus pandemic and the rules being put in place to try and have a full regular season. Among the many things in constant flux surround the changing of roster rules with opting out presented as an option to all players. While they try to finalize a date, there are cap ramifications that come with players having their contracts tolled to next season.
For the Dallas Cowboys, there will not be much cap space gained financially from a new rule that pushes salary cap proration forward a year just like the base salaries.
NFL teams are about to gain tens of millions of dollars in cap space.
The management council informed clubs that signing bonus proration — not just unearned salary and bonuses — will be removed from the 2020 cap immediately upon notification a player is opting out, per sources
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) August 4, 2020
When a player signs a contract with a signing bonus, that amount is prorated over the life of the contract, up to a maximum five years. So when Amari Cooper signed a five-year, $100 million contract that included a $10 million signing bonus, here’s how it worked.
Cooper’s base salary for 2020 is $10 million, meaning that he’ll receive $20 million in 2020. However the $10 million in signing bonus is spread out (for cap purposes) evenly across the five-year deal. That means only $2 million of that money hits the 2020 cap. Cooper gets $20 million in 2020, but his cap hit is only $12 million. When he makes $20 million in base salary in 2021, his cap hit is going to be $22 million because of the prorated bonus.
For teams that have big money signings who are opting out, getting their bonus proration pushed ahead along with the base salary could be a big deal. That’s not the case for Dallas.
Thus far, only three players have opted out of the season for Dallas, with fullback Jamize Olawale, CB Maurice Canady and UDFA WR Stephen Guidry comprising the list. None of these players have what most would consider large contracts by NFL standards.
Olawale’s base salary was $1.05 million in 2020, with a prorated bonus amount of $600,000 and $100,000 in roster bonuses for a total cap impact of $1.75 million. Canady, who signed as a free agent on a one-year deal, was to count $1.121 million against the cap. Guidry, who got a $10,000 signing bonus, was a minimum salary player for $660,000 in base pay on a three-year deal, so he would’ve counted $663,333 against the cap if he had made the team.
In total, that’s just over $3.5 million of cap space that won’t be on the books, including $803,333 in bonus proration that was just added as of the recent agreement.
But the Cowboys won’t get another $3.5 million in space.
During the offseason, the team can have up to 90 players on their roster (with a newly instituted cutdown to 80 by August 17 first practices). However only the highest 51 salaries are computed for offseason cap purposes.
That means that when a player drops out of the formula, another player takes his place.
Olawale’s $1.75 million in savings is reduced by a player who costs $.75 million against the cap. The net savings is $1 million.
Canady’s $1.1 million is reduced by a player who costs $.74 million against the cap. The net savings is approximately $380,000.
Guidry wasn’t even part of the Top 51 calculation to begin with.
So the opt outs, even with the prorated bonuses now removed from the cap, gives the Cowboys just under another $1.4 million in cap space. According to OverTheCap, that brings Dallas to around $10.9 million of cap space remaining.
For those hoping the opt outs would create enough room to go out and sign additional help, it’s probably not enough to move Dallas towards bringing in any of the bigger names still out in free agency.
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