The Salary Cap's effect on releasing players

The Salary Cap's effect on releasing players

Managing the salary cap in Madden 13 connected careers will be quite challenging if you are not familiar with how NFL contracts are broken down. The length of the contract and signing bonus for the player can add to your cap penalty if you are not careful when you release a player. This guide will explain how these roster moves will affect your cap penalty so that you can manage your team better.

The time has come to release Darren Sproles. He is just too old and taking up too much of your salary cap for you to keep him around. Sproles was originally signed to a 4 year contract for $12 mil with a $6 mil signing bonus. There are 2 years remaining on the contract. The amount of the remaining contract for each year as well. The only portion you really need to worry about is the signing bonus which was $6 mil. There are 2 out of 4 years remaining which means half of the signing bonus is still owed. The signing bonus is broken down evenly over the length of the contract which means $6 mil divided by 4 years equals $1.5 mil per year. Since there are 2 years left, the total cap penalty will be $1.5 mil times 2 which equals a total of $3 mil.

If you like formulas - Cap Penalty = (Years remaining/Total Contract years) x signing bonus

For Sproles it looks like this : (2 / 4) x $6 mil = $3 mil. Since there are 2 years left, you will receive a cap penalty of $1.5 mil for the current year and next year. $1.5 mil was added to each of those years after Sproles was released.

Hope this helps!