Clayton: Potential cap casualties,all 32 teams Cap situations*

SAINTSFAN said
I understand this is only for illustration purposes. However, contracts are structured not only for the current year, but for future years as well. All of those contracts push huge cap hits to future years, so that would have to fit within the Saints salary plans/budgets. Also, guaranteed money is not always all paid up front.

Very true, and I agree! But, again, it was only for illustration purposes to give Bornraisedthat an idea on how things could work given our current salary cap status. It would have been complicated to explain, say, two-tiered bonuses where the first bonus might be prorated over the first year or two year of the deal and the second bonus would be prorated of the remaining life of the deal. Also, you're right--all guaranteed money is not paid up front.

Now, in terms of pushing cap hits to future years, most deals done do that anyway. There have been times when teams have frontloaded deals, or as we saw last year dumped a lot of money into the uncapped year a la the Redskins with Haynesworth ($21 million). But for the most part, these deals end up being shorter deals than they appear. You can have salary increases in year 5, 6, and 7 on a deal that is technically set up to be a 4 year deal. Those things happen all the time. The other thing to keep in mind is that in 2014, salaries are expected to jump because of an expected increase in revenue. As always, there are any number of factors that might dictate how teams choose to set up certain deals; but good GMs will always try to set them up with the goal of remaining competitive while also having an eye for how to maintain that competiveness in the future.