Hey i was wondering if you offered an old free agent a long contract and he retires after one or two years does his bonus for entire contract prorate to the season after he retires? Just wondering cause some of these contracts in free agency for old guys are crazy

I think say you end season 2020, all bonus money after that counts as dead cap 2021. Im nervous because I jumped the gun on a FA so id be interested in knowing as well.

If you sign a player to a six year contract and he retires after year 2. All of his bonus money for years 3-6 will count against the first year of his retirement. Example below:

2020 - Salary $4,000,000 Bonus $2,000,000
2021 - Salary $4,200,000 Bonus $2,000,000
2022 - Salary $4,410,000 Bonus $2,000,000
2023 - Salary $4,630,500 Bonus $2,000,000
2024 - Salary $4,862,025 Bonus $2,000,000
2025 - Salary $5,105,127 Bonus $2,000,000

If he retires after the 2021 season. 8,000,000 will count against your cap in 2022.

So what would happen if you had multiple players that all retired close together with these massive bonuses and it put you in a situation you could not afford any new players, or possibly bankrupt your org?

You won't go bankrupt. You would be in cap trouble and forced to drop players in order to get under the cap. It would be bad for a year or two and then the cap trouble would be over. In the meantime, you'd have to sign minimum contracts to keep enough players on your team to meet the minimum requirement.

But, say theoretically, if you were forced to drop/trade players with big bonuses wouldn't the situation become worse??

worse in future years but you'd still get cap relief in that season. Cap **** can put a team down for numerous seasons. That's why i was amazed at some of the long term contracts that were going to old guys in lg 19

You could be in very bad shape, and make it worse for the following season if you manage your cap space that poorly. Obviously you need to think ahead.

An example of mine is when I drafted a veteran in my allocation draft. I signed him to a brand new contract after two seasons; he retired the next year. I was left with $23,000,000 in dead cap. It took a season for me to recover, but I was careful and pulled out ok.

Wow, I didn't know this. Thanks guys.

Now it would be great if owners were tied to their teams, lost owner points (just made that up), or some kind of penalty or something to keep them from dropping their team when they get in cap trouble. That way they would not give out crazy contracts or at least the new owner would not have to step in to the salary cap disaster.

Yeah, right now there is nothing to stop an owner from over spending in Free Agency, trading away all future assets and competing for a season or two before dumping the team with virtually no assets or cap room to compete with.