If I had a player signed for a 6 year contract, and I wanted to know what percentage of my total funds that contract represented, how would I go about figuring that out? I'd like to know what percentage it represents over the 6 year period, not just the current season.

That's an interesting thought - I can tell you that the salary cap increases at a flat rate of 5% per year - you can calculate it yourself in a spreadsheet but that info isn't pushed anywhere.

Exactly what I was doing, creating some info in a spreadsheet. I figure a guys value to my team hinges at least somewhat on what he is currently or potentially going to cost me..... Thanks for the info, should be able to calculate from there.

Does dead cap ever extend past the next season?

Dead cap is an expense right? It's what you lost in letting players go, correct? So when figuring total cap available over 6 seasons, I'd have to subtract all dead cap, correct?

When you cut a player who was signed with a bonus, his current year bonus is applied as dead cap in the current season, and the rest of his bonus (all years combined) is applied to the next year. So you only have dead cap at any time for the current season and the upcoming season.

Why does it also apply this formula if a player retires? I thought retired players didn't count against the cap.

Cut, trade, and retire all act the same for the salary cap.

Why would a player ask for a 5 year deal and then retire the next year? The way it works is crippling.

The player will ask for what he thinks he can get on the open market; as players age, their ratings will decline, so you might want to be cautious extending older player's contracts too long. In my experience I haven't had this happen, but unless you're really loading up the bonus or are signing lots of older players, it shouldn't be crippling. I'd be curious to know who asked for a 5-year contract and then retired right away, 5-year contracts should only be requested by players with a pretty high rating which in theory should decline before they retire. But, this is part of the risk of signing older players to long contracts or high bonuses.

I looked and it wasn't as bad as I thought. He asked for a 5 year deal, but only had 2 left when he retired. He was my highest paid player, as he was a safety with a rating of 90.