Cjfred68 wrote:
Correct...the team a player is traded to is only responsible for his yearly base salary and none of the bonus.
The bonus creates a dead cap hit to the team that traded him. With big enough contracts (6 year/80 million) that cap hit can be huge which can ruin teams
To expand on this answer:
The bonus for the current year counts as dead cap this year.
The bonus for ALL remaining years are totalled and count as dead cap ALL in the next year.
Ex:
A player has a 6 year contract with $5 million bonus each year ($30 million total bonus).
If you trade this player you take a $5 million dead cap hit this year, and a $25 million dead cap hit next year.