Well, as far as I've read the developers posts so far, it is definitely a bug. Because he is basically saying that he wants the game to reflect the real NFL as good as possible.

I mean, nice to know for me, that I can now sign my player, whose initial demand is for $36,605,858/5yrs including $12,347,365 total bonus, for just $17,288,951/5yrs...because I just met the total bonus demand...

....but that needs to change I guess. It's just crazy.

EDIT: Ok, for me "bonus" had something to do with performance. But it's simply a signing bonus in this calculation, right?

And that's why the player takes 12,5 immediately & 17,5 total over 12,4 immediately & 40 total? Even tough the rest is "base salary" and would be collected over time, too?

That's still ridiculous from a logical standpoint, but ok...at least it applies to everyone. ;)

It's just how the game goes and it's that way for everyone.

The important thing is that everyone knows how the system works so they don't lose out in on being at the same playing field as others.

+1

One additional question...is that bonus pro-rated, do you pay it in full, when you sign the contract? Or really over the years, like the table shows it?

Walleandmomo if you are unable to get under the cap for whatever reason, the game will do it for you after camp.

If you haven't reached the draft stage yet the best thing you can do for the upcoming season is to trade away as many assets as you can for future picks.(2-3 seasons in the future) And trade your current picks for future picks as you might lose some of those players when the game gets you under the cap. Picks are really easy to trade. Everybody wants em.

Besides draftees cost you more money compounding the problem. So once you've done all that and the game gets you back under cap, you can start a rebuild from there. You will prolly have to stick it out with marginal players for the rest of that season to get back on your feet. Then you can get to work.

In some cases that is all you can do. Good luck and have fun with it.

Over the years unless you cut or trade that player, then any unused bonus is lumped together as a dead cap hit.

Ah, ok. So for your 2nd or 3rd year 80/90 #1 talent, you just exactly use this method, because you want to lock that player up for the maximum 6 years and not trade him anywhere.

And for older players/ players who are not a lock/ players you don't need to sign long term, you don't necessarily calculate this way.

Look at the renegotiation wizard threads. It explains how to re-sign players to the max bonus requested with min salary.

Basically find the min bonus they will sign for. Max out the bonus slider and reduce the salary slider until you get to the bonus needed.

In some cases the developer JDB will wipe out the dead cap to help with your rebuild. You just have to ask.