Cap affect of paying as you go vs pushing out and having dead space

[bobblehead]

The Packers signed David Baktiari to a 4 year 91 million dollar deal with 62M fully guaranteed. Whether you used signing bonuses or guaranteed roster bonuses, it’s still fully guaranteed.

Here’s how a front loaded deal with 62M guaranteed would look. And we HAVE TO INCLUDE THE GUARANTEED. That’s why he signed. There’s no way out of that.

20M signing bonus
42M total guaranteed roster bonuses
62M guarantees between the two types of bonuses
29M in non guaranteed base salaries
91M total

Year 1 - 1M base - 16M roster bonus paid at day 1 league year but fully guaranteed at signing (22M cap hit)
Year 2 - 1M base - 16M roster bonus paid on day 1 league year but fully guaranteed on signing (22M cap hit)
Year 3 - 11M base - 10M roster bound paid on day 1 league year but fully guaranteed on signing (26M cap hit)
Year 4 - 16M base - (21M cap hit)


No matter how you structure 62M of guarantees you still can’t cut him or all the guarantees accelerate. Once you decided you wanted David Bakhtiari, you decided you would pay a lot of guarantees and no matter how you structured it, you’re screwed if he has a career ender.

The real problem was the guarantees, not the later cap hits. There’s no way to guarantee 62M without paying 62M when you cut the guy. Draw me up a simple example where that money doesn’t accelerate when you cut him. Make it fully guaranteed and then don’t pay him. I want to see how you guarantee 62 and then don’t pay it because you cut him. I’ve never seen that .

All that WASN'T locked in when he signed. What happened is that each year Gutes guaranteed most of his base which converted it to bonus and stretched it over the remaining years. He did this because we were in cap hell and he needed to kick it down the road more. Now, in the final year of the deal the only way to kick it would be adding void years, which if I understand it, the player needs to agree to, and Bak wouldn't. Thus, all the coin we paid him wasn't "paid for" against the cap yet. Now is the time of reckoning.