So in a signing bonus they get the money then, but as far as the cap hit it's spread out over the length of the contract. So if he was cut after 3 years then you owe two years of that prorated signing bonus that year.
Exactly. Also, When you hear about player contracts getting restructured, the player isn’t gaining or losing any money. What’s happening is the team is turning a year’s salary into a guaranteed lump some, which as a player would be great. But the reason the team does this is so they can prorate that money over 5 years instead of having it all on this year’s cap.
Imagine if a player has 20m$ in salary this year, and 5 years left on his deal. They restructure, give him that 20m$ today, and then the cap hit is dropped by 16m$! all that they account for this year is the 4m$ portion of the prorated guarantee.
The problem with restructures is twofold: what if they did that this year, and then did it again next year? Suddenly the final 3 years of the deal each have ~10m$ more added too then, so you’re really just pushing back the cap hits until they catch up with you. That’s what happened with Romo, and the reason he was still a 15m$ cap hit on your books a year after he retired. You restructured him 2-3 times.
The second issue here is what we talked about before, it becomes that much harder to move a player. So if you give him a giant signing bonus AND restructure him a year or two down the line, it could be an insane accumulation of cap hits to move him. It’s why Philly gained 0 cap relief by trading Wentz. Now imagine if Pat Mahomes declared he was an anarchist and did some unmentionable things. The chiefs would take a 92m$ cap hit by cutting him, despite the fact he’s not paid nearly that much per year. It’s because his signing bonus was huge and they’ve already restructured him.
So there’s always a colossal risk in the background to restructuring a player with a huge contract. What if he has a career ending injury? What if he abruptly retired?
