Beason - what would make him a guinea pig?

Teams can and do prorate that second bonus. I'm not denying that.

My understanding is that teams can do that with most any type of bonus if they so choose. If you hit an incentive bonus in year 3 of a 6 year contract, that can be prorated. Salary can be restructured into a prorated payment. It's just a paperwork exersize.

 

Really?


http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?columnist=pasquarelli_len&id=1999547

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04167/331988.stm

http://blogs.charlotte.com/panthers/2007/05/no_3_million_bo.html

http://newyorkjets.tribe.net/thread/dfe988de-1491-41c9-816b-8d041ff17029

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/06/AR2006030601071.html

And lastly
http://www.nflpa.org/pdfs/Agents/CBA_Amended_2006.pdf

 

What Piper means is that you can't have a signing bonus that doesn't kick in until a later year of the contract. A signing bonus has to start counting against the cap that first year. Meanwhile the links you're providing are referring to when the money is paid to the player, not when it starts counting against the cap. So Coles, Pennington, Johnson etc were not given the real money by the teams until that later date, but that deferred portion was already counting against the cap because a signing bonus cannot be deferred in terms of cap impact.

Am I explaining that in a way that makes any sense? Basically Piper is talking about when it counts against the cap (and because signing bonus cap hits cannot be deferred to later years, that's why teams insert these non-signing bonuses), while your links are referring to when the actual money is transferred from the team to the player's bank account.


And just because I feel these points are important, we did give an option bonus to Steve Smith (obviously he's more critical than a rook, but you can't say you're philosophically opposed to them and then give them out, even to your best players), and we could choose to just give Beason all the bonus money in signing bonus if we're that determined to avoid paying him an option bonus (we have the cap room to do that, but we obviously don't want to).

 

The team may not be philosophically opposed to them, and Smith is a superstar. Comparing Smiths extension to a player who has never played a NFL down is a big leap.

 

1. I'm pretty sure the Panthers have used option bonuses before. That was when they could recover them if the player defaulted on the contract. Now they can't because of the ruling.

2. No one said all the other teams use option bonuses. Even Beason's agents said MOST other teams do it. Most does not equal all.

3. Only Beason's side said they substituted incentives for the option bonus. One article said they were trying to substitute roster bonuses. Big difference. I think a roster bonus can be guaranteed for injury. I bet it can be recovered if there is a default too.

4. No they cannot just give him a bigger signing bonus. There are special rules limiting the size of the bonus as a ratio to the salary in the contract. So the size of the signing bonus is limited by the rookie cap. That's the entire reason the option bonus was born. To get around that rookie cap/ratio to salary rule.

I'm not sure anyone is at fault here. I understand both positions. Maybe we just need to let them work it out. Eventually they will.

 

Again.


The second bonus really is a roster bonus. Or deferred compensation, to be more accurate. Used to be you could retrieve that money like the rest of the signing bonus. Now you can't. Section 9(a), forfieture of signing bonuses of the CBA, no longer covers this payment.

The provision you cited in the CBA merely allows them to prorate the payment.


Regardless, it's semantics. The bottom line is we are trying to get Beason to take an incentive bonus instead.

 

I know. I'm just noting to them how it's not as if the Colts are going to take a $15 mil cap hit in that example to keep Freeney next year.

And there's no reason Beason should just take incentives instead of bonus due to him. Defensive players tend, at least if I can recollect, to get more bonus up front. Just cough it up - and hell at this late part of the round, we're talking about, what, $6 mil over 5 years? Sure, it sucks that the contract will be 60% bonus, but it's still a fucking bargain. $6 mil over five years isn't even really worth breaking up.

 

Smith's extension came after the ruling and included an option bonus.

He said most teams in the draft have done it, but that all of the other first round picks are getting one.