Understanding the salary cap - Redskins style

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Here's something I posted in a couple of other threads. But I see that there are a lot of people that don't understand how the Skins can manage to sign the players they do year after year. I live in NY, so I hear it all the time. They are so pissed at us right now it's hilarious.

Here it is:

What I don't like is all of the anal-ysts, that keep hinting or outright saying that the Skins are cheating the cap.

What I don't get is why all of these supposedly football savvy journalists, some that claim to understand the salary cap, don't know how the Skins do it. It's pretty simple.

Large signing bonuses which get pro-rated over several years. The first couple of years the guys usually make veteran minimums, with their salary increasing until the end of the contract. But, some of this is set up as roster bonuses instead of salary. Which is some of the "guaranteed" money that keeps getting mentioned. But it's only guaranteed if the player is still on the roster when the bonus is due. If the player is still there, the roster bonuses can then get converted to signing bonuses, which of course get pro-rated over a few years. Which provides room for new signings. And those large salaries at the end of the contract usually get reworked. Everything always fits.

Does anyone think that Dan Snyder doesn't know how to handle money? The guy practically grows it. He's a great business man that's made himself a fortune. I'd have to bet that Mr. Snyder has a huge hand in managing the cap. And for all that everyone always predicts "Cap Hell" for us in 3 years, it hasn't hit yet. Thanks to Dan's incredible ability to work the numbers to field the team that his coaching staff wants every year.

And the other part of this puzzle? The players. They love the way they are schmoozed by the FO and the coaching staff. They love the way that their families are included in the whole process, how Coach Gibbs talks to their wives. They love the fan base and traditions of the Redskins. But the bottom line is, they love that their money is up front and immediate. They take their signing bonuses from us rather than a similar amount in salary. If they're injured, they still have their bonus and their family is provided for. With the other offers they get, an injury would seriously affect the value of the contract.

Sorry for the long post. But I still say it's pretty simple.

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Here's someone that understands our cap situation. (pulled from another thread regarding the Archeluta contract)

Don't be naive. The contract is backloaded like crazy and it will only be the richest deal if he plays the whole thing out. All of these contracts we gave out this year will have to be revisited in 3-4 years. You have to look at the guaranteed money and the first 3-4 years compensation to determine the true value of the contract. Besides, if he hits his incentives, Sean Taylor's contract can potentially go over 40 mil by the time it's done so I don't see how Archuleta's is the richest. Maybe the richest signing bonus, but that's because Synder has no quams about writing the check and the cap hit is deferred that way.

All this junk you hear about overpaying is nothing more than that....junk. The contracts were all designed to generously compensate the player while being cap friendly and if Dan can afford the signing bonus checks, what's the difference? Overpayed is relative, if they contribute and their cap figures don't force us to lose other people, i fail to see how we overpayed. For example, for the life of the contract, Chicago was offering EL more than us, their owner just didn't want to cut that big a check right off the bat. Dan isn't afraid to take a loss and in doing so he creates cap room and gains a competitve advantage over other clubs when it comes to acquiring FAs. Players sign for the signing bonus, that's where the real money is.