Rule 51 ? Are we in trouble?

[brownelvis54]

I am confused about "The Rule of 51″




"The Rule of 51″
The NFL's Rule of 51 says that during the offseason, only the 51 most expensive contracts count against the team's salary cap, staying in effect until the start of the regular season. Once the regular season begins, all 53 players on the roster will count towards the salary cap, plus those on IR, Pup, and the practice squad.


https://en.as.com/nfl/2024-nfl-free-agency-the-salary-cap-explained-n/#:~:text=The%20NFL%27s%20Rule%20of%2051,start%20of%20the%20regular%20season.




According to the video, starts about the 5 minute mark, but the whole video is interesting. Basically money wise we are screwed. 17 players dead cap and if rule 51 expired we will be 14 - 18 million short? Is this guy correct?

[londonblue]

He is right about most of the mechanics but is wrong about dead cap. The Dead Cap is factored into the preseason 51 calculation so we do have cap space right now. Our $19m dead against the cap is mid table (21/32).

NFL Cap 255.4m
Carried over 2.5
Adjustment 2.5*
Top 51 (235.0)
Dead Cap (19.0)
Available Cap 6.4
Data from OTC
* The adjustment is a technical credit

You typically need an extra $6m to cover incremental rookie contracts over the bottom guys on the 51. Another $5-6m is needed to cover the shift from 51 to 53 and inclusion of the PS (dependent on the make-up of the PS) so he is correct that our effective cap space is lower, in effect negative. In fact it is likely to be more negative once you include IR/PUP but not c. $18m.

In summary, he understands it better than most media but his dead cap error led him off course. He ignores the fact Giants have easy options to help manage the squeeze. There are several contract restructures to create space that we can do unilaterally (by rule, without any negotiation) and if Waller quits and we post June him we also gain space.

So, NO we are not in actual cap trouble but we are cap restricted, will have to do more cap management and cannot just offer big contracts to veterans to improve CB, DT, OL.

P.S. Restructures and post June designations do tend to create future dead cap but like every NFL team bar the extreme contract manipulators (New Orleans, potentially Philly in future with their increasing use of void years) we can manage this somewhat comfortably when the cap is rising.

Ideally you want to keep dead cap at a reasonable level and limit it to one year per contract (no void years). We might well have a bigger dead cap hit but more cap space next year if we cut Jones and draft a rookie. We would have a better cap platform for the future beyond 2025 as a result.

Here endeth my accountant geek out!

[MightyGiants]

A tip of my cap to @londonblue

The man has become a salary cap guru.  He knows what he is talking about better than anyone in the media not working for one of the two salary cap websites.

Everything he said is spot-on correct.

[londonblue]

Very kind Mighty. Just a comfort area as a Finance guy. The rules are not that complex when you take the trouble to work through them.

Schoen seems to have an instinctively relatively cautious approach to cap management though he had to do one or two things he wanted to avoid early on cleaning up the inherited mess. As an example his shying clear of void years for the most part and his use of incentives and roster bonuses provides a bit of a hedge against injury and underperformance.

If we did have a bounce back this season with key players like DJ staying fit and over-performing incentives the positive adjustment we have this year might become become a negative number next year as the difference between incentives earned in season & those treated as 'likely' (so included in this year's cap) counts on the next year's cap.

I have just assumed OTC have got their adjustment calculations correct rather than trying to work through contract by contract but an adjustment in our favour this year makes sense given under-performance/injuries. Any errors they make tend to be minor so it should be fine.

[brownelvis54]

Thanks London, I feel better and defiantly more educated.....a poster pointed out this site as well. Tons of information (lots of it over my head), but still cool to look at.


https://overthecap.com/salary-cap/new-york-giants


AND all things that pertain to rule and Compensatory Picks


https://overthecap.com/

[londonblue]

I used OTC for the numbers elvis. I have them and Spotrac bookmarked. They both have pros and cons in terms of ease of use/clarity of data but sometimes one or other of them spots something the other misses.