Quote:
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut
Frontloading makes no sense at all for Sammy Watkins. They needed to backload that deal precisely BECAUSE they intend to draft his replacement so you cut him before the big money hits.
The theory is that you frontload someone like Jones because you want to keep him for the duration of the deal and in years 3-4-5 when his base is lower, it makes your cap cleaner for a Mahomes extension. It's a sound theory but it ignores the rollover credits for unused cap space. By frontloading (let's say $12 million from years 3-4-5) you've plowed another $12 million into years 1 and 2. All that extra $12 million did was eat up cap space in years 1 and 2 that would've been a 1 for 1 carryover into years 3 and beyond.
Don't do it at all and nothing changes. You've instead built that $12 million into cap credits that raise your cap in year 3 by that very same $12 million which can then be used to pay the very same money to Mahomes. Meanwhile you've also left the threat of Jones getting cut as he reaches his bigger payouts over his head, encouraging him to continue to play hard.
Frontloading makes nearly no sense in any capacity unless it encourages the player to take a lower AAV. And frankly, it should, because frontloaded money acts as guaranteed money.
So the reason he's doing it has nothing to do with freeing up money for Mahomes - it makes no difference either way. The reason he'd be doing it is to create more up-front security. His agents can pitch it to the fans that way if they'd like, but that's not how the cap works in the rollover era.
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Sorry, think we're talking about frontloading in two different ways. I'm talking about frontloading as in prorated cap. Get all your cap hits out of the way on the front end so they're easy to cut by year 3. Most free agents we've signed have overpaid base salaries but very low bonus money.