Creative but legal contract structures and roster maneuvers that NFL teams use to manipulate their salary cap position, including void years, dummy years, and roster bonus timing.
NFL cap accounting tricks are legal mechanisms that exploit the rules of the salary cap system to create financial advantages. These are not violations -- they are sophisticated applications of the CBA's cap rules that require deep knowledge of contract mechanics and creative structuring. Common tricks include void years (adding fake years to a contract solely to spread prorated bonus money over more seasons), timing roster bonuses to trigger on specific dates (allowing teams to choose when cap charges hit), using option bonuses that function like second signing bonuses, structuring incentives as "likely to be earned" or "not likely to be earned" to control when they count against the cap, and creating contracts where the practical guaranteed money differs from the technical guarantee structure. The Saints and Rams have been among the most aggressive practitioners of cap accounting tricks in recent years. The Saints famously used void years extensively during the Drew Brees era, adding multiple void years to contracts to spread bonus money as thin as possible. While these tricks provide short-term relief, they often lead to significant dead money in future years when the void years expire and all remaining prorated money accelerates onto the cap.
Category: Cap Strategies. Part of the StickToTheModel NFL Encyclopedia.