Kuechly's Retirement Money & It's Dead Cap Hit

[SetfreexX]

As you know, we are eating 11M in dead cap due to Luke's retirement. I haven't seen any reports about the team seeking that money out, does anyone know if there is a deadline on that? Is the front office looking to be classy by letting him keep all of it with plans to eat the loss since this was health related. 

[LinvilleGorge]

Yeah, going after money from a great player hanging up the cleats in his prime due to health concerns in a presser while fighting back tears is going to sell very well to recruiting free agents and trying to re-sign our own guys. The Colts didn't go after Luck's money and we aren't going after Luke's.

[raleigh-panther]

I don’t know why contracts can’t be written, or should have been written, to translate this type of thing to a cash payment and not punish teams for these sudden retirements. By doing that, the players get their  money, and teams are not punished.  Win Win

[jfra78]

2 minutes ago, raleigh-panther said:

I don’t know why contracts can’t be written, or should have been written, to translate this type of thing to a cash payment and not punish teams for these sudden retirements. By doing that, the players get their  money, and teams are not punished.  Win Win

Probably if it doesnt count against the cap, then the player would be off the hook so to speak.  If they decide to unretire, we still own their contract.

[TheCasillas]

3 minutes ago, raleigh-panther said:

I don’t know why contracts can’t be written, or should have been written, to translate this type of thing to a cash payment and not punish teams for these sudden retirements. By doing that, the players get their  money, and teams are not punished.  Win Win

It's because team's still want the rights to that player. Not all retirements are permanent. Retirement is written the same as injury. NFLPA wanted to make sure the players get paid whether they retire or not.

[BrianS]

2 minutes ago, raleigh-panther said:

I don’t know why contracts can’t be written, or should have been written, to translate this type of thing to a cash payment and not punish teams for these sudden retirements. By doing that, the players get their  money, and teams are not punished.  Win Win

They are written that way.  Our dead cap hit for Luke is his signing bonus, which we paid Luke on the day he signed the contract.  He has the money, it was a cash payment.

The reason we still SEE that money is because of the way the NFL allows teams to spread out the CAP hit from a signing bonus over the entire length of the contract.  Instead of having to take Luke's entire salary and signing bonus against our cap the first year he signed it, we spread the signing bonus out over the whole contract.

Because he retired, we now have to account for his entire remaining portion of his signing bonus.  We paid him the money, so we have to account for it.

You also can't write contract rule exceptions that allow teams to simply dump signing bonus for players who retire.  It would be entirely to easy to take advantage of or manipulate.  Would be a mess.

What "needs" to happen is more money needs to move from signing bonuses to performance bonuses or guaranteed salary.  Good luck selling players on that.

[SetfreexX]

30 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Yeah, going after money from a great player hanging up the cleats in his prime due to health concerns in a presser while fighting back tears is going to sell very well to recruiting free agents and trying to re-sign our own guys. The Colts didn't go after Luck's money and we aren't going after Luke's.

Yeah, I'm not knocking the PR nightmare, or ramifications, was just curious we hadn't heard either way, I think we all just moved along with the assumption, I think a guy made a good point, on the off chance he returns we have his contact.

[Ricky Spanish]

45 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Yeah, going after money from a great player hanging up the cleats in his prime due to health concerns in a presser while fighting back tears is going to sell very well to recruiting free agents and trying to re-sign our own guys. The Colts didn't go after Luck's money and we aren't going after Luke's.

Lions did it to Megatron

He wants nothing to do with the organization any longer. 

[LinvilleGorge]

Just now, Ricky Spanish said:

Lions did it to Megatron

He wants nothing to do with the organization any longer. 

Yeah and I don't think anyone is trying to emulate the Lions.

[AggieLean]

I wonder is there a list of players that teams have gone after for a return of the money, and a list of players that have been allowed to keep theirs.

Lions went after Calvin Johnson’s, while the Colts and Panthers (assuming) allowed Luck and Luke to keep theirs. Would be interesting to see, and to see if organizations have been inconsistent in their giving and taking away.

[pantherclaw]

Luke has done more than enough for this franchise.  He's earned that money and then some!!

[TheRed]

It's an interesting conversation, because there are posters here who stay in the pockets of certain Panthers players while overlooking others.

Personally I think it's fuged up to try to go after that money no matter who the player is. If they were the ones out there risking themselves they keep it.

[Sasquatch]

1 hour ago, Ricky Spanish said:

Lions did it to Megatron

He wants nothing to do with the organization any longer. 

They started the "get signing bonus money back" with Barry Sanders.

[LinvilleGorge]

2 minutes ago, Sasquatch said:

They started the "get signing bonus money back" with Barry Sanders.

I think those were also a bit different situations. Luke was an all-time great player who retired in his prime due to health concerns. Barry and Megatron were all-time great players who retired in their primes in large part because they didn't want to play for the fuging Detroit Lions anymore. LOL!