skinsfan#33 wrote:
This doesn't jive with what the article said. They said that the base salaries essentially don't count until opening day because they are usually below the top 51. The only thing that counts is the prorated portion of the bonus.
And again the Skin may only make one draft pick this year (highly doubtful - but ask mike ditka about ricki williams). So it doesn't seam correct that they will need all 6.5M in cap space. But if I read the article is right they would only need the $4.1M to cover bonuses.
Base Salaries don't count until the start of the league year but the league year started on March 13th. The Rule of 51 considers the overall cap hit a player's contract totals (which includes base salary, prorated signing bonuses and other bonuses paid) that year.
The Rookie Pool is the money needed to sign all of the teams picks. It's set by some formula with a min and a max, again see last season's draft. It was the first year of the rookie pool, it's really a rookie cap that didn't take into consideration that a team would take 6 picks and turn them into 12 selections. The pool amount wasn't adjusted.
Yes all of the picks prorated bonus for 2012 will count against the cap but so will some of the picks base salaries.
If they only draft one player it will be at the #69 spot, but his base salary + pro-rated SB would be high enough to move the player up to about number 40 under the rule of 51. Both of the teams 4th round picks will be paid enough to be in the top 45 under the rule of 51. At the same time guys like M White, C Neild, Willie Smith, and Mo Hurt have base salaries that still won't impact the cap under the rule of 51 this year other than the pro rate money.
The needs the space for the rookie pool before the draft, once they meet that requirement, they can turn into the Bucs and lowball all of their rookies. But they can't max out everybody because they have a set amount they can use.
Like the link says (without saying)... it's a cap within a cap, but not really.
Remember my reply to your first question...
1niksder wrote:My understanding is ....They need to have it prior to the draft,
but the thing is with the way rookies are slotted now, they'll only need about $5M to cover the picks. Once they are drafted and signed the rule of 51 kicks back in.
Prior to the draft it's Rule of 51 + rookie pool.
This is a good explanation of how it is set up
..__..
{o,o}
|)__)
-"-"-
When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hold on....
If the world didn't suck we'd all fall off
"paranoid" and "massively misguided" = I think you've mistaken me for someone that gives a rat's ass 
I give up