Zero2Cool (10h) : What does NFL do if they're over cap?

What are the punishments for breaching the NFL's salary cap?
The NFL's salary cap is established in the Collective Bargaining Agreement set between the league and NFLPA.

If a team goes over the salary cap, they are fined upwards of five million dollars for each violation of the cap. In more severe scenarios, draft picks can be confiscated entirely and player contracts can be voided.

Teams over the cap are also banned from signing any new players until they are back below the cap again.

This is why there is so much talk about salary caps in the NFL, because it really isn't worth it for a team to go over that limit

This trade would clear a prorated portion of $1.21 million and the Saints would carry $13.4 million in dead money in 2024. Where this gets tricky for New Orleans is looking ahead to 2025. The team is currently projected to be $71,408,567 over the effective salary cap next year, per Over The Cap. If they trade Lattimore, they would lock in $31.66 million in dead money for 2025 because this is a post-June 1 trade. That means the dead money is split between the rest of this season and next season. (Dead money is cash already paid to a player that hasn’t been accounted for on the salary cap.)

The Saints already need to clear more than $71 million, and dead money is not something that can be cleared out once a player has been moved. If they trade Lattimore, they’re just further leveraging themselves against future years’ caps. They would in turn need to find more people to trade, cut, or otherwise renegotiate contracts to clear more cap space.

The Saints have long been part of a running joke about the salary cap not being entirely real given how much they have kicked the can on it. Theoretically they can keep kicking it, but we’re seeing the result of this strategy: they’re a mediocre to bad team that cannot afford to upgrade their roster because they’re too busy paying for the mediocrity that currently exists.

At some point, the Saints will have to hit the reset button and take the pain of rebuilding everything. It’s just a matter of when they’re willing to do it, and who gets to take the lumps during what will be some very lean years.

I didn't see it when I tried to look up which teams have been over the cap in the past but I think SF maybe New England have been over the cap and fined in the past.

Originally Posted by: wpr 

In other words, Saints will get under the cap, BUT with the position they have put themselves how many star players will they have to get rid of to get under the cap?

I'm thinking their QB Carr and QB/TE Hill could be gone, maybe even more players.

Originally Posted by: beast 

The Broncos signed (John Lynch)? Late in The 1997 season, it was discovered after the season the signing had put them over the cap, by then it was too late to do anything except fine them. Lynch solidified their defensive backfield and helped them beat The Packers in the SB.
Probably was worth the fine, whatever it was.
That was 27 years ago, I think the story is accurate .
Only time I remember it happening.

Originally Posted by: buckeyepackfan 

In December 2001, the Broncos were fined $968,000 and lost a third-round pick in the 2002 draft for violations reportedly relating to $29 million in deferred payments to quarterback John Elway and running back Terrell Davis.

On Thursday, the league announced that the Broncos have been fined $950,000 and will lose a third-round selection in next year's draft for circumventing the salary cap between 1996 and '98

From the outside, it all seems to add up: a looming head-coaching vacancy, a non-traditional salary cap, and plenty of older, accomplished players. Are the Saints headed for a rebuild?

Yet, that's not the plan at all.

New Orleans isn't planning for an overhaul. There will be changes, and likely an effort to get younger. But they aren't envisioning taking their franchise down to the studs, just like they didn't plan a fire sale prior to this past Tuesday's trade deadline. With a roster they believe is far better than their record, one besieged by unrelenting injuries, the Saints believe in pushing forward, rather than stepping back.

I guess the can will be kicked even further.

Originally Posted by: Mucky Tundra 

That's all their GM does... and he's been GM since 2002 (not 2022, but 2002).

Seems like their GM is locked in for life, or until their ownership changes.

And I assume that's why Sean Peyton left.

Originally Posted by: beast