Are signing bonuses and total contract value broken in Madden 20 Franchise Mode?

[Strings74]

Searched and couldn’t find a similar thread.

Right now I’m my franchise, on the re-sign screen, signing bonuses are being applied ANNUALLY to the total dollar value of the contract offer. My understanding is that In the real world, signing bonuses (Boni?) are paid up front but the cap hit is spread across the length of the contract.

Here’s a photo of what I mean. I have an offer queued up to re-sign Robby Anderson for 3 years at 6m per year with a 3m signing bonus. This should represent a total contact value of 21m, right? 18m salary plus 3 mil signing bonus.

Instead it’s showing a total contract value of 26.9(?) which is roughly the 18m for salary plus an addition 3m per year for what I guess is the signing bonus.

This is incorrect right? Isn’t this broken or am I missing something obvious? Any clarification welcome. Thanks.

[Big Bankhead]

Quote: Originally Posted by Strings74

Searched and couldn’t find a similar thread. Right now I’m my franchise, on the re-sign screen, signing bonuses are being applied ANNUALLY to the total dollar value of the contract offer. My understanding is that In the real world, signing bonuses (Boni?) are paid up front but the cap hit is spread across the length of the contract. Here’s a photo of what I mean. I have an offer queued up to re-sign Robby Anderson for 3 years at 6m per year with a 3m signing bonus. This should represent a total contact value of 21m, right? 18m salary plus 3 mil signing bonus. Instead it’s showing a total contract value of 26.9(?) which is roughly the 18m for salary plus an addition 3m per year for what I guess is the signing bonus. This is incorrect right? Isn’t this broken or am I missing something obvious? Any clarification welcome. Thanks.

That’s 6 per year for salary which equals 18
Then 3 per year for the signing bonus which equals 9
18+9= 27 so it’s correct

[Strings74]

Quote: Originally Posted by Big Bankhead

That’s 6 per year for salary which equals 18 Then 3 per year for the signing bonus which equals 9 18+9= 27 so it’s correct

But I thought/think the signing bonus should only apply to the first year. I think that’s how it works in real life. You only get one signing bonus, no?

[TheDominator273]

Bonus is the equivalent of guaranteed money in Madden, not treated as an actual signing bonus. It's spread out evenly between the first 5 years of a contract. The salary is the non guaranteed portion and it is backloaded throughout the life of the contract.

[tg88forHOF]

Quote: Originally Posted by Strings74

But I thought/think the signing bonus should only apply to the first year. I think that’s how it works in real life. You only get one signing bonus, no?

It only applies as cash paid out in the first year, but in the real NFL, it gets prorated over the life of the contract for salary cap hit, like all guaranteed money does.

So, real life, if I sign a player for 5 years and include a 15 million signing bonus, that bonus is paid as cash immediately, but only 3 million per year is applied to the player's salary cap hit.

That's what the Madden interface is trying to show you...since the salary portion is listed as (average) salary per year for cap calculation purposes, it's breaking the bonus down the same way. I agree it looks a little odd, but it makes sense the way they're trying to show it.

In the real world, contracts are never discussed that way (the player's contract is listed as something like "60 million over 4 years, 25 million guaranteed"), because contracts can be structured to pay out any way you want, and there are many types of guaranteed money outside of just signing bonuses.

For Madden's simplified contract system, where all salaries are back loaded, and bonuses kind of represent ALL guaranteed money, breaking both salary and bonus down yearly makes more sense, since what we're primarily managing is the cap hit.

[Strings74]

Quote: Originally Posted by tg88forHOF

It only applies as cash paid out in the first year, but in the real NFL, it gets prorated over the life of the contract for salary cap hit, like all guaranteed money does. So, real life, if I sign a player for 5 years and include a 15 million signing bonus, that bonus is paid as cash immediately, but only 3 million per year is applied to the player's salary cap hit. That's what the Madden interface is trying to show you...since the salary portion is listed as (average) salary per year for cap calculation purposes, it's breaking the bonus down the same way. I agree it looks a little odd, but it makes sense the way they're trying to show it. In the real world, contracts are never discussed that way (the player's contract is listed as something like "60 million over 4 years, 25 million guaranteed"), because contracts can be structured to pay out any way you want, and there are many types of guaranteed money outside of just signing bonuses. For Madden's simplified contract system, where all salaries are back loaded, and bonuses kind of represent ALL guaranteed money, breaking both salary and bonus down yearly makes more sense, since what we're primarily managing is the cap hit.

I agree with you as to the real world but madden isn’t doing this. Look at my photo again.

In my photo it should spread out that signing bonus across three years like you say. But instead it is adding the entire amount of the bonus to EACH year. Do you see what I mean?

Here it is again.

[Strings74]

Quote: Originally Posted by TheDominator273

Bonus is the equivalent of guaranteed money in Madden, not treated as an actual signing bonus. It's spread out evenly between the first 5 years of a contract. The salary is the non guaranteed portion and it is backloaded throughout the life of the contract.

Right. Agreed.

Look at my post again tho. Madden isn’t handling it this way.

[TheDominator273]

It is though, the $6m salary and $3m bonus are both per year so they each get multiplied by the number of years, in this case 3 to get the full contract amount.

The only thing wrong with your picture is showcasing how Madden does weird rounding as the total contract should be $27m even.