Dead money question.

[Elmgrovegnome]

Almost.

$15M in bonus over 5 yrs is $3M/yr prorated, so the dead cap hit would be $9M

Yeah, I was thinking over three years. I’m not sure why I said five. I’ll change that. Thanks

 

[dieterbrock]

Now I’m more confused. So guaranteed money can be shared or assumed by the team acquiring the player? But it is still dead cap and all of it comes due at the time of the trade by whichever team is paying it? If so, then why is Kupp or AD considered untraceable? If a team wants them badly enough they could take on the dead cap hit.

out of the three types, which one is confusing?

 

[dieterbrock]

So, a player who has a contract of $5 million per year for fiv years and also had $15million guaranteed as a signing bonus.

So that equates to a 5 year, 40 mill contract.
Player gets 20 mill in year 1.
Cap number is 8 mill per year
After 2 years he gets traded.
Team that trades him takes a 9 mill dead cap hit.
Assuming the contract is fully guaranteed for example purposes, the team that gets the player would normally take the remaining 3 years and 15 mill, (but could be negotiated, trading team could agree to pay x of annual salary)
After year 3, the player gets cut and the team that received the player takes a 6 mill cap hit

 

[Mackeyser]

Teams can “take on” parts of future guaranteed salaries in order to trade a player by virtue of a simple contract restructuring.

Say the above player has $15M in remaining guaranteed salary, but in order to make the trade work, the new team can only take on $3M based on available cap and will only agree to $9M overall. So they bring $6M into the current season or if it’s the offseason, make it a roster bonus and structure the remaining years at $3M per.

 

[Allen2McVay]

Now I’m more confused. So guaranteed money can be shared or assumed by the team acquiring the player? But it is still dead cap and all of it comes due at the time of the trade by whichever team is paying it? If so, then why is Kupp or AD considered untraceable? If a team wants them badly enough they could take on the dead cap hit.

I think @dieterbrock explained it concisely and well; and the follow-up post from @OldSchool, where he wrote:
"Guaranteed salary not yet paid out goes with the player to his new team just like roster bonuses go to the new team."
provides even more clarity.