Depends how you play. For user play... I like to go with an expensive running back.... Then I draft a new quarterback every 4 years. If you throw more... Then you might want to invest more in a QB.I usually play with Browns... So I love having an xfactor defensive end... With athletic players around them.
In madden having a good running back makes all the difference. You can go from wondering if you will get a few yards on this run or get stuffed behind the line to knowing youve got a high chance of getting at least 3 yards. Also, you need to be cycling through QBs and pass rushers every 2-4 years through the draft. Mid 70 overall pass rushers will ask for $13-$17 million per year extensions, and QBs also ask for wild amounts. If youve got an X factor guy however it might be worth extending them. I typically also cycle receivers and DBs every year as the AI doesnt target 30 year old DBs and WRs even if theyre high 70-low 80 overalls and are more than serviceable.
Just discovered your vids today. Very informative and helpful. Thank you. If this may help you or anyone else, I have discovered a means of helping your team avoid the huge bonus problem. Find players who are: 1) Under 24 (Why under 24? Do you want to sign a 29 y/o to a 7 year contract?) 2) On 1 year or less contract (The longer he plays, the better he will get. The better he gets, the more expensive he will be. The longer the initial contract, the more the resign will eventually cost) 3) Under 75 OR (Even 75 is pushing it. But under that, you can often sign players to VERY LONG contracts with high salary and little to no bonus) 4) Who you truly believe will greatly improve. (If you know you will not play the man or do not believe he will one day be an asset to your team, don't waste your time or money. This man is going to be a mainstay and franchise player. This man is a project player that you will train to be great) These players can often be signed to very long contracts with little to no signing bonuses. It is a gamble though, as you are betting these players will perform and have great stats one day. The players I focus on are either players I will generally user or players I will often use. Examples: 1) I may find a 22 y/o, 68 OR, QB, with great potential, on a 1 year contract and user that QB as soon as I have resigned him to a 7-year deal. Given I am controlling that player, chances are we will do better than his OR would suggest. As a result, he will level faster than usual and, possibly, win some awards and increase his dev. 2) That QB needs targets. Let's say I also find a 21 y/o 70 OR WR with 96 speed and 98 accel. I USE him as a target to improve my QB. In the process, with the WR's speed - even at 3rd or 4th string - he will get open sooner or later, the fact his hands are not very good is only a temporary thing. Those other stats will improve. In 2020 Madden, I LOVED Damiere Byrd. You know that song about the bird? The bird is the word... He scored 24 TDs and caught for over 2000 yards in that first season and ended up as my #1 WR and an 84 OR by the end of season 2. I had him on a 7 year contract for $12M and a $1.8M signing bonus. I eventually had the best WR in the league - for 4 of those 7 seasons - for about $2.4M/yr on average. He joined the team at 24, signed that new contract in week 11 of that 1st year. This means I had him for 8 years, until he was 32! I did the same for a few other positions as well. As for QB, think of someone like a Mac Jones or Jake Fromm... someone you think were mishandled and/or not given a fair chance to succeed. He's your guy for the foreseeable future. Draft some 3-6th round guy you think might have potential, you play for garbage minutes, who will one day replace him... No rush. You have the luxury of waiting a few drafts for the right guy. Note: Steve Young was drafted by the Bucs and did horrible. San Fran picks him up, he spends a year under Montana, then leads the 49ers to 3 more SB rings. Be it on a FA list, off-season pick up, as soon as possible, offer a great salary on a 7 year deal with little to no signing bonus.
As mentioned the best time to blow out is when your Quarterback is on his rookie deal. If you do decide to sign a QB to a second contract what I've noticed is that you can comfortably pay up for 1 player per position group ie 1 receiver/RB, 1 OL, 1 DL, 1 secondary and then maybe one or two more players at one of those positions (5-6 guys on big deals at one time). Beyond that you have to draft well and fill out with league replacement level or undervalued veterans. Another good tip is if you know you have more guys coming due at one position then you can afford to keep is to trade one of them and try to recoup some value since currently there are no compensatory picks awarded in that game.
Nice breakdown! I have ran into these problems in my Panthers franchise about 4 years in. With Bryce Young on rookie contract and Wr Mingo I stacked up my team and overpaid in free agency in my CFM league. Then I restructured alot of players to sign other big players to long contracts. Now I'm paying the price and can only keep a 45 man roster and I'm going to have to let a bunch of guys go and at the end of the year if I can't Tag Young he is going to walk and I'll be in full rebuild mode and having to start whoever I draft at Qb ,Wr, and O line.....
Yea ive ran into this problem also. You have to find a balance of draft and FA, one key ill say is hitting the FA pool a week or two before preseason. You can get some high value guys on 1 year deals who either got cut or no deal during initial free agency
Being playing Madden all my life & this one was the hardest transition into a new Madden game for me. All i play is franchise mode, so this content is really coool! Learning a lot that i wasn't aware of. You da man! Would you ever do an online franchise with some of the subscribers? Would be sweet to see how many people would participate
I’ve been thinking about starting a discord for not only madden but a ton of games. Having separate sections for them and just trying to build a big gaming hub for people.
@@CBGamingYT7 that sounds really cool! Would definitely hop in, if possible. You'd be good at organizing that too! Having a well-organized, realistic Madden franchise with no 🧀 players would be awesome
Your videos are very helpful. Appreciate you doing these. You break things down in a simple way to understand. Not saying other content creators don’t do a good job. But I like how you do yours a lot. The one issue I really have with CPU contracts (not my team but all others) the amount of times I see teams sitting at negative cap space and still making trades and signing players is really frustrating. Seems like the cap isn’t real for the CPU but it is for the player. My current franchise year 1 had 4 teams more than -$5m but still made moves all season. One of those teams was -$23m. Get to the offseason and there were way more in negative cap space. Yet they could still sign FAs. When you have a player you click the find trade button on, teams with negative space or that would be negative with the trade can still do trades. But if you try a manual trade with that team for the exact thing they will offer you the game doesn’t allow it bc it puts them over the cap Now the one neat thing I did see in year 2 of my franchise is the amount of teams that restructured contracts was awesome. I’m now in week 3 of year 2 and only 1 team is still negative. The cowboys at -$640k. I’ll be curious what happens in year 3 of this franchise bc a team like the dolphins did massive restructures. Hill has $60m owed next season and they currently have a positive $840k in cap space. Anyways. Looking forward to a video on schemes and playbooks. Hoping madden continues to build on these things in the future. Would love to be able to front load contracts when I have the extra cap space to do so. Would LOVE it if Madden could figure out how to do contracts based on performance rather than overall. Sometimes I do this myself. But it just feels weird to do that.
[I don’t have exact numbers so please accept my generalizations] I had a player with an expiring contract that wasn’t going to reason. I then traded him away for draft picks (quite a good pull too). So my cap would adjust as such. I’d save on the salary cost. I’d then pay the one-season value of the signing bonus that season (represented as a cap hit), but I wouldn’t be paying anything the next season (because it was an expiring contract). My next season’s budget would also decrease, because the value of the draft picks I acquired would automatically be added to my salary cap for next season. So in reality, I’m saving money but the only place I would see it is in the current season cap.
The money run out is a common problem after about 5-6 years in franchise mode. You have to find an even balance of Draft and FA and really have to have at least 1 or 2 stellar drafts. Only problem with 2 loaded draft classes is when its payday eveyrone is up in the same year and want big money. One trick I use is 1-2 weeks before preseason I hit the free agency pool which will have some high value players for 1 year deals
Another thing that can help with money issues is that if you take out the bonus part of any contract and add that same amount of money to the salary and just raise contract years, thatll save you more money too
Looking forward to this ... I have not found the UI to be very good at all with managing cap. I traded a DE for some picks, and it said my cap space was going to go from like 20 to 26 mil on the trade screen ... and instead it went down to 6 when the trade was approved. Apparently it doesn't factor in a penalty on that trade screen. --- But I'm also in owner mode ... and I resigned some players ... and ended up with -140 million dollars (not cap) ... and a warning that I could lose my team if my money isn't positive by the end of the next season ... so I can spend exactly zero money on bonuses now, and I have to do everything I can to sell out my stadium at a good price and HOPE I get out of the red by the end of the season.
yeah being an owner can really add an extra layer of difficulty to the situation. I try to stick to coaching so I don't have to factor in the funds but the good news is, if you do end up getting kicked from the team you can rejoin as a coach if I remember correctly.
You should have mentioned reconstruct contracts that is such an help, but only for the season you're in. You always have to pay the piper in the end. Still it's a help many teams IRL do, like Mahomes recently. Everything on the money is something one have to get back to over and over again. With Madden then not handling saalaries as IRL it makes it more stressfull. It would be cool if EA introduced at least the option of frontload or backload contracts, but that's my wish.
I was going to mention restructured but that is one thing Madden actually tells you how it will pay out. When you click on it it will tell you exactly how they prorate it and that it’s a signing bonus. In hindsight yeah I could have thrown it in there for sure! I’m hoping for an overhaul of this in the future to allow people to front load, back load etc.
Echo everything people have said ~ depth of content is unparalleled; great stuff! Will now check out all your other stuff. Quick Q for anyone: Is there a way to see current dead cap penalty for the next season?
Thank you! And unfortunately there is not. They use to show it but now they hide it behind the scenes to fit the rollover cap area on the top part. It’s annoying!
I gwt crazy salary glitches where restructuring and stuff itll show ill have certain numbers after and then next season and without trades or cuts or anything its no where close after some restructuring
Love the video. Because of how the cap penalty works is it ideal to try to sign players with a larger salary and lower signing bonus? That way it's easier to cut/trade the player later on?
Great Video! Thanks for explaining how the remaining signing bonus money hits the cap if a player is cut. I was not sure how that was allocated. Do you know if this also effects traded players? I did a Texans rebuild a few years back and traded watson, who had a massive signing bonus, for tons of picks. I got hit with a massive cap penalty the next year and had to cut half the team just to sign those drafted players. Been afraid to try a similar move since.
When you’re resigning players and looking at your cap room for the next year does that account for the next years rookie reserve or not? A little late to the part so if anyone sees this and knows you’re a real one
Great video thank you! Also I have a question for Owner mode franchise players. When signing a player , the bonus is deducted from your funds as if the player instantly receives his bonus (I’m assuming). Since the player already received his bonus, would I still be paying the bonus % for each year of the contract? Or would I only be left paying his salary portion?
Yes… the bonus is the guaranteed or upfront money but it is still spread thru out the contract so u would still be paying that percentage. Remember the salary isn’t guaranteed without the bonus. With no bonus u can cut players free of charge.
What doesn't make sense in Madden is, when I play as the Saints, and try to trade Carr for someone younger who is on a rookie contract, it says I don't have the cap room, but Carrs hit is 35m more than the other guy, it doesn't make any sense
At around 19:40 you say “If you cut or trading out a player” I just wanna clarify that applies to anytime you say “if you cut a player” you also mean trade as well right?
Thanks for the video, i have a question regarding the 28.8M in penalty shown in your video, will it disappear after free agency of that current season? Or does it stay for how long? I would like to better understand penalties
the cap penalty is for the current year and it tracks behind the scenes for the following season as well. So at the end of the season it will change from whatever is showing as your cap penalty this year, to what the game has saved from your cuts/trades that were multiple year deals. It changes every season based off your actions.
Thanks for this video. Very detailed and clearly shows how much time and effort you put into this. I’m curious about something possibly related to this. When it comes to upgrading your players after weekly training and choosing which archetype to upgrade, is it better to choose their weakest core attribute; or is it better to upgrade based on scheme fits? Players that fit schemes tend to be easier to resign than those that don’t. A possible video idea in the future perhaps. Anyways, great work and newly subscribed.
thank you! And I do plan on doing a follow up video to this one going more in depth on how to manage the team side of things. Also one with how upgrading players works! In short, I feel like upgrading the players is a mixture of both the contract side or scheme fit side and also what you feel the player needs to have upgraded most.
Saints start Madden 25 with -30M in cap space and 42M in penalties, 17 players needing resigned, is there just no hope without cheating and editing to “semi-realistic” restructures? Not wanting to lose some key pieces
@@HighJive5 I honestly do not know. That team is in for a world of hurt. Problem is if you restructure too many guys you are just kicking the can down the road really.
@@CBGamingYT7 What they do in real life I suppose. Think I’ll find a happy medium between not getting rid of everyone and restructuring who I assume they’ll keep. Thanks for the response buddy
Is it possible to restructure in offseason before FA rn i have 55mil but next season i only have around 10 was trying to figure out how to get that up without trading or releasing people
Great video! Question though. In my CFM, as of now, I'm about $20 mill under the cap. The problem my best player needs to be resigned in the offseason and his number will take me about -$15 mill over the cap. I'm looking at moving off my QB who has a cut savings around $1 mill and his salary is around $40 mill the next 2 years of his contract. If I cut him, does that free up the $40 mill in salary for the upcoming season?
it would only free up what it says the savings are. So if they have a salary of 40 million and it says you will save 1 million that means they probably have 39 million in bonus still owed which you will be on the hook for.
Why during offseason the savings become negative for a lot of players meaning that you cannot save any money by cutting them ? It’s totally unrealistic isn’t it ? For example the Dolphins cut Howard last week and saved money by doing that but if I do the same his ~20M of bonus and like -5M of savings are added to cap penalty. (I put random numbers I don’t remember his contract in details 😅)
I do not have a solid answer for that tbh. I’ve noticed some weird things with them in offseason but I have not been able to dig deep enough into that specific situation. Totally agree with you though
Yes it is listed as separate. Should be in the bottom right corner of that top section in salary page. If it doesn’t show yet that’s because it isn’t far enough into the season for a solid number but it will show later
I'm curious how this works when you trade for a player. Do you still need to pay the full salary + bonus? Or is it on a discount since the team is paying a penalty for them already?
Question on Resigned Players during the season. I have noticed when I resign them during the season, say Week 4 through 15, 16, and they are in the last year of their contract, they accept and you have them for the next season. However, if you signed them for 2 years, the Team Salary screen shows 3 years, 2 remaining. Even after the Draft and PreSeason starts. The only ones that look normal are players you signed in the last chance Resign Period. Their contact reflect correctly what was negotiated/resigned for. Is there a reason why?
yes because when you resign players you have to view it as an "extension" instead of a replacement. So if you have a guy that is in the final year of his deal and he is making 5 million, then you resign him to 2 years 20 million, he will still make the 5 million on final contract but it is now extended as a 3 year deal and you will see the jump in pay for the new money start the following season.
@@CBGamingYT7 Thanks that was my thoughts but it looks so off. The only way I have seen to avoid this is to resign players in the RESIGN period after the Super Bowl. Then their contract looks exactly as negotiated. Also the contract looks correct. It was 2 year contact 1 remaining to 2 year contract 2 remaining - if signed after Super Bowl. If resigned during the season it reads 3 year contract 2 remaining. I am thinking it messes up the Penalty if you trade them. I am going edit a few of them to correctly per the negotiated agreed terms and see if any numbers change. Thank goodness for save points. Am I overthinking this and just roll with it?
if you signed a player out of free agency after preseason started it is an automatic one year with no bonus so it should not effect your salary cap in any negative way and if you decide to cut them you will save whatever it is they were signed to.
Other than that I don’t understand anything else about the video. I know you have to save money to have roll over but the whole cap hit thing or bonus money you were talking about I just don’t get it. When I’m in free agency I be wanting to sign a lot of big names with high over that can help my team. Just this bonus thing you talking about is confusing me
Great video again. In general do you recommend 7 year contracts for younger players to minimize cap hit long term? Partly why I think that is because if they improve they'll demand more money once their, say 3 year contract expires. What are your thoughts on that?
I think it’s depending on the position and what you envision for the future of the position. I prefer to move off some positions before they get to certain ages and money demands. I also want the flexibility to potentially use a player as trade bait if I find a great player in the draft. So I would say maybe for 1 or 2 players that I don’t ever want to replace but I wouldn’t do more than a very select few
Might be a dumb question, but: I have just about 60 Million in cap space. But I can’t re sign any players. It says it will put me over cap space, even signing a $2 million contract. What am I missing? Have I already blown through 2024 cap space?
When you are resigning players it is going off your future cap since the current year is already spoken for. So if you have a big cap penalty coming or a lot of returning contracts it can eat things up quickly.
It will tell you how much you save when you click to release. It will show how much is being added to cap penalty but if it has a positive number for savings that is how much you will save after any penalty is added in
I started a second franchise cause after 10 seasons Iwent over the cap. My new team starts after the preaseason with -7 million and I can't do any transactions. I've deleted it and started over again but the same thing keeps happening. Any ideas?
@CBGamingYT7 49ers. I kind of figured something out yesterday during preseason when you cut players you have to cut the right ones, but I am using the old rosters, not the post trade deadline rosters. Inow have about 2 million to start the season, not sure how I'm gonna resign bosa unless I wait till free agency, but I never had this problem with the first franchise. I made until year ten before I had negative cap.
@BillyBong when you cut players look at Savings and Penalty. Subtract the Penalty from the Savings and the number you get is what you'll have added to your cap space if you cut or trade the player. I'd suggest trading or cutting players older than 30. Find players on teams with a veteran starting for 1 or 2 more years, the player you want to trade for with 1 or 2 years left on their deal, and then a player they just drafted who has 4 years left and is 74-76 overall rated (they'll be ready to take over once the veteran's deal is up) that's where you find value. The easy way to do this is to put some of your best players up for trade and see what players are offered the following week.
@GGonmyown I did all that. It's never enough. I literally start the season at best minus 13 mil. I can't get out of it even if I let all 20 people go after the season and try signing free agents. It's something that must be wrong from updates. Cause even if I use updated roster niners still have chase young but I'm like minus 30 mil It's crazy. The problem with the trades is they send back a player who somehow raises the payroll.
@BillyBong when you cut or trade a player you still have to pay the penalty (bonus/guaranteed money) use the trade block to see what teams are interested and trade for cheap 2nd and 3rd year players or draft picks. A lot of teams will be over the cap and won't accept trades until after the season starts and they cut their roster down. Also consider cutting players who aren't starters and replace them with practice squad eligible players for very cheap.
This will be covered in my follow up to this, but in the mean time if you click on a restructure for a player, Madden tells you exactly what they are going to do. They usually take between 50-70% of the current cap hit and make it all guaranteed money, divide it by years remaining and add that to each year left of the deal.
This reminded me why I hope going forward they do a better job when it comes to player motivations. Because you can have a great player but then they won’t want to be on the team even when you’re winning and feels like the only way to keep them is overpaying. But besides that great video. 🫡
This is great. Maybe a follow up of what positions are most important to pay big money, and also how to make advantageous offers
Depends how you play. For user play... I like to go with an expensive running back.... Then I draft a new quarterback every 4 years. If you throw more... Then you might want to invest more in a QB.I usually play with Browns... So I love having an xfactor defensive end... With athletic players around them.
In madden having a good running back makes all the difference. You can go from wondering if you will get a few yards on this run or get stuffed behind the line to knowing youve got a high chance of getting at least 3 yards. Also, you need to be cycling through QBs and pass rushers every 2-4 years through the draft. Mid 70 overall pass rushers will ask for $13-$17 million per year extensions, and QBs also ask for wild amounts. If youve got an X factor guy however it might be worth extending them. I typically also cycle receivers and DBs every year as the AI doesnt target 30 year old DBs and WRs even if theyre high 70-low 80 overalls and are more than serviceable.
Just discovered your vids today. Very informative and helpful. Thank you.
If this may help you or anyone else, I have discovered a means of helping your team avoid the huge bonus problem. Find players who are:
1) Under 24 (Why under 24? Do you want to sign a 29 y/o to a 7 year contract?)
2) On 1 year or less contract (The longer he plays, the better he will get. The better he gets, the more expensive he will be. The longer the initial contract, the more the resign will eventually cost)
3) Under 75 OR (Even 75 is pushing it. But under that, you can often sign players to VERY LONG contracts with high salary and little to no bonus)
4) Who you truly believe will greatly improve. (If you know you will not play the man or do not believe he will one day be an asset to your team, don't waste your time or money. This man is going to be a mainstay and franchise player. This man is a project player that you will train to be great)
These players can often be signed to very long contracts with little to no signing bonuses.
It is a gamble though, as you are betting these players will perform and have great stats one day.
The players I focus on are either players I will generally user or players I will often use. Examples:
1) I may find a 22 y/o, 68 OR, QB, with great potential, on a 1 year contract and user that QB as soon as I have resigned him to a 7-year deal. Given I am controlling that player, chances are we will do better than his OR would suggest. As a result, he will level faster than usual and, possibly, win some awards and increase his dev.
2) That QB needs targets. Let's say I also find a 21 y/o 70 OR WR with 96 speed and 98 accel. I USE him as a target to improve my QB. In the process, with the WR's speed - even at 3rd or 4th string - he will get open sooner or later, the fact his hands are not very good is only a temporary thing. Those other stats will improve.
In 2020 Madden, I LOVED Damiere Byrd. You know that song about the bird? The bird is the word... He scored 24 TDs and caught for over 2000 yards in that first season and ended up as my #1 WR and an 84 OR by the end of season 2. I had him on a 7 year contract for $12M and a $1.8M signing bonus. I eventually had the best WR in the league - for 4 of those 7 seasons - for about $2.4M/yr on average. He joined the team at 24, signed that new contract in week 11 of that 1st year. This means I had him for 8 years, until he was 32!
I did the same for a few other positions as well.
As for QB, think of someone like a Mac Jones or Jake Fromm... someone you think were mishandled and/or not given a fair chance to succeed. He's your guy for the foreseeable future. Draft some 3-6th round guy you think might have potential, you play for garbage minutes, who will one day replace him... No rush. You have the luxury of waiting a few drafts for the right guy. Note: Steve Young was drafted by the Bucs and did horrible. San Fran picks him up, he spends a year under Montana, then leads the 49ers to 3 more SB rings.
Be it on a FA list, off-season pick up, as soon as possible, offer a great salary on a 7 year deal with little to no signing bonus.
Best Madden UA-camr! Thanks for this video, Ill be catching up on the bucs soon, keep working hard king
As mentioned the best time to blow out is when your Quarterback is on his rookie deal. If you do decide to sign a QB to a second contract what I've noticed is that you can comfortably pay up for 1 player per position group ie 1 receiver/RB, 1 OL, 1 DL, 1 secondary and then maybe one or two more players at one of those positions (5-6 guys on big deals at one time). Beyond that you have to draft well and fill out with league replacement level or undervalued veterans. Another good tip is if you know you have more guys coming due at one position then you can afford to keep is to trade one of them and try to recoup some value since currently there are no compensatory picks awarded in that game.
Nice breakdown! I have ran into these problems in my Panthers franchise about 4 years in. With Bryce Young on rookie contract and Wr Mingo I stacked up my team and overpaid in free agency in my CFM league. Then I restructured alot of players to sign other big players to long contracts. Now I'm paying the price and can only keep a 45 man roster and I'm going to have to let a bunch of guys go and at the end of the year if I can't Tag Young he is going to walk and I'll be in full rebuild mode and having to start whoever I draft at Qb ,Wr, and O line.....
Yea ive ran into this problem also. You have to find a balance of draft and FA, one key ill say is hitting the FA pool a week or two before preseason. You can get some high value guys on 1 year deals who either got cut or no deal during initial free agency
I’ve been looking for a video to explain this for so long - Thank you !!
Being playing Madden all my life & this one was the hardest transition into a new Madden game for me. All i play is franchise mode, so this content is really coool! Learning a lot that i wasn't aware of. You da man! Would you ever do an online franchise with some of the subscribers? Would be sweet to see how many people would participate
I’ve been thinking about starting a discord for not only madden but a ton of games. Having separate sections for them and just trying to build a big gaming hub for people.
@@CBGamingYT7 that sounds really cool! Would definitely hop in, if possible. You'd be good at organizing that too! Having a well-organized, realistic Madden franchise with no 🧀 players would be awesome
Best salary cap video ever!! This was incredibly well done. Thanks! Can you do mlb the show lol.
If I knew the first thing about it I would haha. Thank you!
Your videos are very helpful. Appreciate you doing these. You break things down in a simple way to understand. Not saying other content creators don’t do a good job. But I like how you do yours a lot.
The one issue I really have with CPU contracts (not my team but all others) the amount of times I see teams sitting at negative cap space and still making trades and signing players is really frustrating. Seems like the cap isn’t real for the CPU but it is for the player.
My current franchise year 1 had 4 teams more than -$5m but still made moves all season. One of those teams was -$23m. Get to the offseason and there were way more in negative cap space. Yet they could still sign FAs. When you have a player you click the find trade button on, teams with negative space or that would be negative with the trade can still do trades. But if you try a manual trade with that team for the exact thing they will offer you the game doesn’t allow it bc it puts them over the cap
Now the one neat thing I did see in year 2 of my franchise is the amount of teams that restructured contracts was awesome. I’m now in week 3 of year 2 and only 1 team is still negative. The cowboys at -$640k. I’ll be curious what happens in year 3 of this franchise bc a team like the dolphins did massive restructures. Hill has $60m owed next season and they currently have a positive $840k in cap space.
Anyways. Looking forward to a video on schemes and playbooks.
Hoping madden continues to build on these things in the future. Would love to be able to front load contracts when I have the extra cap space to do so. Would LOVE it if Madden could figure out how to do contracts based on performance rather than overall. Sometimes I do this myself. But it just feels weird to do that.
[I don’t have exact numbers so please accept my generalizations]
I had a player with an expiring contract that wasn’t going to reason. I then traded him away for draft picks (quite a good pull too).
So my cap would adjust as such.
I’d save on the salary cost.
I’d then pay the one-season value of the signing bonus that season (represented as a cap hit), but I wouldn’t be paying anything the next season (because it was an expiring contract).
My next season’s budget would also decrease, because the value of the draft picks I acquired would automatically be added to my salary cap for next season.
So in reality, I’m saving money but the only place I would see it is in the current season cap.
The money run out is a common problem after about 5-6 years in franchise mode. You have to find an even balance of Draft and FA and really have to have at least 1 or 2 stellar drafts. Only problem with 2 loaded draft classes is when its payday eveyrone is up in the same year and want big money. One trick I use is 1-2 weeks before preseason I hit the free agency pool which will have some high value players for 1 year deals
Another thing that can help with money issues is that if you take out the bonus part of any contract and add that same amount of money to the salary and just raise contract years, thatll save you more money too
Thanks ALOT!..videos have helped alot..is there anyway you can explain the 5th year option on a contract??.
Looking forward to this ... I have not found the UI to be very good at all with managing cap. I traded a DE for some picks, and it said my cap space was going to go from like 20 to 26 mil on the trade screen ... and instead it went down to 6 when the trade was approved. Apparently it doesn't factor in a penalty on that trade screen. --- But I'm also in owner mode ... and I resigned some players ... and ended up with -140 million dollars (not cap) ... and a warning that I could lose my team if my money isn't positive by the end of the next season ... so I can spend exactly zero money on bonuses now, and I have to do everything I can to sell out my stadium at a good price and HOPE I get out of the red by the end of the season.
yeah being an owner can really add an extra layer of difficulty to the situation. I try to stick to coaching so I don't have to factor in the funds but the good news is, if you do end up getting kicked from the team you can rejoin as a coach if I remember correctly.
Thanks for these in-depth explanations on the cap. I've been recommending your salary cap management videos on Reddit for a while now. ✌
I just got the notification about it and I appreciate it a lot. thank you!
Really appreciate the breakdown and simplification of this. Makes a lot more sense. Thanks.
You should have mentioned reconstruct contracts that is such an help, but only for the season you're in. You always have to pay the piper in the end. Still it's a help many teams IRL do, like Mahomes recently.
Everything on the money is something one have to get back to over and over again. With Madden then not handling saalaries as IRL it makes it more stressfull. It would be cool if EA introduced at least the option of frontload or backload contracts, but that's my wish.
I was going to mention restructured but that is one thing Madden actually tells you how it will pay out. When you click on it it will tell you exactly how they prorate it and that it’s a signing bonus. In hindsight yeah I could have thrown it in there for sure! I’m hoping for an overhaul of this in the future to allow people to front load, back load etc.
@@CBGamingYT7 Yeah, you just have to click and Madden "fix" it for you. But it is good to know and fixes some cap problems.
Your madden videos are superstar X factor
Excellent breakdown of everything. Superb
I don’t even have madden and have not played madden since 2016 but I enjoy your content!! Keep up the great work!
thank you!
Really well done. You can tell you put the work in.
Can't wait for your College Football 25 and NFL 25 breakdowns
Echo everything people have said ~ depth of content is unparalleled; great stuff! Will now check out all your other stuff.
Quick Q for anyone: Is there a way to see current dead cap penalty for the next season?
Thank you! And unfortunately there is not. They use to show it but now they hide it behind the scenes to fit the rollover cap area on the top part. It’s annoying!
Really good video again, when a player retires, do you inccur a penalty or does the contract get voided?
It gets voided in that situation.
Thank you this video comes right at the end of the season for me. I have like 16 contracts to sign 😂
I gwt crazy salary glitches where restructuring and stuff itll show ill have certain numbers after and then next season and without trades or cuts or anything its no where close after some restructuring
A lil confused on when to restructure and who is the ideal player to restructure
I trade away the high-priced players for draft pics
Me too
Great video breakdown. Thanks
jerry jones taking notes rn
Make a video on owner money bonuses upgrading stadium and fan happiness
Love the video. Because of how the cap penalty works is it ideal to try to sign players with a larger salary and lower signing bonus? That way it's easier to cut/trade the player later on?
It is but Madden has worked it to where the players do hold out for more bonus money at times so it’s not as simple to do as years past
@@CBGamingYT7 Thanks! Your videos have been really helpful for me getting back into Madden
@@mattgervasio3798 glad to hear that!
Great Video! Thanks for explaining how the remaining signing bonus money hits the cap if a player is cut. I was not sure how that was allocated. Do you know if this also effects traded players? I did a Texans rebuild a few years back and traded watson, who had a massive signing bonus, for tons of picks. I got hit with a massive cap penalty the next year and had to cut half the team just to sign those drafted players. Been afraid to try a similar move since.
Yes traded players are treated the same as if they are cut from the team
Thanks for your Videos
If I am the 49ers this year with multiple contracts up should I trade those players for lower cap hits?
Thanks
means a lot bro, ima baseball fan so some of these are foreign to me
When you’re resigning players and looking at your cap room for the next year does that account for the next years rookie reserve or not? A little late to the part so if anyone sees this and knows you’re a real one
No it does not count towards that. It takes a while for it to properly track the amount you need for next draft
Great video thank you! Also I have a question for Owner mode franchise players. When signing a player , the bonus is deducted from your funds as if the player instantly receives his bonus (I’m assuming). Since the player already received his bonus, would I still be paying the bonus % for each year of the contract? Or would I only be left paying his salary portion?
Yes… the bonus is the guaranteed or upfront money but it is still spread thru out the contract so u would still be paying that percentage. Remember the salary isn’t guaranteed without the bonus. With no bonus u can cut players free of charge.
What doesn't make sense in Madden is, when I play as the Saints, and try to trade Carr for someone younger who is on a rookie contract, it says I don't have the cap room, but Carrs hit is 35m more than the other guy, it doesn't make any sense
Did you check to see if he has a cap penalty?
At around 19:40 you say “If you cut or trading out a player” I just wanna clarify that applies to anytime you say “if you cut a player” you also mean trade as well right?
Yes.
Does the cap room include the money for your rookies or is that separate from your cap space?
Thanks for the video, i have a question regarding the 28.8M in penalty shown in your video, will it disappear after free agency of that current season? Or does it stay for how long? I would like to better understand penalties
the cap penalty is for the current year and it tracks behind the scenes for the following season as well. So at the end of the season it will change from whatever is showing as your cap penalty this year, to what the game has saved from your cuts/trades that were multiple year deals. It changes every season based off your actions.
Thanks for this video. Very detailed and clearly shows how much time and effort you put into this.
I’m curious about something possibly related to this. When it comes to upgrading your players after weekly training and choosing which archetype to upgrade, is it better to choose their weakest core attribute; or is it better to upgrade based on scheme fits? Players that fit schemes tend to be easier to resign than those that don’t. A possible video idea in the future perhaps.
Anyways, great work and newly subscribed.
thank you! And I do plan on doing a follow up video to this one going more in depth on how to manage the team side of things. Also one with how upgrading players works! In short, I feel like upgrading the players is a mixture of both the contract side or scheme fit side and also what you feel the player needs to have upgraded most.
Thanks for the response. Looking forward to more videos in the future.
Saints start Madden 25 with -30M in cap space and 42M in penalties, 17 players needing resigned, is there just no hope without cheating and editing to “semi-realistic” restructures? Not wanting to lose some key pieces
@@HighJive5 I honestly do not know. That team is in for a world of hurt. Problem is if you restructure too many guys you are just kicking the can down the road really.
@@CBGamingYT7 What they do in real life I suppose. Think I’ll find a happy medium between not getting rid of everyone and restructuring who I assume they’ll keep. Thanks for the response buddy
Is it possible to restructure in offseason before FA rn i have 55mil but next season i only have around 10 was trying to figure out how to get that up without trading or releasing people
Great video! Question though. In my CFM, as of now, I'm about $20 mill under the cap. The problem my best player needs to be resigned in the offseason and his number will take me about -$15 mill over the cap. I'm looking at moving off my QB who has a cut savings around $1 mill and his salary is around $40 mill the next 2 years of his contract. If I cut him, does that free up the $40 mill in salary for the upcoming season?
it would only free up what it says the savings are. So if they have a salary of 40 million and it says you will save 1 million that means they probably have 39 million in bonus still owed which you will be on the hook for.
why does your salary cap money disappear in the middle of the year on the screen where your renegotiate player contracts
I have never noticed this myself. It just doesn’t show up in the top right?
I’m -19 mill in cap space year 5 and I over paid players I need help asap lol
Cap maxed at 285 million and doesn’t go any higher
Good to know!
Hello lol why do it say I have said number in cap space but when I try to resign my players it shows I’m in the negative?
The resign page uses next years cap based off your contracts/cap penalties for the next season.
Thanks appreciate it
Why during offseason the savings become negative for a lot of players meaning that you cannot save any money by cutting them ? It’s totally unrealistic isn’t it ? For example the Dolphins cut Howard last week and saved money by doing that but if I do the same his ~20M of bonus and like -5M of savings are added to cap penalty.
(I put random numbers I don’t remember his contract in details 😅)
I do not have a solid answer for that tbh. I’ve noticed some weird things with them in offseason but I have not been able to dig deep enough into that specific situation. Totally agree with you though
Is the rookie reserve money separate from your salary cap or is that built into it. It shows them separate which is why I was asking.
Yes it is listed as separate. Should be in the bottom right corner of that top section in salary page. If it doesn’t show yet that’s because it isn’t far enough into the season for a solid number but it will show later
What would you recommend for auto subs I'm currently playing around with 85 in 80 out for majority of positions besides QB and OL
I think I am running 88 in 80 out right now and I’ve liked it so far.
I'm curious how this works when you trade for a player. Do you still need to pay the full salary + bonus? Or is it on a discount since the team is paying a penalty for them already?
When a player is traded the salary goes to the new team and the bonus is paid by the original team he was on
I have 0 cap penalty and my total spending 232m and I have 83.9m cap space and rollover 31.6m dose that add to my cap space for next year
Yes it will add the rollover cap to your next years cap space
Question on Resigned Players during the season. I have noticed when I resign them during the season, say Week 4 through 15, 16, and they are in the last year of their contract, they accept and you have them for the next season. However, if you signed them for 2 years, the Team Salary screen shows 3 years, 2 remaining. Even after the Draft and PreSeason starts. The only ones that look normal are players you signed in the last chance Resign Period. Their contact reflect correctly what was negotiated/resigned for. Is there a reason why?
yes because when you resign players you have to view it as an "extension" instead of a replacement. So if you have a guy that is in the final year of his deal and he is making 5 million, then you resign him to 2 years 20 million, he will still make the 5 million on final contract but it is now extended as a 3 year deal and you will see the jump in pay for the new money start the following season.
@@CBGamingYT7 Thanks that was my thoughts but it looks so off. The only way I have seen to avoid this is to resign players in the RESIGN period after the Super Bowl. Then their contract looks exactly as negotiated. Also the contract looks correct. It was 2 year contact 1 remaining to 2 year contract 2 remaining - if signed after Super Bowl. If resigned during the season it reads 3 year contract 2 remaining. I am thinking it messes up the Penalty if you trade them. I am going edit a few of them to correctly per the negotiated agreed terms and see if any numbers change. Thank goodness for save points. Am I overthinking this and just roll with it?
Currently in week 18 do I need to cut the free agents I signed, before the playoffs for their contracts to not count towards this years salary cap?
if you signed a player out of free agency after preseason started it is an automatic one year with no bonus so it should not effect your salary cap in any negative way and if you decide to cut them you will save whatever it is they were signed to.
Other than that I don’t understand anything else about the video. I know you have to save money to have roll over but the whole cap hit thing or bonus money you were talking about I just don’t get it. When I’m in free agency I be wanting to sign a lot of big names with high over that can help my team. Just this bonus thing you talking about is confusing me
Great video again. In general do you recommend 7 year contracts for younger players to minimize cap hit long term? Partly why I think that is because if they improve they'll demand more money once their, say 3 year contract expires. What are your thoughts on that?
I think it’s depending on the position and what you envision for the future of the position. I prefer to move off some positions before they get to certain ages and money demands. I also want the flexibility to potentially use a player as trade bait if I find a great player in the draft. So I would say maybe for 1 or 2 players that I don’t ever want to replace but I wouldn’t do more than a very select few
Thank you! @@CBGamingYT7
So on trades if I’m receiving a player does the original team eat majority of their contract with the player release penalty?
you would only take on the salary portion of their contract. The signing bonus would be kept with the original team
I’m at the beginning of training camp with a negative balance and no to restructured contracts ….what can I do
You won’t be able to restructure until the season starts I believe
@@CBGamingYT7 what if I need players to sign and can’t because I’m -2mill in the hole
Might be a dumb question, but: I have just about 60 Million in cap space. But I can’t re sign any players. It says it will put me over cap space, even signing a $2 million contract. What am I missing? Have I already blown through 2024 cap space?
When you are resigning players it is going off your future cap since the current year is already spoken for. So if you have a big cap penalty coming or a lot of returning contracts it can eat things up quickly.
Are u able to restructure contracts in. Madden 24 on Xbox one
I do not know if that feature was added to last gen consoles tbh
Is there a way to franchise older players in Madden who are on last year of their contract?
You can tag a player in the offseason resign stage if you have already failed at a regular contract with them.
OH CRAP IM COOKED I TRADED NICK CHUBB CUZ I GOT HIM FROM FREE AGENCY AND I TRAFED HIM FOR CEEDEE LAMB AND IMA HAVE TO OWE 100 MILLION
So if i cut a player that says +1.56M Cap space... im making room correct? Not digging a hole lol
It will tell you how much you save when you click to release. It will show how much is being added to cap penalty but if it has a positive number for savings that is how much you will save after any penalty is added in
@@CBGamingYT7 thank you!
I started a second franchise cause after 10 seasons Iwent over the cap. My new team starts after the preaseason with -7 million and I can't do any transactions. I've deleted it and started over again but the same thing keeps happening. Any ideas?
What team are you using?
@CBGamingYT7 49ers. I kind of figured something out yesterday during preseason when you cut players you have to cut the right ones, but I am using the old rosters, not the post trade deadline rosters. Inow have about 2 million to start the season, not sure how I'm gonna resign bosa unless I wait till free agency, but I never had this problem with the first franchise. I made until year ten before I had negative cap.
@BillyBong when you cut players look at Savings and Penalty. Subtract the Penalty from the Savings and the number you get is what you'll have added to your cap space if you cut or trade the player. I'd suggest trading or cutting players older than 30. Find players on teams with a veteran starting for 1 or 2 more years, the player you want to trade for with 1 or 2 years left on their deal, and then a player they just drafted who has 4 years left and is 74-76 overall rated (they'll be ready to take over once the veteran's deal is up) that's where you find value. The easy way to do this is to put some of your best players up for trade and see what players are offered the following week.
@GGonmyown I did all that. It's never enough. I literally start the season at best minus 13 mil. I can't get out of it even if I let all 20 people go after the season and try signing free agents. It's something that must be wrong from updates. Cause even if I use updated roster niners still have chase young but I'm like minus 30 mil It's crazy. The problem with the trades is they send back a player who somehow raises the payroll.
@BillyBong when you cut or trade a player you still have to pay the penalty (bonus/guaranteed money) use the trade block to see what teams are interested and trade for cheap 2nd and 3rd year players or draft picks. A lot of teams will be over the cap and won't accept trades until after the season starts and they cut their roster down. Also consider cutting players who aren't starters and replace them with practice squad eligible players for very cheap.
What happens if you trade for a player who has a 7 year contract?
You will take on any salary that is paid for those years. The other team you traded from will pay penalty
What about contract reconstructions how do those work?
This will be covered in my follow up to this, but in the mean time if you click on a restructure for a player, Madden tells you exactly what they are going to do. They usually take between 50-70% of the current cap hit and make it all guaranteed money, divide it by years remaining and add that to each year left of the deal.
I have 107 mil in cap space with the rams will ALL of that rollover to next year?
I do believe there is a cap on how much rollover there is but I’m not 100% certain what that number is
I think its capped at 35 mil
Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ he is our only hope, just repent and have child like humble faith God bless.!!!
Amen!!! ✝️❤️🙏
I still don’t get it. All I know is if I see someone with 20million in savings and the penalty is $6 mill or $0 I’m a just cut that player 🤷🏾♂️
How do trades affect cap hit???
they are treated the same as if you cut a player.
@@CBGamingYT7 that’s mad annoying!
@@wrinklebeastproductions1868 yeah I wish there was a way to implement like a buy out option or something like they do IRL when trading players
I don't bother signing players who wants big money
W
*overall
Good thing i turned the Cap OFF hha
"PromoSM" ☹️
Bro get to the point 😂
No
This reminded me why I hope going forward they do a better job when it comes to player motivations.
Because you can have a great player but then they won’t want to be on the team even when you’re winning and feels like the only way to keep them is overpaying.
But besides that great video. 🫡