Proposed Rule Change 2

[EastCoastGonzo]

Signing Bonus

Allow GMs to offer signing bonuses to up the value of their contract offers.

Limited to 5M per contract year offered, but all of it is paid in year 1.

Examples:

offers 2 yrs / 10M with a 10M signing bonus = 30M contract value
would then pay:
2024: 20M
2025: 10M

offers 5 yrs / 50M with a 25M signing bonus = 275M contract value
2024: 75M
2025: 50M
2026: 50M
2027: 50M
2028: 50M

This would favor teams with current cap space, who are the teams who typically need players. But the bonus isn't so big that it would teams to throw 70M at a player one year.

Bonus would always be paid by the signing team. So if the player gets traded it's like a prospect bonus that doesn't go away.

Prospects already get signing bonus so this wouldn't affect them.