Explanation of Sources and Accuracy Overview Complete contract information is not available, leading to estimates and omissions. As a result, some cap values will be inaccurate. The numbers provided on this site should not be taken literally. It's important to look at the Player Notes to the sourcing for the bonuses (which can be found under "Player Search"). Base Salary should be accurate as it is taken from NFLPA listings, the official NFL player's union. Historical signing/option bonuses (meaning bonuses paid to a current player before the current year) are included and should be accurate as they are listed in USA Today's Football Salaries Database. The area of uncertainty involves signing/option bonuses paid in the current or immediately prior year, and current and future roster/reporting/LTBE amounts. In particular, future roster and reporting bonus information is not known for all players so their cap values may be understated by the amount of the missing roster/reporting bonus. Also, salary guarantees, option years, escalators, and buyout bonuses may not be reported and thus are not included. Player Cap Values There are three components to a NFL player's cap value in a given year: base salary, roster/reporting/workout/LTBE money, and prorata signing bonus amounts. All three components are summed to calculate a player's Cap # and so cap information is accurate to the extent these components are known accurately. Base salary is the one component that is officially known for each Giants player. This is because the NFL Player's Association lists the base salary of all players for each year they are under contract on its website. It also shows the term of each player's contract, though it includes voidable years. The source of the base salary information in the spreadsheet is the player's union and base salaries should be accurate. Likely-to-be-earned incentives and roster/reporting/workout bonuses are less frequently reported on than signing/option bonuses. As a result, this component is the most difficult to include. The player's union does not list these amounts. Further, press reports often will not report on these amounts when a contract is signed. However, Len Pasquarelli of ESPN in particular does offer roster/reporting bonus information for select contract signings, and if a prominent Giants player is in jeopardy of being released during the current offseason the local New York press will often report on any roster/reporting bonuses the player is due in the current offseason. That said, applying salary cap rules (outlined in the CBA) to Giant player contracts sometimes reveals that a roster bonus must exist in a given year in order for the deal to comply with contract rules. Some LTBE/roster/reporting amounts are included simply based on what the application of certain rule demands. In other cases, LTBE/roster/reporting amounts are estimated when a player's base salaries and known bonuses in a time period do not add up to the reported total value of the deal. Estimating is highly presumptive but necessary due to the lack of complete information. An explanation of the basis for the inclusion of these amounts is included under Player Notes, which can be found in the Player Search worksheet. The sources for likely-to-be-earned amounts are press reports, estimates based on cap rules, and estimates based on deductive reasoning. Prorata signing bonus amounts are determined primarily by knowing the size of all the signing bonuses players have received that have amortized over the current year. USA Today's Football Salaries Database is a key source for signing bonus information. In April or May of each year it releases the total amount of signing bonus money each NFL player received in the prior year. As a result, by May of each year all the signing bonuses a player has received, up until the current offseason, are accurately listed in the database. USA Today is the source used for prior year signing bonus information. For signing bonus amounts paid to players during the current offseason -- or, before May, during the preceding offseason -- press reports are used. However, press reports often do not provide clear bonus details of the signings of lesser-known players and draft selections, nor bonuses paid as part of renegotiations. Further, the split of signing bonuses (the amount paid in year one versus year two of the contract) is sometimes unreported. In short, detailed information on recent signing bonuses is sometimes available in press reports, but others times it is not reported, leading to estimates or omissions of signing bonuses in the spreadsheet. When a player is signed and it is logical to expect the player received a signing bonus but that bonus is not reported, then an informed estimate of the signing bonus amount is used until details become available. Estimates may be used for rookie draft picks, for instance, based on what the player in the same draft slot the year before received. The basis for signing bonuses can be found under Player Notes. Press reports, and estimates are used for recent signing bonus information. Overall, the base salary component is accurate, the likely-to-be-earned component is understated in some cases, and some signing bonus amounts may be estimated or omitted. The result of the lack of complete information tends to be understated Cap #'s. Further, any omitted signing bonuses for a player leads to an understatement of the "dead money" releasing that player will result in, making it seem less costly to release the player than it truly is. Also, any omitted roster/reporting/likely-to-be-earned amount due to a player during the current offseason leads to an understatement of the cap savings (or overstatement of the cap charge) resulting from that player's release. Available Cap Space The amount of available cap space a team has is found by taking the league-set cap limit and subtracting from it the amount of cap space the team has committed. To determine how much cap space a team has "committed" three components must be known. The first component is the sum of the cap values of the players currently on the team. The second is the sum of the "dead money" values of all the players who were released by the team in the current year or after June in the prior year. The third is what is sometimes called "Net Incentives". (Net Incentives is the not-likely-to-be-earned incentives from the prior year that were earned and achieved by players, less likely-to-be-earned incentives from the prior that were not earned and achieved by players.) Those three components are summed to determine how much cap space a team currently has committed to the current year salary cap. That number must be less than the league-set cap limit once the offseason begins. During the offseason, many New York fans want to know how much cap space the Giants have available. This spreadsheet is not really the answer to that question. As you can see from the above explanation, if some cap values are inaccurate, then the first component will be understated. If some signing bonuses are estimated or omitted then the second component will be inaccurate. Finally, Net Incentives is not always known. In general, roster/reporting/workout/LTBE amounts especially are not known completely for all players. In the case of dead money, complicated "guaranteed salary" may not be accounted for. In short, the spreadsheet cannot on its own calculcate accurately the amount of available cap space. ESPN and PFT, in particular, do offer periodic updates on the cap status of each team in the NFL during the offseason. I would recommend fans look to those sites. Obviously the downside with them is that the updates are too infrequent since the Giants' cap status changes daily at times. Prior to the offseason, the spreadsheet will sum up the cap values of the players on the roster and the dead money values of those released, and subtract those values from the league-set cap limit (or an estimated cap limit if it is yet to be announced) in order to calculate a tentative "cap space available" number. Then once a reputable website publishes the actual cap status of the Giants, in terms of available space, the difference between the spreadsheet's available space value and the reported value will be included as an "Allowance for unknown amounts". As a result, the amount of available cap space of the Giants will be accurate at that point. But as players are signed and renegotiated and paid bonuses the amount of available cap space will change. In order to keep the spreadsheet's available cap space value accurate in the time period between updates from ESPN/PFT all transactions from that point on have to be accurately inputted into the spreadsheet, which can be hard to do in the face of incomplete press reports on signings, renegotiations that receive no attention, and routine bonus payments from contracts not signed recently. Available cap space is a value that is very difficult to independently determine in the absence of complete and up-to-date contract and transaction information.