Salary Cap Nuggets - No. 10: Accrued seasons and their importance in the CBA (2024)
This series is called Salary Cap Nuggets because ‘nuggets’ is such an interesting word in English. It calls to mind chicken nuggets - tasty, bite sized and easy to eat. But it also calls to mind gold nuggets - small, but valuable.
The salary cap is a product of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), which is a 301-page contract between the NFL Owners and the NFL Players Association. In these articles, I try to explore just one or two small parts of the NFL salary cap defined in the massive CBA. Hence, Salary Cap Nuggets - small, bite-sized, easy to digest, yet valuable information for NFL fans.
The goal is to, one bite at a time, get a clear understanding of the salary cap.
What’s the difference between an accrued season and credited season?
The simple answer is an accrued season requires six or more regular season games at full-pay status (being on active/inactive or injured reserve list) and a credited season requires only three or more games at full-pay status. For a player to earn time served in the NFL and inch closer towards free agency, teams and agents must know how many accrued seasons (four accrued seasons required) a player has earned as he climbs his way closer towards free agency. Credited seasons also vary for players to be eligible for benefits.
For most NFL fans, the more important of the two will be accrued seasons, since that is the number that determines when a player is eligible for free agency, and may affect things like eligibility for fifth-year option.
Credited seasons are more likely to be of importance to marginal players — especially those with very short careers or who spend a lot of time moving on and off of team rosters and practice squads — as player benefits are often tied to credited seasons. Some things that are likely to interest fans, such as a player’s minimum salary, are based on credited seasons rather than accrued seasons.
Pages 84 & 85 of Crunshing Numbers provide more details on the definition of accrued seasons:
An accrued season is a season during which a player has been on a team’s roster for six or more regular season games.
Players will receive an accrued season while on the team’s roster, receiving their full pay while on the active/inactive lists and injured reserve list.
Players will not receive an accrued season while on the team’s practice squad, physically unable to perform (PUP), non-football injury (NFI), or the Exempt Commissioner Permission list.
A player does not have to earn accrued seasons in consecutive years. Many players may go years in between earning an accrued season.
Free Agency definitions
A player with less than three accrued seasons is classified as an exclusive rights free agent.
A player with three accrued seasons but less than four accrued seasons is classified as a restricted free agent.
Lastly, a player with four or more accrued seasons is classified as an unrestricted free agent, as long as they are not given the one-year franchise/transition tag by their team, which would delay that player hitting unrestricted free agency by at least one year.
Accrued season — A season that counts toward NFL free agency. Earned by being on a team's active roster/inactive list, reserve/injured or reserve/physically unable to perform lists for six or more regular season games. Average Per year (APY) — The total contract value divided by the number of years of the contract.
Different from an accrued season, a player gets a credited season if they meet the same criteria of being on the 53 man roster, IR, or PUP list but only for a total of three or more games in the regular season or postseason.
The NFL considers an accrued season to be six or more regular-season games on a team's roster. This includes a team's active and inactive roster, injured reserve list or physically unable to perform list. A player under contract must report to his team's training camp to earn an accrued season.
The salary cap for the 2024 NFL season is set at $255.4 million per team — an increase of around $30 million per team. Here is how all 32 NFL teams currently stand, keeping in mind that cap space is a constantly changing number as teams maneuver throughout the offseason.
An accrued season in the NFL is defined as a player participating in six or more regular season games on a club's active/inactive, reserve/injured or reserve/physically unable to perform lists. The salary offer by a player's club determines what type of franchise player he is: exclusive or non-exclusive.
The Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is the governing document between the owners of the National Football League and the labor union of the NFL Players Association.
An accrual is a record of revenue or expenses that have been earned or incurred but have not yet been recorded in the company's financial statements. This can include things like unpaid invoices for services provided, or expenses that have been incurred but not yet paid.
Accruals occur when the exchange of cash follows the delivery of goods or services (accrued expense & accounts receivable). Deferrals occur when the exchange of cash precedes the delivery of goods and services (prepaid expense & deferred revenue).
The revenues from the sale of a product accrue though it is yet to be received. The amount is typically due for receipt in the next accounting period. Accrued expenses are those which are due for goods or services purchased during the accounting period.
Generally, you earn a credited season if you are on the active, inactive, IR or PUP roster for three or more regular or post-season NFL games. You also earn a Credited Season if you are released injured and receive an injury settlement or grievance for the equivalent of 3 or more regular season games.
In professional sports, an inactive player may receive money from their team or league if they have a guaranteed contract or a guaranteed salary. However, if the player is not on a team's active roster, they may not receive the full amount of their salary.
A player shall not receive an Accrued Season for any League Year in which the player is under contract to a Club and in which (i) he failed to report to the Club's preseason training camp on that player's mandatory reporting date; or (ii) the player thereafter failed to perform his contract services for the Club for a ...
While Tyrone Swoopes won the reigning title of the lowest-paid NFL player in 2021, looking at the low end of league earners isn't as simple. NFL players face different minimum values that depend on their contract and designation as active or inactive players.
Exceeding the salary cap is not an option for NFL teams. As a new league year begins, all clubs must be under the cap. However, several mechanisms can be employed by franchises in their bid to move funds into the future and make more room in the present salary cap.
To accrue expenses in QuickBooks, go to the Company menu and select "Make Journal Entries." Choose the appropriate accounts for the expense and credit, enter the amount, and select the date. Save the journal entry, and the expense will be accrued.
Generally, you earn a credited season if you are on the active, inactive, IR or PUP roster for three or more regular or post-season NFL games. You also earn a Credited Season if you are released injured and receive an injury settlement or grievance for the equivalent of 3 or more regular season games.
How much are players paid for the postseason? It's not just the big game -- players are paid extra for games through the postseason. For the 2022-23 NFL playoffs, Wild Card teams are paid $41,500 and division winners are paid $46,500 for Wild Card games.
expenses, losses, and liabilities that have been incurred but are not yet recorded in the accounts, and. revenues and assets that have been earned but are not yet recorded in the accounts.
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