Under the CBA of 2011, all rookies receive 4-year contracts, generally with a signing bonus and often with minimum base salaries set for each year of the deal.  While 1st and 2nd round picks may have base salaries of more than the minimum in years 2 through 4 of their deals, even those players will almost always receive the rookie minimum base salary during their first year.  For 2012, the minimum base salary for a rookie is $390K.  For Salary Cap purposes, the bonus received by the player is prorated over the 4 years of the deal and that prorated amount is added to the base salary to create the player’s Cap number. 

By way of example, in 2011, the Baltimore Ravens had a rookie pool of $4.578M for their 8 draft picks.  That is the team’s “rookie salary pool” and is based on the number of the team’s draft picks and where those picks were drafted.

That is the number that Ravens needed to fit the 2011 Cap numbers of all of their rookies under, but, again, that doesn’t mean that the Ravens needed $4.578M in Cap space in order to fit their rookies under the overall Salary Cap.

This, again, is where the Rookie Cap and the Rule of 51 become intertwined – and where most of the misunderstanding regarding the Rookie Cap comes from.  Since each of the 2011 draft picks had a base salary of only the 2011 rookie minimum of $375K (which is the lowest possible base salary for any player), none of the draft picks’ base salaries will actually count against the team’s overall Salary Cap under the Rule of 51 guidelines.

As such, it is only the amortized portions of the draft picks’ signing bonuses that counted against the team’s overall Salary Cap.  

So, that is how the Year One Rookie Allocation, a.k.a Rookie Salary Cap – the “cap within a cap” – actually works and demonstrates the actual impact of the Rookie Cap on the team’s overall Salary Cap.

Once the season starts, however, the entire Cap Numbers of the rookies who make the team must be fit under the team’s overall Cap.  The impact of that, though, actually operates to save the team a little bit of Salary Cap space, since the rookies are making the rookie minimum base salary and replacing players on the roster who were making more in base salary.  

Here’s a snap shot of all the Ravens’ rookie contracts:

2nd ROUND PICK – COURTNEY UPSHAW

Status:  SIGNED – 4-year deal worth $5,296,698, with a bonus of $2,292,144.

Upshaw’s Salary Cap charges will be as follows:

2^nd ROUND PICK – KELECHI OSEMELE:

Status:  SIGNED – 4-year deal worth $3,345,870, with a bonus of $873,360.

Osemele’s Salary Cap charges will be as follows:

3^RD ROUND PICK – BERNARD PIERCE

Status:  SIGNED – 4-year deal worth $2,655,944, with a bonus of $555,944.

Pierce’s Salary Cap charges will be as follows:

4th ROUND PICK – GINO GRADKOWSKI:

Status:  SIGNED – 4-year deal worth $2,584,424, with a bonus of $484,424.

Gradkowski’s Salary Cap charges will be as follows:

4th ROUND PICK – CHRISTIAN THOMPSON:

Status:  SIGNED – 4-year deal worth $2,400,584, with a bonus of $300,584.

Thompson’s Salary Cap charges will be as follows:

5th ROUND PICK – ASA JACKSON:

Status:  SIGNED – 4-year deal worth $2,244,560, with a bonus of $144,560.

Jackson’s Salary Cap charges will be as follows:

6th ROUND PICK – TOMMIE STREETER:

Status:  SIGNED – 4-year deal worth $2,194,502, with a bonus of $94,502.

Streeter’s Salary Cap charges will be as follows:

7th ROUND PICK – DeANGELO TYSON:

Status:  SIGNED – 4-year deal worth $2,147,592, with a bonus of $47,592.

Tyson’s Salary Cap charges will be as follows:

UNDRAFTED ROOKIES (UDFAs):

All undrafted rookies signed 3-year contracts, with base salaries of $390K (2012), $480K (2013) and $570K (2014).