A few simple questions here.

After taking things in for a season, I noticed a trend. It seems that over half the league is over the cap on a regular basis.

If this is the case, am I correct that the only penalties are the lose a 3rd round pick and the inability to sign your draft picks or free agents.

Will the software at somepoint force the rosters under the cap by using the auto scout "feature"?

I think most teams are not over the cap throughout the season. I have always been under the cap and right now Im over to the tune of about 10M which Im fixing through a few renegotiations and a couple cut players. A better reflection of over the cap teams will be had by about week 4 or 5 of FA after they have had time to fix the issue.

The true reflection of cap overages are the four teams that lost picks.

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You rarely see a team actually over the cap during the season. If you are over the cap at the end of early free agency, then you are correct, you will lose a 3rd rounder. However, you can fix your cap situation before the end of late free agency and still sign your rookies.

What you do see a lot of is people having inflated cap numbers for the following season. This is their perogative to do, because there is not penalty for that until the next season comes upon us. However, that is a situation that you'll see described as cap hell and a big reason why so many teams are making trades right now. They are trying to get out from their cap hell and still trying to get value for the players that they signed to longer term deals that they can't afford this year.

Regardless, however, if you trade a player that had a huge signing bonus, then you will still take the cap hit when you trade the player.

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Yeah, the main penalties are the lost draft picks, which happens at three different occasions in the offseason if teams continue to be over the cap (early FA, late FA, and TC). I have seen the AI release players for a team. But, that happened in a case where games were being played, and the team was over the cap and did not meet the minimum position requirements. It would release a few guys while signing someone to the team. Although it didn't even make a dent in the cap situation, the releasing of players still happens.