Salary Cap Glossary: Accrued vs. Credited Seasons
Explaining some key terms related to the salary cap and free agency
The NFL counts a player’s service time in two distinct ways, with each affecting different aspect of their contracts. Accrued seasons determine a player’s free agency status (exclusive rights, restricted, unrestricted), while credited seasons determine a player’s minimum salary. The easiest way I’ve found to remember which is which is that Credited seasons affects Compensation, and Accrued seasons affects Free Agency.
First, let’s look at how the NFL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) defines accrued seasons:
For the purposes of calculating Accrued Seasons under this Agreement, a player shall receive one Accrued Season for each season during which he was on, or should have been on, full pay status for a total of six or more regular season games (which shall include any games encompassed in any injury settlement, injury grievance settlement or injury grievance award), but which, irrespective of the player’s pay status, shall not include games for which the player was on: (i) the Exempt Commissioner Permission List, (ii) the Reserve PUP List as a result of a nonfootball injury, or (iii) a Club’s Practice Squad.1
In layman’s terms, a player earns an accrued season towards free agency if he is on the 53-man roster, a team’s Injured Reserve (IR) list, or a team’s Reserve/Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list with a football-related injury for six or more games. This means that a drafted player on a rookie contract who suffered a season-ending injury in Week 2 of the 2021 season and is placed on IR earns a fourth accrued season for 2021 despite being on the 53-man roster for only two games.
Now, let’s look at the definition of credited seasons, per the CBA:
For purposes of calculating Credited Seasons under this Article only, a player shall earn one Credited Season for each season during which he was on, or should have been on, full pay status for a total of three or more regular season games, but which, irrespective of the player’s pay status, shall not include games for which this player was on: (i) the Exempt Commissioner Permission List; (ii) the Reserve PUP List as a result of a nonfootball injury; (iii) a Club’s Practice or Developmental Squad; or (iv) a Club’s Injured Reserve List.2
A credited season can be earned by only being on the 53-man roster for three games, as opposed to six for an accrued season. Another difference that is being on IR does not count towards a credited season. Using our example above, the fourth-year player on a rookie contract who is on IR after two games would not earn a credited season, and would finish the season with four accrued seasons (making him an unrestricted free agent) but just three credited seasons.
This distinction would mean his minimum salary, using CBA-stated 2022 minimum salaries3, would mean he could sign a contract with a 2022 base salary no less than $965,000, as opposed to no less than $1.035M had he earned a credited season for 2021, a difference of $70,000.
An upcoming post will explain the differences between the four types of free agents, which, as you now know, are determined based on a player’s accrued seasons. His compensation upon signing a new contract, could be affected by his credited seasons, which may be more, less or equal to his number of accrued seasons.
Once a player reaches four accrued seasons, he will be an unrestricted free agent upon the expiration of all future contracts. For credited seasons, the NFL has six classifications: 0 seasons, 1 season, 2 seasons, 3 seasons, 4-6 seasons, or 7+ seasons. The gaps between the minimum salary for each classification range from $70,000-$120,000 per year.
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