NFL salary cap question
 

Just wondering what the penalty is for being over the cap at the start of the season?

Technically, you can't.

The NFL goes over every contract and approves it, if it would put a team over, they won't allow it.

There have been a few cases where teams circumvented the cap, or "hid things" I think the 49'ers lost picks and Policy and Clark were fined... and I think the Stealers got caught once.

I like how they have a minimum too, forcing shitty owners to try at least a little bit.

But what if the team is over to begin the offseason and just don't bother cutting their payroll

Then they get the fines and stuff and they cant negotiate any new contracts or sign any draft picks I think

Correct, fines, loss of draft picks and not allowed to sign anyone.

There hasn't been a situation where a team had to be forced.

In the case of SF as I remember it was either incentives or bonuses that were somehow hidden to avoid the cap, I think this was orignally how Dallas used to do things before the league said they couldn't. They'd sign a player for say 1million then Jerry Jones would get them some endorsement for say 1million. So they got 2mil, but only 1mil via the team/cap.