Front loading is a risk. Come year 3 or 4, the agitation to move on for more money can start.
What's the front loading used for?
Buying a damn house!
Use human psychology. Player will need to start thinking of their future, upping a contract to say 600k and saying "hey that's a pretty good start on a home". Boom they have brought near the club.
But more to the point, front loading makes a stack of sense if your not making the 8 (we wont' be this year and we have cap room).
So take a 500k player.
Back load: Front Load:
400, 450, 550, 600. 600, 500, 450, 450
If a player is actually good, we probably will want to keep them.
We have fronted their salary already and if they turn around and say "hey I want more then 450k"... It's not a big jump to go "well that's a new contract, lets do 550k a year.
If the player is good and we have backloaded them, no diff.
If a player sucks, and we have frontloaded them. It's easier to shift 450k off the team. "hey XXX team, will you take this guy for 250k". we pay 200k
If a player sucks and we have backloaded them. Were on the hook for 600k! We try to offload them it's "Hey take this guy for 350k"? ... "150K?" and our cap takes a huge hit.
Why ruin future years?
If we know we are not making the 8, and heck the last 3 years we would have been lucky to make the top 14... Front load so were stronger for the future. Not back loading so were crippled trying to offload a Klemmer, Bateman, Reynolds, etc.