Nice explanation of the big Bronco contracts (as well as other FA deals).
Posted by
Jim (aka Jim)
Mar 14 '14, 10:26
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Seeing this, I feel MUCH better about what the Broncos did.
Numbers do lie. Especially in the NFL.
With most of the premier players already landing with new teams and the full contract terms of those deal being registered with the NFL and NFLPA, only now can we view these deals with a clear lens.
The murkiness that comes with back-ended contracts and bloated figures is peeled away, and the claims of more than $1 billion being spent on the first day of free agency ring hollow.
This is the true landscape for players these days: Contracts are not guaranteed (as we know), and even many guarantees aren't really guaranteed. Teams demand rolling guarantees with a period of time each year in which a player they just signed can be released after any given season with almost no cash or cap consequences. This is a business where the numbers that draw the most attention -- the maximum values of deals -- draw all the attention, but carry none of the weight.
When stripped to their core these contracts often reveal a different reality.
Truth is, once a team has churned through the portion of a contract where the guarantees have expired players generally become expendable -- especially those who aren't living up to the often unattainable standard of deals that includes heavy roster bonuses or bloated base salaries in the later years of the deal.
This is how how business is done in the NFL, and it won't be changing anytime soon -- especially as long as teams must front the money for full guarantees ahead of time by placing that money in escrow.
So, if you really want to peek into the economics of NFL free agency, you must do so by stripping down these deals to their core elements. In the end, due to language in the contract or age of the player, a team either releases a player, trades him, restructures the deal or demands a pay cut. The cycle always continues.
Keep in mind, the guys who got huge money a few years back so often find themselves looking for work just two or three years later, sometimes even longer. Invariably that will be the case again, especially for those who are over the age of 30, incur some injury issues or who carry off-field baggage.
Furthermore, as more teams are staying away from doling out huge upfront money and adopting more of a "pay-as-you-go" philosophy to their contract structure, it makes it increasingly easy to jettison players without major cap ramifications.
With that in mind, here is a look at some of the more prominent deals doled out this week, and a look at what the commitments are from the clubs, at their very least, rather than as it is usually reported, which is in the form of the maximum dollars the team could spend:
CB Aqib Talib, Broncos
Max deal: 6 years, $57M: Could be: 1 year, $12M
This is, at its core, the Darrelle Revis deal, only before the Revis deal was struck -- and Talib isn't Revis. Talib got a modest $5 million signing bonus to go with a $4.5 million salary and a $2.5 million roster bonus this season -- hence $12 million. He has a $500,000 roster bonus due in 2015, and his $5.5 million salary in 2015 is guaranteed only for injury right now and does not become fully guaranteed until the third day of the 2015 league year (next March).
So, there is an obvious window that, if Talib -- who has a checkered past off the field -- is deemed to be expendable for any reason other than health, then he could find himself a free agent for the third straight year.
The Broncos are fully protected. They are renting Talib year-to-year, and if, say, Peyton Manning hangs it up after the 2014 season (and let's not pretend these Broncos moves are anything other than an all-in to capitalize on this period of opportunity with their aging franchise quarterback) and the Broncos decide to dismantle a chunk of this team before they have to start paying kids like Demaryius Thomas and Julius Thomas and rebuild, they have plenty of flexibility to do just that with the Talib contract and the next two listed below.
S TJ Ward, Broncos
Max deal: 4 years, $22.5M. Could be: 1 year, $7M
This could end up being essentially like franchising Ward for a season -- which is what many expected the Browns would do before they placed the transition tag on C Alex Mack, and thus eliminating the ability to franchise anyone else.
Ward receives $5 million to sign and makes $2 million in 2014, but his 2015 roster bonus of $2.5 million is guaranteed for injury only, and his base salary is guaranteed for $4 million that season as well. So, if for performance or cap reasons the Broncos want to dump him, they can. At this point there is no real guarantee he gets the entire $6.5 million he would make in 2015 in Denver.
DE DeMarcus Ware, Broncos
Max deal: 3 years, $30M. Could be: 1 year, $16.5M
Ware will make $13 million in 2014 among signing bonus, base salary and roster bonus. But the $10 million due him in 2015 ($7M in salary and $3M in a March roster bonus) is not fully guaranteed, other than for injury, so if the Broncos cut him for cap or performance in 2015 in addition to the $13M he made in 2014, he would get an additional $3.5 million.
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