Originally posted by SoloMan
The signing bonus is in the sense that it's up front money that counts against the cap for the duration of the contract.
True. That's why they have signing bonuses in the NFL. The players have to get something out the deal and it lets the team circumvent the cap. Like Peyton Manning's deal. He'll never play that long probably, but he got 34 million up front. So essentially he got his money and the team got cap relief to sign other players.
Kearse got 16 million up front and a 4 million roster bonus for the next 2 years, so basically 2million extra per year. Now his overall deal is 66 million for 8 years so break it out like this.
So his salary each year will be 8 million for the first 2 years. That includes the 2 year roster bonus. And 6 million per year for the next 6 after that. We know Kearse aint going to play at that level for the next 8 years. Philly knows it too. They will be letting Kearse go in about 4 years unless he is really kicking arse or be asking him to redo his deal to get them under the cap. So in reality the Eagles will probably only have to pay out a total of 36 million if Kearse plays 4 years with them. At that time he will be 32 and heading on the downside of his career. Then Philly will do what all teams do, cut him. Those contracts are a joke compared to baseball and basketball. Aint like the NBA contracts, where 66 million is 66 million no matter what.
Correction, I just found his contract breakdown online. Heck the Eagles actually did better than I originally posted. Read below.
The breakdown on the Jevon Kearse contract with the Eagles: an initial signing bonus of $12 million and roster bonuses totaling $8 million in the first three years. Base salaries of $535,000 (for 2004), $825,000 (2005), $2.14 million (2006), $5.2 million (2007), $6.46 million (2008), $7.72 million (2009), $8.98 million (2010) and $10.24 million (2011). There are annual workout bonuses of $125,000 for 2005-2008.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?columnist=pasquarelli_len&id=1751618
He will never see those big salary increases in 2007-2011. That's 38.6 million of the 66 million right there.