Somehow, some way, Howie Roseman out-Veach'd Veach.

[DJ's left nut]

I have no earthly idea how those option bonuses work.

Congrats, Howie - you've confused the shit out of me. I typically have an awfully good handle on these things but man, this one is strange. Even the option bonuses don't seem to align with their future cap hits. And if those bonuses are triggered in 2027 and 2028, what are they doing being applied to later years?

Best I can figure is you're looking at 4 year, $160 million deal with a couple of team options at around $50 million/season in years 5 and 6? And realistically you're picking up that 5th year because the 5th year has substantial guarantees that lock in March of 2026 (so you're not walking away from him in 2026 to pay him that $50 million salary/bonus figure plus $20 million for 2027 to play elsewhere).

So you're looking at 5/$210 as an almost certainty (with 4 and $205ish of it being 'new' money). But how those options end up hitting the cap and when is really a mystery to me.

This deal is bizarre.

[kccrow]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

I have no earthly idea how those option bonuses work.

Congrats, Howie - you've confused the shit out of me. I typically have an awfully good handle on these things but man, this one is strange. Even the option bonuses don't seem to align with their future cap hits. And if those bonuses are triggered in 2027 and 2028, what are they doing being applied to later years?

Best I can figure is you're looking at 4 year, $160 million deal with a couple of team options at around $50 million/season in years 5 and 6? And realistically you're picking up that 5th year because the 5th year has substantial guarantees that lock in March of 2026 (so you're not walking away from him in 2026 to pay him that $50 million salary/bonus figure plus $20 million for 2027 to play elsewhere).

So you're looking at 5/$210 as an almost certainty (with 4 and $205ish of it being 'new' money). But how those options end up hitting the cap and when is really a mystery to me.

This deal is bizarre.

Think of an option bonus as a signing bonus the team can trigger by keeping the player in that year.

So, lets say you have a player with a 6 year deal and you have a signing bonus of 20m. That 20m gets spread over the first 5 years of the deal at 4m per. In year 2 you give him a 10m option bonus. That gets spread over 5 years starting with the year of the bonus. So now you add 2m each over the 5 years. You end up with bonus money of 4, 6, 6, 6, 6, 2 for cap purposes. It's just a way of rolling bonus money forward and helps spread out cash outlay for the owners. He has options in each of the years, from what I understand, and 4 void years to help account for the final trigger year. So his would look more like 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 10, [8, 6, 4, 2] if you had 10m option in each of the 6 years (i put the void years in brackets).

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by kccrow

Think of an option bonus as a signing bonus the team can trigger by keeping the player in that year.

So, lets say you have a player with a 6 year deal and you have a signing bonus of 20m. That 20m gets spread over the first 5 years of the deal at 4m per. In year 2 you give him a 10m option bonus. That gets spread over 5 years starting with the year of the bonus. So now you add 2m each over the 5 years. You end up with bonus money of 4, 6, 6, 6, 6, 2 for cap purposes. It's just a way of rolling bonus money forward and helps spread out cash outlay for the owners. He has options in each of the years, from what I understand, and 4 void years to help account for the final trigger year. So his would look more like 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 10, [8, 6, 4, 2] if you had 10m option in each of the 6 years (i put the void years in brackets).

Ah - that makes sense. That's why those 'void' years are on there - the option bonus doesn't act as a year 1 salary but rather a signing bonus and thus is pro-rated accordingly. It's why I couldn't find a dollar for dollar match anywhere - those later years are accumulated pro-rated bonus.

So...they'd still all accelerate like a bat out of hell if he left the roster then, right?

Because man alive, that serves to give him a SHITLOAD of leverage come 2027, does it not? In that regard, the Mahomes deal is WAY better than Hurts. If Hurts is even nominally productive by then and can elect to go to FA and accelerate all those remaining years of pro-rated bonus onto the Eagles cap, he has them over a barrel.

[kccrow]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Ah - that makes sense. That's why those 'void' years are on there - the option bonus doesn't act as a year 1 salary but rather a signing bonus and thus is pro-rated accordingly. It's why I couldn't find a dollar for dollar match anywhere - those later years are accumulated pro-rated bonus.

So...they'd still all accelerate like a bat out of hell if he left the roster then, right?

Because man alive, that serves to give him a SHITLOAD of leverage come 2027, does it not? In that regard, the Mahomes deal is WAY better than Hurts. If Hurts is even nominally productive by then and can elect to go to FA and accelerate all those remaining years of pro-rated bonus onto the Eagles cap, he has them over a barrel.

Precisely correct sir.