DJ Reader a Bengal

[Whatever]

(04-03-2020, 09:44 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Bears were coming off 3-13 and 5-11 seasons when they signed Khalil Mack to a 6yr/$141m deal.

The first 2 years of the contract have cap hits of $13.8m and $11.9m. The final two years have cap hits of $25.5m and $23.25m.

He can be cut before those final two years with just $2.6m in dead cap space.

- - - - - - - -

It's not 100% the exact scenario you just posed, but you also just gave 7 qualifiers to the situation which pretty much ensures that nothing will ever meet all 7. That said, it's a pretty close example of an elite guy in his prime taking a backloaded deal with a new (losing) team.

Mack got $41 million in year one alone from his $34 mil signing bonus and $7 mil salary.  He will see over $73 million of that $141 mil in the first three years.  It's not really backloaded when he gets more than half of the cash in the first half of the contract.  It's just structured so that he takes a small salary the first two years which is offset by the massive signing bonus they gave him which they can spread the cap hit of over the life of the deal and manage the first couple of years of the cap better.

The Bengals used a similar structure on the Waynes deal.  He gets $20 mil in year one, but because $15 mil of that is signing bonus and only $5 mil is salary, his cap hit is only $10 million in year one.

In Reader's case, we only know how much cash he gets.  It could very easily be structured like Waynes' deal where he gets the big signing bonus up front with a smaller salary to reduce his cap hit.