
Originally Posted by
NYJetsfan69
The new CBA only allows the proration of signing bonus money over 5 years. So if you give him a huge signing bonus, he gets all that money at once, but it is spread out over 5 years. So if we gave him a $30 million signing bonus, he gets $30 million from the owner this year, but it is prorated over the course of 5 years, not year 6 or 7, as far as cap hit goes. Even if you put roster bonuses in year 6 and 7, you can still cut him before they hit. The only way he gets leverage is if you guarantee his base salary in year 6 or 7, but no team in their right mind guarantees a full $16 million for a 34 or 35 year old. While I believe a portion of his salary would be guaranteed in those years, the whole thing won't be giving us the leverage to renegotiate the contract.
For instance, Buffalo holds some leverage in year 5 of the Mario Williams contract, but all of it in the 6th year.
In the 5th year, his cap hit is 19.9 million. The Bills owe him the $3.8 million of his prorated bonus and $2.1 million of guarantees they can't get out of, as well as a $2.5 million roster bonus. In the 6th year, his cap hit is $16.5 million and he is owed a $2.6 million in guarantees they can't get out of, as well as a $3.5 million roster bonus.
If they cut him before the roster bonus is due in the 5th year, they owe him $3.8 million from the signing bonus, $2.1 million of guarantees from the 5th year and $2.6 million of guarantees from year 6 for a total of $8.5 million. So he is only guaranteed to be paid $8.5 million instead of $19.9 million in year 5. The bills can cut him and save $11.4 million. Mario will be age 32 and he won't get $16 million a year on the open market if cut, so why wouldn't he renegotiate? He would want to have years added to the contract as well as some new money to guarantee a job long-term. Even if they cut him, yes it does suck to have $8.5 million in dead space, however at least they can get out of it and that's how you would have to deal with Revis.
In year 6, the Bills only owe Mario $2.6 million of $16.5 million, giving them all the leverage in the world.
They also have protection in year 3, as he has a $10.6 million roster bonus.
So there are ways to structure a contract with him that will satisfy his desire to be paid like a premier player and still protect the team.
I think the key lies in Woody Johnson and what kind of a check he is willing to write for the signing bonus. If he will write a $25-30 million dollar check for the signing bonus, then Revis gets all of that once he signs. Part of the trade off for that is a low base salary in the first year, which I would try to negotiate down to about a million. Then even though he gets a check for $30million, he only gets $1 million in salary this year and would count for $7 million on the cap ($1 million base + $6 million prorated signing bonus). This actually saves you $2 million on the cap (his current hit is projected to be $9 million). Then you can structure the spike year/highest cap hit of the contract for year 2 (2014) and pay him $20 million because you will be freeing up a lot of money by letting Sanchez and Holmes go (over $16 million in cap space).
So he essentially gets over $50 million physically in his hands in the first 2 years (only about $27 million as far as cap hits) and for that he gives us a backloaded year 6 and or 7 that hit for $20 million as well as another no holdout clause, so that the deal actually resemble a 4-5 year contract worth around $14 million tops.
Coming off his serious knee injury, I feel something like this makes sense for both parties. Revis can tout himself as king ding-a-ling for his damned penis envy of any defensive player that had a higher per year average because they don't anymore, while the Jets get a renegotiable contract in the 5th or 6th year to ensure Revis's career ends with the Jets after a move to safety.
Sure if he gets hurt, we'll be screwed for a year or 2, but if you trade him and Cro gets hurt its still the same thing. We are screwed in the secondary. However the upside of Revis versus Cro...well I think we all know that.