YAWN/STRETCH.

We’ll it’s been a great hibernation, but now it’s football season.  And with football season comes rookie signing season.  Psst, follow me on twitter; user: coltscap.

Now, most rookie deals are straight forward and as I get to the rest of our rookies later this week, you’ll see what I mean.  However we’re going to go early and we’re going to go big.  First round draft picks have always been more intricate than their later-round counterparts and with the unique rules surrounding the last capped year, this has never been more true than this year.  However, we’ve got the numbers (we think) and the explanations (we hope) behind them to make them all seem easy.  Think a late first round pick is simply giving a player a five year deal with minimum base salaries and a signing bonus less than the guy ahead and more than the guy behind?

Think again.

Brown’s contract has a five year term, the maximum allowed for a draft pick in round 1 for picks 17-32.  His initial base salaries are  as follows:

• 2009 - $310K
• 2010 – $1.21M
• 2011 – $1.45M
• 2012 – $1.68M
• 2013 – $1.72M

Brown has a $1M signing bonus prorated over 5 years.  Brown also has a 2009 roster bonus of $660K, which was already met when he reported to training camp.  Adding this roster bonus to a 2009 base salary of $310K also lets the contract meet the requirements of the 25% rule for rookies, limiting the maximum annual growth of contracts to 25% of the initial year 1 value ($970K x .25 = $242,500).

The base salaries for 2009 - 2012 are also fully guaranteed.  Why?  At this point, the contract only guarantees Brown the $660K roster bonus, vastly deficient from the millions other players are getting below him in the first round (Eric Wood received a reported $6.5M guaranteed).  This way, if Brown gets cut, he’s still got an additional $4.34M guaranteed for future years.  Under the unique provisions of the CBA during the final capped year, if the salary for 2009 wasn’t fully guaranteed, then any guaranteed salary for uncapped years (2010 - 2012) would be included in the capped years (2009).  Similarly, if there’s a gap in fully guaranteed salary in one of the uncapped years, then all guaranteed salary for years following would be included in 2009.  Thus, all years from 2009 to 2012 are fully guaranteed.  Similarly, there’s a provision that 50% of guaranteed salary for all contract years after the third uncapped year (2012) is to be included in capped years (2009).  This is why there is no guaranteed salary in 2013.

After the 2009 season, there is a $3.26M option bonus that the team will exercise.  This option will be prorated over the remaining four years of the contract.  This option also acts to reduce the yearly base salaries from years 2010 - 2013 as follows:

• 2010 – From $1.21M to $395K
• 2011 – From $1.45M to $635K
• 2012 – From $1.68M to $865K
• 2013 – From $1.72M to $905K

You’ll note that the yearly drop in base salaries is $815K.  Multiply this by 4 and you’ve got $3.26M  This is no coincidence.

While previously the full amounts of base salary in 2010 - 2012 were fully guaranteed, after the exercise of this option only the full amount of years 2010 - 2011 are guaranteed.  Only $585K of 2012’s base salary is fully guaranteed.  What about the provision discussed earlier about salary with the full amount not guaranteed in a year being accelerated into the current year?  That only applies to contracts entered into in capped years.  For purposes of this section, the renegotiation (exercising the option bonus) counts as a new contract.  As 2010 is set to be an uncapped year, this provision is thus inapplicable.

There is also a 2010 roster bonus that can be earned above and beyond the option bonus.  This roster bonus is valued at $1.605M and can be met in one of three ways:

• Attendance at the 2010 training camp, or
• Meeting an individual RB NLTBE incentive in 2010-2013 that’s listed in the contract, or
• Having the team meet a team incentive (listed in the contract) while meeting an individual playing time incentive (again, listed in the contract).

Should this roster bonus be met (tremendously likely), the effect under the agreement is that the guaranteed base salary in 2010 - 2012 is no longer guaranteed, with the exception of $10K in 2012.  You’ll note that if you sum these previously guaranteed figures up ($395K + $635K + $585K - $10K), they sum to $1.605M, the amount of the roster bonus.  Again, no coincidence.

Rounding out the contract is a maximum of $3.2M in escalators for 2013 tied to a laundry list of incentives.  These incentives are tied to Brown participating in 90% of the workouts each year, giving him incentive to continue to come to offseason workouts rather than holding out towards the end of his contract.  Should he not participate in up to 90% of the workout in a single year, he’d lose out on the entire escalator.

Total Possible Value: $12.835M
Total Initial Guaranteed Money: $6.31M
Total Guaranteed Money After 2010 Bonuses: $6.845M

Next time people see it taking a while for a team to sign a player, especially a first round draft pick, this will give them a better idea of the in depth nature of the discussions going on behind the scenes.  More likely than not there’s more to a contract than simply a signing bonus and yearly base salaries.  Here, the team manages to save over $500K in 2009 over simply giving the guaranteed amounts to Brown in a signing bonus, which means $500K more under the rookie pool for the team to use to outbid other teams (as larger signing bonuses) for the undrafted rookies that have been a staple of the team in the Bill Polian era.