ColtsCap has learned that at some point, the Colts re-worked Bob Sanders’ contract.  Specifically, the team converted $2.17M of his $5M roster bonus due in 2009 to a signing bonus and prorated it accordingly over the remaining four years at $542,500 per year.  The net savings in 2009 of this specific maneuver is $1,627,500.

Typically, a team would convert an entire bonus if they were going to make the effort to convert anything.  However, complicating things in this particular year is the 30% rule requiring that future cap hits (excluding signing bonuses) increase by no more than 30% of the 2009 cap hit (again, excluding signing bonuses).  Should the entire $5M roster bonus have been converted to a signing bonus, only the base salary of $620K would have been left under the 30% rule, which would have limited yearly growth in future years to $186K.   As Sanders’ base salaries rapidly grow over the remaining years of his contract, such a renegotiation would have violated the 30% rule.  By only prorating a portion of his roster bonus, the remaining portion of the roster bonus ($2.83M) is included in the 30% calculation, making the renegotiation allowable under the CBA.

Other changes that ColtsCap has learned are that Sanders has a $500K workout bonus for 2009, as well as a $33,333 proration resulting from a conversion of a bonus for Sanders’ 2007 Pro-Bowl berth.

The resulting calculation of Sanders’ 2009 cap hit now places him with a 2009 cap hit of $6,130,832.

Finalized, updated figures will *hopefully* be posted over the weekend, including any UDFA’s…unless the weather’s too nice to leave the golf course.