Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was discussing wide receiver Amari Cooper’s performance for the Cowboys and made some interesting comments where the takeaway seem to be the following

Jerry Jones is frustrated with Amari Cooper's contract and relative production.

— Clarence Hill Jr (@clarencehilljr) January 21, 2022

The Cooper and Cowboys dynamic is one that I have always found interesting. Dallas traded a number 1 pick for Cooper back in 2018 but never seemed to feel the same push to protect their investment in him that other teams who traded for players (Jalen Ramsey and the Rams, Leonard Williams and the Giants, etc…) did. Dallas actually allowed Cooper to test free agency in 2020 rather than signing him to an extension after the season ended.

Eventually the two sides came to an agreement where Cooper hit the magic $20 million per year number that had been pretty elusive for most receivers and put Cooper in a rare group of players but he contract itself said something different. Usually when players sign contracts this large they get a massive amount of money up front. For example recent contracts in the $20 million per year range usually see a player earn between $28 and $32 million in the first year. Cooper received $20 million. Cooper only received a $10 million signing bonus which ranks 15th at the position.

The more interesting aspect for Cooper’s contract came with the guarantee structure. Dallas guaranteed the first two years of the contract at signing. They added another $20 million in injury protection in the third year of the contract but unlike other contracts with very favorable vesting conditions Cooper’s guarantee’s don’t become fully guaranteed until the 5th day of the league year in 2022, which is the third year of the contract.

This was not typical for the way the Cowboys have treated their star acquisitions. DeMarcus Lawrence, who also signed a $20 million per year contract and did so a year before Cooper, received $48 million in guarantees at signing and another $17 million that was injury protected. That $17 million, like Cooper’s, was due in the third year. Unlike Cooper’s the $17 million became guaranteed in the second contract year rather than the third.

Ezekiel Elliott, who also signed a lucrative contract in 2019, was treated similar to Lawrence. Though the situations are not entirely comparable since Elliott had two years remaining under contract, Elliott received about $15 million in new full guarantees at signing. He had another $22 million in injury protection in years 3 and 4 of the contract. Those salaries were guaranteed in year 2 and year 3 making him impossible to cut. Zack Martin’s contract also followed a similar pattern.

Essentially Cooper was treated in this respect more like the second tier star players who had signed in recent years. Players like Jaylon Smith and La’el Collins had the less favorable vesting schedules in their contracts. Now this is sometimes a common tradeoff we see in contract negotiations. Cooper reaching $20 million a year was likely a must reach target for him. Since few receivers before or since have gotten to that number it would make sense that Dallas would pull back on a favorable pay structure and guarantee structure especially if in the back of their minds they felt they were overpaying to keep him.

When Cooper was signed to the contract I noted at the time that it seemed to be a deal that had a bit of “buyers remorse” built into the contract. Cooper would be easily tradeable at any point in time since the signing bonus was so low and he could be cut in the third season with minimal penalty assuming he was not injured. If cut his salary he would have earned from Dallas would have trailed the two year earnings of lower annual value contracts signed by other star receivers.

One way Cooper would have had more security and assurances on his future is if the Cowboys would have restructured his contract for salary cap relief. Last season Cooper had a $22 million cap charge which could have been brought down to about $6.8 million had the Cowboys converted most of his salary to a signing bonus. He would have been a logical choice since he was coming of a 1,100 yard season but the Cowboys resisted. Instead the restructured the contracts of Elliott, Martin, Tyron Smith, La’el Collins and Dak Prescott. The prior year they had restructured Lawrence, Martin, Smith, and Collins rather than modifying the Cooper contract.

It just seems like this is a possibility that Dallas has always had in mind. Cooper has a $22 million salary cap charge and just $6 million in dead money if they were to cut him,(this assumes that he is healthy). While he is still productive Cooper is coming off a year where he failed to reach 900 yards and seemed to deal with nagging injuries all season. It’s probably enough of a decline with all of the other factors here that they would at least discuss options with his contract ranging from offering a pay cut to seeing what trade market might exist to just leaving it as is.

This is not the same situation as Dez Bryant as that name may be brought up when people think of Dallas’ options. Bryant’s numbers had fallen for a few years and he was older than Cooper when Dallas decided that they were paying number 1 money to a non number 1 player. Cooper may still be a 1, Dallas just has to decide if they want to spend the full $20 million to find that out in 2022.

Jets standout defensive lineman will be a Jet for the foreseeable future after he signed a four year, $55 million contract to remain in New York as a fixture for the Jets defense. Per a source with knowledge of the contract here is a breakdown of the deal.

This year Franklin-Myers salary will remain the same and he will also receive a $2 million signing bonus. The balance of his salary (about $715K) for the year is officially guaranteed as part of the extension. His cap hit increases by $400,000 due to the signing bonus.

In 2022 He will earn a guaranteed roster bonus in March worth $10 million while also earning a guaranteed salary of $1.5 million. He has $600,000 in per game bonuses and offseason bonuses which are also guaranteed if he was to be released. His cap number will be $12.5 million.

In 2023 he will earn an $11.4 million in salary along with the same $600,000 in bonuses. This is all guaranteed for injury with $6 million becoming guaranteed in 2022 and the other $6 million in 2023. His cap figure will be $12.4 million.

In 2024 there is a $13.3 million salary along with the same bonus structure. $3.18 million is guaranteed with $1.125 million becoming fully guaranteed in 2023. He will carry a $14.3 million cap hit.

In 2025 there is a P5 of $14.35 million and $650,000 in bonuses. None of this year is guaranteed and his cap charge is $15.4 million.

In total it works out to $55 million in new money with $14.815 million guaranteed at signing and $30 million guaranteed for injury . Given the early vesting date of his 2023 salary the effective full guarantee is $20.8 million. Another $4 million in performance escalators are also available to bring the max total to $59 million. The contract essentially mimics the recent Josh Sweat contract with the Eagles except this contract is four years in length versus three years for Sweat. It is the fourth year that bumps the annual value over Sweat’s.

I believe that Franklin-Myers will now hold the record for the largest contract ever signing by a draft pick who was cut from his original team in a non-option year. He was originally on the Rams and was claimed by the Jets in 2019 in what has to be one of the best personnel decisions the Jets have made in the last few years.

Last night, Christian McCaffrey of the Panthers was injured on a pretty routine run during the Panthers and Texans game. Hopefully the injury is not too serious but McCaffrey missed nearly all of last season with various injuries and last year also happened to be the season when McCaffrey signed a massive contract extension making him the highest paid running back in the league. While I have spoken a lot about free agent running back signings in the free agent guide I wanted to look at extensions where, for the most part, we have about the most controlled environment possible for a player since he will be playing with a roster and staff he is familiar with.

An extension is a type of contract where a team opts to sign a player for extra years even though the team controlled the players rights through his rookie contract for one or two more seasons. Generally this means the player is younger than a typical free agent and should be more productive. It also generally means the player will be more expensive as players who sign extensions often get the largest annual contract values and guaranteed salaries.

I looked at every player who signed an extension since 2014 that was worth at least $2 million a season and then looked at their total offensive productivity (yards rushing and receiving as recorded by Pro Football Focus) in the year prior to signing an extension. For extensions I included long term contracts signed as a restricted free agent, unless he switched teams. Franchise players were not included. I then wanted to compare the numbers to what occurred in the year they signed the contract and the year afterwards.

First up is the performance in the year of signing. The x-axis shows the yards the player produced in the year of signing while the y-axis shows the change in yards, either positive or negative, in the year the extension was signed. The size of the bubble represents how large the contract was that the player signed.

Certainly not a good start for our group. Our average production change was about -210 total yards. The median was -242. This is more or less a 20% drop in production for the average player. Remember had they not signed an extension they would have still been under contract meaning the price in most cases would have gone down had the team waited.

Only 10 of 30 players improved. Two of those players, David Johnson and Dion Lewis, basically did not play the year before and had nowhere to go but up. Kareem Hunt was suspended 8 games in the year prior to signing and Raheem Mostert only played half the year. Of those who played significantly only 6 improved- Alvin Kamara, Dalvin Cook. Damien Williams, Chris Thompson, and Darren Sproles, who did it twice.

What about the year after they sign? Some of the players would still be under rookie contract (Zeke, Gurley, etc…) though most would have been free agents. So in a sense this is the year you were really paying for by signing the extension. Here is how the performance of the eligible players broke down.

8 players improved from prior to signing a new contract. Three of those were the Johnson, Mostert, Lewis group while Taiwan Jones was also in that 8 games or less group. That leaves James White, Damien Williams. CJ Anderson, and Danny Woodhead. The average change was -293 yards with a median change of -307.

I know we all say “it wont happen to our guy” when he gets signed, but thus far there have been few instances where waiting to sign a player would have cost a team anything other than the headache of dealing with a contract issue. Maybe Kamara, Cook, and Nick Chubb will be the players to break the cycle, but thus far there is little reason to think the extension is in any way a good idea.

The Ravens and tight end Mark Andrews agreed to a four year, $56 million contract extension Monday night which will make him, on paper, the third highest paid tight end in the NFL bit in reality the second highest paid tight end in the league. Per a league source with knowledge of the contract the breakdown is as follows.

In 2021, Andrews will receive a $10.163 million signing bonus along with a $920,000 salary, which is fully guaranteed. This is a raise of $7.5 million over Andrews’ prior $3.58 million salary (this includes a 17^th game check Andrews would have earned). Andrews cap number should be $3.16 million.

In 2022, Andrews will receive a $15.5 million option bonus and a $3.5 million salary. Both are fully guaranteed at signing. The cap number in 2022 will be $9.4 million.

In 2023, Andrews will earn a salary of $7.5 million. The salary is guaranteed for injury and will be fully guaranteed in 2022. The cap number is $13.4M.

In 2024 and 2025, Andrews will earn $11 million in each season, split up between $7 million salaries and $4 million in roster bonuses. The roster bonuses will force a team to make an early decision on releasing  the player once the guarantees in a contract run out. In both years Andrews’ cap number will be $16.9 million.

Overall, it works out to $30.08 million guaranteed at signing and $37.8 million virtually guaranteed at signing due to the early vesting date on the 2023 salary. The full guarantee ranks third at the position behind Kyle Pitts and Jonnu Smith and the injury guarantee is second to only George Kittle. The four year length is stronger for Andrews than it is for Kittle.

While many are going to point to the guarantee as the big deal with the contract the real strength of this contract is in the cash flow schedule. Andrews will blow away the position when it comes to up front cash that is earned. Here is the cash flow schedule of the top tight end contracts in the NFL.

Andrews $26.5 million earned in the first new year of the contract is 22% higher than George Kittle’s which is a major jump. Even through year two Andrews will out-earn Kittle and will earn 36% more than Kelce which is why Andrews deal is far stronger than Kelce’s even if technically the annual value ranks below.

The first turn for the Ravens comes in year three when Andrews will drop slightly below Kittle and the gap between he and Kelce begins to shrink. He will fall a full $1M per year under Kittle if both make it to the fourth season and Andrews would have a chance in free agency or on an extension to catch up to or make out better than Kittle over the long term.

The Ravens have done contracts like this in the past where they commit very big amounts up front and in return do not set a new market high for a player. Here are a few examples of the way have utilized this concept.

The cases are similar to Andrews’. Stanley is the 4^th highest paid left tackle but earned the most in the first year. Humphrey is the 2^nd highest paid corner but earns far more than the top salaried player by APY in the first year and is tops at the position. Peters is 9^th in APY and 8^th in 1^st year cash while also being a rare player signed to a three year deal.

Andrews cash salary also far outpaces the alternative of the franchise tag. We project the tag to be around $10.7M for tight ends next year. Had he gone year to year Andrews would have been in line to earn $23.5 million by the end of 2023, none of which would have been guaranteed. He will earn more than two tags by the end of 2022 and $11.5M more by the end of 2023. A third tag would never be in play for a tight end.

When you look at the numbers in this manner the Ravens need Andrews to play through at least the 2024 season on the contract and most likely need this to wind up a true four year contract to get strong value out of the deal. That doesn’t make this a bad contract for the Ravens it just makes it a contract one they need to be right about.

For those curious about any outs in the contract if things went sideways the first real out year is 2024 when the dead money drops to $11.8 million. Even a trade the year before that would result in over $17.5 million in dead money. Andrews has $4 million roster bonuses in the 2024 and 2025 “out years” to ensure an early release if the Ravens needed to move on.

The Chiefs renegotiated the contract of guard Andrew Wylie to guarantee him a roster space for the year and create a much needed $1.2 million in cap space. Wylie, who was a restricted free agent this offseason, agreed to a new contract that will guarantee his $920,000 salary for the 2021 season. Wylie will still be a free agent after the season.

The Chiefs now have in the ballpark of $3 million in salary cap room for the year. That number is inclusive of their Practice Squad additions so this should be enough for them to function during the year without the need for any more contract modifications.

Today is the official cutdown to the “final 53” in the NFL and sometimes today’s action brings about a lot of confusion when we see the names of players who are being released. Everson Griffin of the Vikings. Marqui Christian and Artie Burns on the Bears. The Lions carrying zero kickers. And so on and so on. While this will not hold true with all of these players in many cases these are simply procedural moves done to protect roster spots as team get to the real 53 man rosters over the next few days.

When a player who does not have enough service to be considered a veteran the player is subject to waivers. Waivers give all of the other 31 teams in the NFL the ability to claim the player’s contract if you release him. When a veteran has enough years of service they are not subject to waivers and simply become a free agent.

There are two issues that often happen during this timeframe in the NFL. A big one is that teams have plenty of injured players who are not going to be able to play for a few weeks but will be able to play at a later time. The league has a rule that allows players on IR to be reactivated later in the season but with a catch. The player has to be on the 53 man roster at the start of the season, meaning they have to be on the roster after 4PM today before they can be placed on IR tomorrow afternoon and no longer count on the 53 man.

The second issue is protecting players a team want’s for a practice squad. In order to move a player to a practice squad they will need to be released. In most cases this applies to young players who dominate the practice squads. Waiver claims are usually most active in the first day or two following final cuts. Sometimes it is beneficial to hold a player until planning for the regular season opener begins as teams are then focused on their opponents and 53 man roster and are more likely to allow a player to pass through waivers. In this case that probably means holding a player through next Monday.

If a team were to release a younger player who they really like they run the risk of losing him in the waiver process. They do not have that same risk with a veteran since their contract is not open for a claim. So what occurs is that a team will go to the player, tell them they are releasing him from his contract simply to hold a roster spot for a few days for another player. Once they process the move they will re-sign him to the exact same contract. So for example Griffen was on a one year, $1.075 million contract. He will simply be re-signed to another $1.075 million contract. Nothing changes for the veteran it is simply a procedural move. Basically it gives the team the ability to have a 54, 55, 56, etc… man roster to comply with NFL rules.

This is not to be confused with avoiding a full salary guarantee through termination pay. That only happens if the veteran is not re-signed until the second week of the season. That may happen in some cases too but the usual procedure for that is to have the veteran on the team through next Tuesday and then cutting him on Friday or Saturday. This allows the veteran to earn his full salary for the week but not be active for week 1 and thus the team avoids the salary guarantee for the full year (they will still guarantee 35% of the contract when he is re-signed).

But if you see a move that seems like a head scratcher involving a low salaried veteran know that it is probably just a procedural cut and he will be back on the team within the next 72 hours.