Titans LB Kamerion Wimbley announced his retirement from the NFL after 9 seasons in the league. A retirement, once processed, is treated identical to a player release for salary cap purposes. He was sceheduled to count for $4.45 million against the Titans salary cap, but will now see that number reduce to $3.6 million. The $3.6 million is attributed to the remaining prorated money from a $9 million signing bonus received in 2012 when he signed with Tennessee as a free agent.
Wimbley’s best season in the NFL was probably his first when nabbed 11 sacks for the Browns as a rookie in 2006. The Browns traded Wimbley to Oakland after he had just 15.5 sacks over the next three seasons and Oakland proved to be a great destination for him. In his contract season Wimbley would sack the QB 9 times, which led to the Raiders using their franchise tag on him. wimbley leveraged that into a contract that guaranteed him $11.5 million. Wimbley lasted just one year on that contract before he was released.
Wimbley quickly signed with the Titans, earning another $11.5 million in the first year of that deal. He accepted a paycut in 2014 after two years of rather mediocre play that resulted in 9 sacks and 24 tackles in two years. With the signing of Brian Orakpo it was likely that Wimbley’s role would have further diminished which I guess could have helped lead to the retirement decision. Regardless Wimbley did a pretty impressive job of using a first round draft status and some flashes of greatness to land himself some pretty good contracts in his NFL career.
Jason is the founder of OTC and has been studying NFL contracts and the salary cap for over 15 years. Jason has co-authored two books about the NFL, Crunching Numbers and the Drafting Stage, which are widely circulated in the industry and hosts the OTC Podcast. Jason’s work has been featured in various publications including the Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, NFL Network and more. OTC is widely considered the leading authority on contract matters in the NFL.