Eli Manning signed a big $84 million contract extension with the Giants this past weekend and today the numbers were reported by multiple news outlets and the Giants actually did better than the overall annual value would indicate. Manning’s contract is worth $21 million per year which ranks Manning 4th in the NFL behind Andrew Luck, Russell Wilson, and Ben Roethlisberger, but you can make a pretty strong argument that the contract really ranks 7th, which would make it the lowest of the recent extensions worth more than $20 million.
The first way I’ll usually look at a contract is to break down the cash component of the contract, generally in terms of new money. When we look at Eli’s deal in this manner you can see where the Giants were able to come out ahead in the way the contract is structured. Here is Eli compared to the other big contracts that were signed A.F. (anno Flacco).
| Player | Year 0 | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 |
| Manning | $19,500,000 | $37,500,000 | $51,000,000 | $67,000,000 | $84,000,000 |
| Wilson | $30,160,000 | $42,500,000 | $55,100,000 | $70,600,000 | $87,600,000 |
| Rodgers | $30,150,000 | $41,750,000 | $54,350,000 | $68,000,000 | $88,900,000 |
| Roethlisberger | $23,650,000 | $41,400,000 | $53,400,000 | $70,400,000 | $87,400,000 |
| Ryan | $20,000,000 | $41,500,000 | $53,000,000 | $68,750,000 | $84,500,000 |
| Newton | $16,334,000 | $39,334,000 | $53,000,000 | $68,000,000 | $84,700,000 |
| Rivers | $21,750,000 | $38,250,000 | $52,250,000 | $67,250,000 | $83,250,000 |
In terms of new money in the year that cover the original contract Manning will rank sixth, ahead of only Cam Newton. In every year after he ranks last among the group in new salary and is nearly $2 million under Rivers and Roethlisberger over the first two years, his most direct comparisons. It is not until the final year of his contract that he jumps ahead of Rivers, which was necessary to earn the higher APY.
Manning’s $31 million signing bonus ranks 3rd among quarterbacks behind only Drew Brees and Rodgers and tied with Wilson and Roethlisberger. That should give Manning some added security, but his total prorated bonus protection also trails Ryan, Newton, and Flacco, all of whom also received large option bonuses in their contracts. Manning has similar end of contract roster bonuses to Rives and Roethlisberger. Bryce will break this all down at some point when he looks at Manning’s ECV in the coming days.
Manning would benefit from a resturctured contract next season, one in which he carries a $24.2 million cap charge, which will rank third among all quarterbacks in 2016. Despite the large charge, the Giants, however, should be able to absorb it. I currently estimate the Giants have about $38 million in cap space if the cap grows to $150 million next year. Currently the Giants have about $8 million in cap room to carry over plus another potential $14.8 million in credits that will come if Jason Pierre Paul does not play this season. That should leave the team with plenty of space to re-sign Prince Amukamara, do something again with JPP and be active in free agency without restructuring the Manning contract.