Looking at Ndamukong Suh, the $19 Million Man

Posted on March 8, 2015March 8, 2015 by Jason Fitzgerald

The news broke today that Ndamukong Suh is set to sign a record breaking $19 million per year contract with the Miami Dolphins on Tuesday. Rumors are that Suh will receive $60 million guaranteed and at least $55 million in the first three years. That latter number is roughly in line with what was earned by JJ Watt and Mario Williams on their most recent record setting contracts. The $19 million total is unlike any in the history of the NFL. Is Suh worth it?

At an annual salary of $19 million a year, Suh becomes our top NFL “position buster”. A position buster is a player whose salary so far exceeds the norms the position they require an extra special player to warrant such a salary. Usually for this index I use the 5^th highest paid player at the position. Here is my current chart:

Position	Player	APY	5th Highest APY	% Increase
DT	Suh	$19,000,000	$7,287,500	160.7%
34DE	Watt	$16,666,667	$6,875,000	142.4%
RB	A. Peterson	$14,380,000	$7,600,000	89.2%
WR	Johnson	$16,207,143	$11,111,111	45.9%
CB	P. Peterson	$14,010,000	$10,020,000	39.8%
C	Pouncey	$8,827,325	$6,458,750	36.7%
TE	Graham	$10,000,000	$7,350,000	36.1%
43OLB	Briggs	$7,000,000	$5,250,094	33.3%
43DE/34OLB	M. Williams	$16,000,000	$12,050,000	32.8%
G	Mankins	$8,500,000	$6,750,000	25.9%
S	E. Thomas	$10,000,000	$8,000,000	25.0%
T	T. Smith	$12,200,000	$10,000,000	22.0%
QB	A. Rodgers	$22,000,000	$19,000,000	15.8%
ILB	Willis	$10,000,000	$8,750,000	14.3%

In looking at the above chart it would seem that the contract was strongly based on JJ Watt’s recent contract extension with the desire from Suh to push the price as a generational player similar to Watt. I think most agree Watt is a generational player coming from a 34 defensive end position. But is Suh that kind of player for a defensive tackle? Let’s examine using some of the statistics maintained by Pro Football Focus

Pass Rushing

Suh is one of just 10 defensive tackles that has rushed the passer more than 700 times in the last two seasons. That is something that makes him unique. It means there is essentially no pass situation that he can not play in. Here is how Suh stacks up in his pass rushing performance against that group of players:

Player	Snaps	Sacks	Tot. Pressures	% Sacks	% Hits/Hurries	% Total Pressures
McCoy	942	19	125	2.0%	11.3%	13.3%
Suh	1073	13	129	1.2%	10.8%	12.0%
Atkins	749	9	74	1.2%	8.7%	9.9%
Dareus	834	18	74	2.2%	6.7%	8.9%
Marks	922	13	77	1.4%	6.9%	8.4%
Babineaux	919	3	75	0.3%	7.8%	8.2%
Odrick	949	6	74	0.6%	7.2%	7.8%
Poe	1110	12	63	1.1%	4.6%	5.7%
Hayden	771	0	34	0.0%	4.4%	4.4%
Brockers	718	8	30	1.1%	3.1%	4.2%

Clearly this is very good for Suh, but he doesn’t rank first as that distinction goes to Gerald McCoy, who recently signed for $13.6 million per season and will earn about $44.5 million over three years. Sen’Derrick Marks provides the best value at $4.5 million per year. Still Suh has clearly put himself into an elite class.

Run Defense

For run defense I mainly just want to look at stops, which are basically the big stuffing type plays that Suh will make. Suh is one of 19 defensive tackles that has played more than 500 run snaps over the last two seasons. Everyone on the above list also made the cut except Atkins, whose injury filled 2013 saw him just miss out. Here is how our subset of players performs.

Name	Snaps	Tackles	Stops	Tackle %	Stop %
Dareus	568	75	60	13.2%	10.6%
Suh	559	59	51	10.6%	9.1%
Poe	733	68	53	9.3%	7.2%
Brockers	610	47	39	7.7%	6.4%
McCoy	612	46	38	7.5%	6.2%
Babineaux	604	41	37	6.8%	6.1%
Odrick	635	48	37	7.6%	5.8%
Hayden	534	48	31	9.0%	5.8%
Marks	651	37	34	5.7%	5.2%

Again Suh is not the best player, but again he has separated himself from the field with a 10.6% tackle rate and 9.1% stop rate. This is the category where he separates himself more from McCoy.

Soft Factors

While these produce some type of expected statistical performance, PFF actually grades players on every snap. There may be a large number of plays where Suh is standing out and simply not getting a statistical grade for it. So I’ll look at their run and pass grades (I don’t see coverage or even penalties having a bearing on this) and weigh them at 43/57% which is basically the run/pass split in the NFL.

Name	Rush	Run	Com. Score
McCoy	88.7	1.8	51.3
Suh	49.1	22	37.5
Dareus	14.2	34.4	22.9
Odrick	19.1	-1.4	10.3
Marks	21	-16.8	4.8
Poe	4.5	4.4	4.5
Babineaux	0.2	-6	-2.5
Brockers	-11.4	0.5	-6.3
Hayden	-24.4	-35.6	-29.2

This kind of confirms what we saw above. Over the last two seasons Suh is in an elite category, but it is certainly arguable whether or not he is the best at the position, let alone worth that much more than McCoy.

Final Take

For this kind of deal to work out for Miami Suh will either need to continue to improve in both facets of the game (his run performance spiked significantly in 2014) or have a material impact on his what is a decent defensive core around him. While that did not seem to be the case in Detroit (most year’s their defense was poor) the Dolphins do have better personnel. Miami may consider the fact that the current overwhelming weakness in the AFC East is line interior line play which can also benefit the statistical impact that Suh can have or help the team have.

Miami may also view Suh as one of a few players in the NFL at the position that can play all three downs. Those players are not available that often, at least ones who are very good. They may see Suh at $19M a better investment than drafting a player and hoping they become a high quality three down player or having to sign a run-stuffer and situational rusher for likely $10-$11million combined and likely not getting the same result as Suh. On a per dollar basis it’s clear Miami will lose out here, but they have virtually no risk of failure beyond injury, and that exists with every team.

In most of these cases of the big contract, the perception of the greatness of the player clouds the judgment of an organization when it comes to valuing the player. The fear of life without the player far exceeds the potential negative risk that signing such a contract will cause. For Suh he caught the perfect storm to earn this contract. The Lions poor handling of Suh’s contract made Suh a giant focus of the last two years furthering the reputation of the player. Suh’s nasty on the field antics made sure he was a household name like few others that play defense. It was essentially a free marketing tool that caused a market frenzy like no other.

Few of these big deals work out for a team, at least to the expected levels. Certainly the Peterson and Johnson led offenses haven’t led to deep playoff runs. Former position busters like Nnamdi Asomugha (Raiders), Darrelle Revis (Buccaneers), and Chris Johnson (Titans) have led to poor results. Mario Williams was arguably a position buster and it took years for that defense to become great around him and it still hasn’t even led to one playoff game. Maybe Suh will be the player to change it. Miami is certainly banking on it.

Best & Worst Contracts 2014: Miami Dolphins

Posted on July 17, 2014 by Jason Fitzgerald

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Yesterday was the Jets, today their big rivals- the Miami Dolphins…

Best Contract: Cameron Wake

This is one of the easiest decisions to make for any team. One can still make the case that Cameron Wake Wake is the best defensive player in the NFL and he was certainly close to being the best when he signed this contract. Former Dolphins general manager Jeff Ireland hit a lot of foul balls and big strike outs with his contracts, but this was a home run. Ireland steamrolled Wake, who was a in the final year of a low cost contract, into accepting a contract that offered little protection as he got older and the need to continue to perform at a high level in order to earn incentives to bump the value of his contract to a reasonable level.

11 veteran pass rushers on multiple year contracts have a higher annual value than Wake does. The base value of his contract is about 48% less than that of Mario Williams. In the last two seasons Wake has produced 27 sacks and 130 additional pressures compared to 25 sacks and 100 pressures for Williams. Those numbers illustrate the huge disparity and benefits that exist between a good and bad contract. Wake’s contract does contain escalators but even if earned they would max him out in the Tamba Hali range of contracts. To earn them is likely difficult as he has yet to earn an extra penny despite the solid play.

Whether it was an over-reliance on a fluke sack conversion stat or something else off his 2011 season, Wake took a deal that will never push his cap number beyond $9.8 million on the base value of the contract. When he turns 33, there is only $2.8 million of dead money on the books if they decide to release him. Quite frankly he’ll probably be in a position where he may be forced into a paycut. It was this bargain deal that allowed Miami to spend wildly in the 2013 offseason and the deal is arguably the best non-rookie contract in all of the NFL.

Worst Contract: Mike Wallace

There are a number of places to go with Miami when it comes to bad contracts. Most of the contracts came during a wild spending spree in 2013 that most observers thought seemed wildly optimistic regarding the prospects of their signings. I don’t think anything occurred in 2013 that should change the opinion as to whose contract was the worst of the bunch- Mike Wallace.

Wallace was a high risk gamble that for the time being has not paid off. Miami offered Wallace $12 million a season despite coming off a disappointing season in Pittsburgh where he sulked over his lack of a contract extension.

Wallace had never really shown an ability to be a true number 1 receiver as a Steeler. He was a deep threat target that played as part of a system rather than a receiver that was the star of the system. There is nothing wrong with that, but at the time that type of player would command a contract on the order of $9 million a season. Wallace was brought in to help Ryan Tannehill grow as a QB, but the two never really clicked as Wallaces strengths of playing down the field did not mesh with Tannehill’s lack of ability to throw deep. Wallace average just 12.7 yards per catch and failed to catch for 1,000 yards for the second straight season. The maturity issues that seemed to manifest themselves in Pittsburgh as he wanted a new contract, carried over to Miami as Wallace complained early about his role on the offense.

The contract structure pushed the deal into clear worst category. In order to make his cap hit artificially low in 2013, Wallace’s cap number will never be below $12.1 million over the course of the deal and this year he is carrying a $17.25 million cap charge. He earned an additional $3 million in 2015 salary guarantees by being on the roster this offseason, pushing his dead money in 2015 to $9.6 million.

Wallace’s failures, along with a few other receivers, seemed to impact the future market at the position. Somewhat similar players like Eric Decker and DeSean Jackson signed contracts worth no more than $8 million a year. Hakeem Nicks, a talented player with declining stats and perceived authority issues, had to take a low cost 1 year contract to prove he was worth a multiple year investment. With these changes in the market, Wallace can probably never justify the contract unless he plays at a level very few players in the NFL ever play at.

2013’s Best and Worst Dolphins Contracts:

2013 Best Contract: Cameron Wake (See above)

2013 Worst Contract: Mike Wallace (See above)

Click Here to Check out OTC’s other Best and Worst Contracts from around the NFL!

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Free Agency Thoughts: Miami Dolphins

Posted on April 11, 2014 by Jason Fitzgerald

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Key Additions: Branden Albert ($9.4M per year), Cortland Finnegan($5.5M), Earl Mitchell($4M), Knowshon Moreno($3M), Shelly Smith($2.75M), Louis Delmas($2.25M)

Key Re-Signings: Randy Starks ($5M per year)

Key Losses: Paul Soliai (Falcons)

Major Cuts: Dimitri Patterson($5.4M cap savings)

Free Agency Thoughts:

For the second year in a row the Dolphins have been big spenders in free agency. The Dolphins more or less neglected any long term vision for a few years under Jeff Ireland before they began throwing money around last offseason, with the most notable acquisition being WR Mike Wallace, who signed a ridiculous contract he could almost never live up to. They did not bring in anyone as high priced this year, but certainly did make their share of noteworthy moves.

There were a lot of divided opinions on the signing of Branden Albert to a contract with $20 million fully guaranteed at the soon to be age of 30. His eventual future could be right tackle, which would make him the most expensive right tackle in the NFL on the backend of his contract by a wide margin. I take the other approach on this one and feel the Dolphins really had no choice. Their offensive line was a mess in 2013 and Ireland probably lost his job because he failed to pull the trigger last year on Albert via trade. While you can’t fix things in the future this was the best, most proven option they could find and it really is a move they had no choice to make and could not risk haggling over cost

On the other end of the spectrum was a two year deal for CB Cortland Finnegan for which there is no argument- it’s a terrible contract. Finnegan was awful with the Rams, who opted to pay him $3 million to go away in hopes another team would sign him and eat some of the cost. The Dolphins not just ate the cost but gave him a raise. The Dolphins are making the assumption that by pairing him with Brent Grimes, who was extended about a week before free agency began, that they will take the pressure off him that he had with the Rams.

The decision that will come under some scrutiny will be the signing of Earl Mitchell over the retention of Paul Soliai. Mitchell is cheaper and younger but he is not as consistent a player as Soliai has been. From the Dolphins perspective I think they assumed that Soliai does not play enough to warrant the extra money and retaining Randy Starks, who is very good, and pairing him with a lower cost talent made more sense.

Bringing in RB Knowshon Moreno at just $3 million for one season was a solid move. Moreno I think fell victim to overestimating his own worth and had no suitors remaining by the time he signed. There is almost no downside to this as even at his worst he is a talent upgrade for the team. I think it does bring into question why they just did not keep Reggie Bush last year at $4 million a season, however.

Overall Grade: B

I guess the grade for Miami comes down to how much you like the Albert signing. If you dislike it then it’s an average or worse grade. If you like it then I think you give them a B. Last years spending spree was far worse than this years. Last year they grossly overpaid for three players. This year they didn’t grossly overpay for anyone and many of the contracts are reasonable. In my opinion they improved greatly at left tackle and improved at running back and safety while likely remaining constant at defensive tackle. I don’t understand the Finnegan move and they should have targeted more players on the offensive line, but the Dolphins should get better provided their QB develops this season.

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Philip Wheeler and the June 1 Cut

Posted on February 24, 2014February 25, 2014 by Ryan Feder

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With most of the NFL world congregating in Indianapolis for the NFL combine, the rumors are starting to pick up. While most of the talk is focused on whispers of which teams are looking to strike in free agency, there are a few more subtle storylines lingering. One of these was this little nugget from @VicTafur, who covers the Oakland Raiders and NFL for the San Francisco Chronicle.

I haven’t discussed my background yet on the site, but this may explain why I found this rumor more interesting than most others. I am a native of Miami, Florida and grew up a fan of the Dolphins. The linebacker swap of Karlos Dansby and Kevin Burnett for Dannell Ellerbe and Philip Wheeler has remained a hot topic among Dolphins fans since last year’s free agency. While Ellerbe and Wheeler both struggled mightily, Wheeler has caught significantly more criticism and become the focal point for explaining what is wrong with the Dolphins’ defense among fans. With rumblings of Wheeler’s future being uncertain I wanted to clear up some confusion I have been encountering regarding “how” Wheeler should be cut if the Dolphins choose to move on.

Wheeler signed a 5-year/$26 million dollar last offseason, and below is the breakdown of the remaining 4 years.

	P5 Salary	Signing Bonus Proration	Workout Bonus	Cap Number
2014	$5,000,000	$1,400,000	$0	$6,400,000
2015	$2,900,000	$1,400,000	$100,000	$4,400,000
2016	$4,900,000	$1,400,000	$100,000	$6,400,000
2017	$4,900,000	$1,400,000	$100,000	$6,400,000

The simple fact is that this deal was not designed to be a one-year deal, or even a two-year deal for that matter. And because of this, the notion of moving on from him after one year is costly. Many fans, mistakenly, try to justify cutting Wheeler by throwing out the idea of using the June 1^st Designation as some form of “money-saver”. I found this contract situation to be a great illustration of what the June 1 Designation is designed to do, what it is not designed to do, and how it affects Wheeler.

The June 1 Designation is a mechanism to defer the acceleration of prorated signing bonus money for one year. The NFL has decided that June 1 is somewhat of a dividing line between Salary Cap years. When you cut a player outright before June 1st, the remaining guarantees in P5 (base) salary and outstanding prorated signing bonus money accelerates on to the current season’s cap. After June 1^st, only the current year’s expense stays on the books. The June 1^st designation allows a team to cut up to two players prior to the June 1^st deadline that are to be treated as if they were cut after June 1^st. One misconception here is that many believe designating a player a June 1^st cut allows you to spend more money in Free Agency in March when in fact it does not. When a player is designated a June 1^st cut, they must remain on the books until June 1^st, at which point the relief is granted, enabling a team to create space to sign their rookies or to have some breathing room in their cap for the season. The real benefit of using the June 1^st cut is for teams that are very tight against the cap in the current season and simply cannot afford to take the lump sum of accelerations in the current year. By using the June 1^st cut, it defers the later guarantees and prorations until the following season. The team does not “save” this money, but rather pushes the payment back one year.

How does this affect Wheeler? Well once the misconception that the June 1^st designation somehow saves money over a regular cut is put to rest, and it is understood that it is only a deferment of payments, Wheeler’s future becomes clearer. I think the best way to illustrate this will be to just show what it looks like to keep Wheeler, cut him outright and cut him as a June 1^st cut.

Keep Wheeler For the 2014 Season

	P5 Salary	Signing Bonus Proration	Workout Bonus	Cap Number
2014	$5,000,000	$1,400,000	$0	$6,400,000

As you can see above, if Wheeler plays the 2014 season on his current contract, he will count $6,400,000 against the cap.

Standard Cut Prior to June 1st

	P5 Salary	Signing Bonus Proration	Workout Bonus	Cap Number
2014	$5,000,000	$1,400,000	$0	$6,400,000
2015	~~$2,900,000~~	$1,400,000	~~$100,000~~	~~$4,400,000~~
2016	~~$4,900,000~~	$1,400,000	~~$100,000~~	~~$6,400,000~~
2017	~~$4,900,000~~	$1,400,000	~~$100,000~~	~~$6,400,000~~

What I have done above is show what the remaining four years of Wheelers contract looks like but crossed out all the money that would be wiped clean if he is cut. As you can see, only Wheelers 2014 P5 (base) salary of $5,000,000, which is guaranteed, and the remaining prorations of his signing bonus would need to be accounted for in the cap. Because a standard cut accelerates all of the remaining guarantees in P5 (base) salary (there are none remaining for Wheeler) and remaining signing bonus prorations, Wheeler’s 2014 cap hit would look like this.

	P5 Salary	Signing Bonus Proration	Workout Bonus	Cap Number
2014	$5,000,000	$5,600,000	$0	$10,600,000

Total cap spending on Wheeler for 2014-2015 = $10,600,000

There are two important factors to remember here. First is that this would clear the Dolphins of any future commitments to Wheeler, they would be biting the entire bullet in 2014. The second thing to remember is that now Wheeler’s roster spot has to be replaced and effectively the total cost of his roster spot for 2014 would be $10.6m PLUS the cost of his replacement.

June 1^st Designation Cut

	P5 Salary	Signing Bonus Proration	Workout Bonus	Cap Number
2014	$5,000,000	$1,400,000	$0	$6,400,000
2015	~~$2,900,000~~	$4,200,000	~~$100,000~~	$4,200,000
2016	~~$4,900,000~~	$0	~~$100,000~~	$0
2017	~~$4,900,000~~	$0	~~$100,000~~	$0

Total cap spending on Wheeler for 2014-2015 = $10,600,000 (same as standard cut)

Above is what the June 1^st Cut would look like. Here the 2014 cap commitment is only his guaranteed $5,000,000 P5 (base) salary and his 2014 prorated signing bonus of $1,400,000. Unlike the standard cut, the Dolphins are still cap committed for the 2015 season, which is the remaining $4,200,000 (1.4×3) of signing bonus money that needed to be accounted for. As you can see, the only difference between the standard cut and the June 1^st cut is not whether or not Wheeler saves any more or less money on the cap, but rather WHEN the money has to be accounted for. Again, the June 1^st Cut is a deferral mechanism, not a money saver. You save the exact same amount of money whether you cut a player normally or with the June 1^st cut, it’s only a question of how you want the payment plan to be.

Again, because Wheeler is no longer on the roster, the cost of a replacement player has to be accounted for as well.

With the breakdown above, I have one fundamental question. Even if you believe Wheeler is going to play as poorly as he did last year, or even worse, what benefit do the Dolphins get from cutting him, either outright or as a June 1^st? An open roster spot at the end of the bench? At the very worst, he should be the best backup linebacker, on your team because there is no benefit to cutting him. Even though he will be being grossly overpaid, you are either going to be accounting for him on the cap whether he is in a Dolphins uniform or not. There is one other option –a trade. Much like the Cardinals and Jaguars did last year with Levi Brown and Eugene Monroe; the Dolphins could pay a portion of the money owed to Wheeler to a willing trade partner, which would mitigate some of the damage of moving on from Wheeler. If he improves, now that’s just an added bonus. But because of all this, I would be shocked if the Dolphins chose to cut Wheeler, with either designation, or find a willing trade partner and expect him to be on the Dolphins roster in 2014.

Ryan Feder

Tulane University Law School

J.D. Candidate 2015

@RyanFeder

rfeder1@tulane.edu

2014 Miami Dolphins Offseason Salary Cap and Financial Report

Posted on January 8, 2014 by Jason Fitzgerald

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Welcome to one of the newest additions to the Over the Cap website: the offseason Financial Scouting Report, which should help serve as a guide to a teams’ offseason planning for the 2014 season. This will be our fourth report and will break down some thoughts on the Miami Dolphins, though it was finished up right before GM Jeff Ireland was fired. Each report will contain a breakdown of the current roster, a look at performance from 2013, salary cap outlooks, free agents, salary cap cuts, draft costs, extension candidates, and possible free agent targets. The hope is to do a report for all 32 teams by the start of Free Agency, if time allows. Thus far we have covered the Jets, Texans, and Cowboys.

Because the report contains some graphs and charts and over 4,000 words it is available for download as an Adobe PDF file that you can read at your leisure offline and keep for a handy reference during the year rather than as a blog post. The report is free for download and reading, but if you find the report useful and would like to help OTC continue to grow and add content like this we would appreciate the “purchase” of the report for just $1.00 by clicking the Paypal link below or the one within the report. Also if using any of the graphs or salary data please just add a reference to OTC when doing so.

The Dolphins Options With Jonathan Martin and the Dollars Involved

Posted on November 7, 2013 by Jason Fitzgerald

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We’ve discussed a bit on the Incognito side of the Jonthan Martin situation, but with Dolphins teammates jumping to the defense of Incognito and wondering why Martin is taking such actions, we should also examine what Martin has to lose by leaving the team.

In the NFL players such as Martin are given guaranteed portions of a contract as well as moderate signing bonuses. All of the money involved in the contract is contingent on the player making a good faith effort to honor his contract. While we often consider a signing bonus to simply be earned once paid, in reality it is not. The league provides for forfeiture provisions of bonus money already paid for almost any occurrence that impairs a players’ ability to honor such contract.

While many have speculated that he could be placed on a Non-Football Illness list, there needs to be a reason to do that. For instance when the 49ers Aldon Smith was placed on NFI a few weeks ago he checked himself into rehab, a legitimate reason to go on NFI. There had been stories that Martin checked himself into a hospital for a very brief stay due to emotional distress. If true that may have been advised as a manner to be placed on NFI rather than being charged with leaving the team. The reason I say advised is because it seems that the situation had been coming to a head for weeks based on a report by Pro Football Talk.

Per my understanding of the NFL roster rules a player who leaves the team for an extended period during the regular season severely limits what his team can do. The Dolphins options at this stage, unless NFI is an option, are to either place Martin on the Reserve/Retired list, keep him on the active roster, or release him. This could explain why Miami has kept him active. Once placed on the Retired list Martins contract tolls under a left squad provision and he is unable to play in the NFL for the balance of the season. Once on this list he is also going to be subject to forfeiture provisions and will not earn a salary, something he may earn on NFI, especially considering the public outcry in favor of Martin. If they released Martin the Dolphins would have no recourse to recover any money paid or owed under his guarantee.

Martin had signed a four year contract with the Dolphins following the 2012 draft. His 2013 salary was guaranteed and he received a signing bonus of $1,919,468. If Martin fails to return to the Dolphins Miami can take actions to recover all of the money remaining on his bonus. If he goes onto a retirement list this week he would lose $285,866 of his $607,466 salary remaining this year and could stand to lose $225,841 in signing bonus money, for a total loss of $511,707. If he was to fail to return to the NFL he would lose $959,824 in 2014 and 2015 bonus allocations. He would have an opportunity to re-earn that money if he ever returned and honored his contract.

Proving for an unsafe work environment could give Martin a reason to file a grievance if the Dolphins were to attempt to take his salaries and bonus allocations away from him. I would imagine that this becomes a matter of workplace safety and he could not be expected to come to work in an unsafe environment. The Dolphins failure to provide a safe workplace might mean that he is entitled to his bonus money since it would be the Dolphins failures to act that did not allow Martin to honor his contract. In a roundabout way this was no different than Miami cutting the player from the roster.

This all seems to be uncharted territory for the NFL so they and the Dolphins will likely proceed cautiously. The NFL has come under scrutiny this year due a wide variety of topics ranging from a player accused of murder to an increased focus on head trauma to changing the name of a football team. It seems as if in this situation the general public pressure and opinion is much different than the in-football opinion, where many people have quietly backed the Dolphins until yesterday when the players overtly seemed to side with Incognito in the dispute. We’ll see how it shakes out in the coming days.

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John Denney Becomes Highest Paid LS…By $87

Posted on August 21, 2013 by Jason Fitzgerald

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Last week the Dolphins signed Long Snapper John Denney to a three year contract extension that would, according to his agent Ian Greengross, make him the highest paid player at his position in the NFL. Per a league source we learned of the full details of the contract which confirmed the statement (if we do not include players on tenders). Normally this would not merit a post, but I thought that this was interesting enough to write about to illustrate how pretty small amounts (meaning dollars not thousands or millions) in a contract can help both sides feel good about a contract.

Prior to Denney’s extension the highest compensated LS in terms of annual value was the Giants Zak DeOssie at $1.15 million a year. His total contract was worth $3,450,000. In order to surpass that amount Denney receives a Paragraph 5 salary in 2014 of a pretty quirky amount of $865,087, which pushed the total value of his contract to $3,450,087, enough to lay claim to being the highest paid in the game. Denney’s APY is $1,150,029.

Denney received a $400,000 signing bonus which is the only portion of his contract that is guaranteed. That figure is not at the top of the league, but at 34 years old it would be hard to imagine the Dolphins guaranteeing future salaries. The guarantee works out to be about 11.6% of the total contract value which is close to the figure the Eagles Jon Dorenbos received. Dorenbos is 33.

Miami only increased their cap commitment to Denney in 2013 by $80,000.

View John Denney’s Contract and Salary Cap Page

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