Jake Long Injured Again and a Look at the Rams Upcoming Decisions

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Rams left tackle Jake Long tore his ACL this past Saturday, an injury that should send him to the IR and end his season. This will mark the 4th time in four seasons that Long has finished the year on the injured list and he will add to the massive salary total that sits on the Rams injured list.

If Long will want to play football next season he will likely need to discuss his contract with the Rams. The Rams designed a creative contract with Long that was somewhat back loaded in value and gave them yearly outs in the event the often injured tackle continued to be hurt.

Long is owed $9.25 million in salary in 2015 and has a $10.5 million salary cap number. If Long is on the Rams roster a few days into the 2015 League Year, $4 million of that figure will become guaranteed, forcing a decision sometime in early March on his future. Releasing Long will save the Rams $8 million in cap room, so the Rams would certainly have every financial incentive to move on.

The sides could also agree to restructure a contract that pays Long his guaranteed number he wanted ($4 million) and nothing else. That would have the sides meeting somewhere in the middle in terms of cash/cap savings while also giving Long one more opportunity to play in the NFL.

The Rams will likely have a number of offseason roster decisions to make. Even with the injuries they have to be disappointed with their current 2-5 record and it may be hard to justify coming back with the same veterans on the roster in 2015.

In addition to Long the Rams will have to make a decision on the future of quarterback Sam Bradford, who will count for over $16.5 million in cap charges. Releasing Bradford avoids sinking another $13 million into the quarterback in both cap space and actual cash commitments. Kendall Langford carries a $7 million salary cap charge and would open up $6 million in cap room if cut. The team could also look to try to do something with the contract of Jared Cook.

My current estimates for the Rams have them with about $13 million in cap room in 2015, assuming a $3 million credit for Cortland Finnegan and a $140 million salary cap. That would be around the top of the bottom third of the NFL. Making a few of the above moves would move them into the top 10 best cap positions in 2015 and likely near the top 5.

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THE SAM BRADFORD DILEMMA

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Sam Bradford was the last #1 pick to truly hit the lottery.  2010s #1 overall selection, his 6-year/$78 million contract included $50 million in guaranteed money.

Unfortunately for the NFL Draft’s subsequent top selections, the 2011 CBA included the implementation of rookie wage scale. Both the owners and veteran players had been fed up with unproven rookies making such absurd amounts of money.

Four years into Sam Bradford’s career (his 2013 campaign ended when he tore his ACL in November), and he’s one of many poster children for why a rookie wage scale makes sense.  Although injuries, poor offensive-line play and a lack of talented skill position players have all played their role, Bradford remains unproven.

A 2-14 2011 season gave the Rams the #2 overall selection in the 2012 draft, as well as the opportunity to take QB Robert Griffin III.  But cutting bait on Bradford was never really an option at that point for St. Louis.  They had just drafted him two years earlier, which not only meant that the jury remained out on him, but also that they still owed him a lot of money—his 2012 & 2013 salaries were both fully guaranteed.

Sam Bradford (QB) 11/8/87 (26 years old)–Contract Details

bradforddeal

So the Rams held on to Bradford while accumulating a heap of draft picks in their draft day trade with the Redskins. And somehow, two years later, they find themselves in a jarringly similar position.

The Rams own Washington’s 2014 first round pick, which is currently the 2nd overall selection with three weeks left in the regular season.  The difference this time around is that cutting ties with Bradford would only result in about $7 million in dead money, whereas doing so two years ago would have amounted to almost $33 million in dead money.  Moreover, Bradford wasn’t rehabbing a torn ACL at this point two years ago. And while more and more players are showing remarkable recovery ability from this type of injury, it’s of course no sure thing.

Bradford’s current contract stipulates $1.75 million of both his 2014 & 2015 salaries are guaranteed, while his cap hits for ’14 & ’15 are $17,610,000 and $16,580,000, respectively. And one thing is certain—St. Louis cannot afford to have an unproven quarterback rehabbing a torn ACL take up $17.6 million of next year’s salary cap space.

Trusted Rams reporter Jim Thomas of the St Louis Post-Dispatch doesn’t think that the Rams will use one of their 2014 first-round picks on a quarterback. However that could change in the next 3 weeks.

Louisville’s Teddy Bridgewater, the top quarterback prospect in the country, is the heavy favorite to be the first quarterback taken in April’s draft.  If Houston—the current owner of the #1 pick and a franchise in dire need of a quarterback—continues to lose (@IND, vs.DEN, @TEN), then Bridgewater will almost certainly be a Texan.

But if the Texans can pull off an upset or two while the Redskins (@ATL, vs.DAL, @NYG) continue to lose, then the Rams will own the #1 pick as well as the rights to Bridgewater.  Looking at the Texans and Redskins remaining schedules, this may seem unlikely.  However if you watched any football this past Sunday, you know it’s certainly not impossible.

Ultimately, Sam Bradford’s NFL future may rest on the outcomes of the last 3 Texans and Redskins games.  Otherwise, he will likely remain a Ram in 2014, while being forced to restructure his contract or take a pay cut.

Andrew Cohen
@ajcohen03
ajcohen3@gmail.com 
 
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What Lies Ahead for Rams QB Sam Bradford

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Injuries in the NFL are an ugly and often costly event. In some cases teams overlook injuries when the body of work is so strong that a team believes an injury will have no material impact on a players’ performance level. Such was the case with Peyton Manning when  he signed with Denver in 2012. But in most cases players do not have that kind of body of work to fall back on. Such is the case of Sam Bradford.

Bradford tore his ACL during the loss to the Carolina Panthers on Sunday and is lost for the season. The injury comes at a critical junction of his career as Bradford was headed into the first portion of his contract where he can become expendable for salary cap purposes. Bradford, the final number one pick of the 2006 CBA, was given a financial windfall due to his draft status. His contract was worth $78 million over 6 seasons and $51 million was guaranteed. The following years’ number one pick would only receive a contract worth about $22 million.

Bradford has had a pretty rocky start to his NFL career. He played well as a rookie in 2010 and looked poised to be a quality starter in the NFL. By the end of 2011 there were questions about if Bradford could succeed at this level and the Rams actually faced a decision to potentially trade away Bradford and select Robert Griffin III as his replacement in 2012. The Rams chose to stick with Bradford, who showed improvements under a new coaching staff but failed to ever create the feeling that he was definitely the guy for the job. Bradford seemed to be more Mark Sanchez than Eli Manning with the prevailing notion being that he needed more parts on offense to be properly evaluated.

After 7 games in 2013 the same questions remain about whether or not Bradford could succeed with a better team or if he would just continue to be a caretaker of an offense. Bradford’s salary cap figure in 2014 is $17,610,000, an unreasonable figure for a team with a number of high priced contracts. He would earn just upwards of $14 million in cash if he made the team. A good season and he was likely in line for a short term 3 year extension that would fall somewhere between the Sanchez and Matt Stafford extensions given for salary cap relief purposes, meaning more guaranteed money in return for cap flexibility for the Rams.

Bradford now faces a difficult road ahead. The ACL injury marks his second injury in the NFL in just four years that will cause him to miss significant time. There was also the college injury that sidelined him for nearly a full season. From this point forward I think he has to carry the injury prone label that have hurt many other players in the NFL.  His dead money charge is down to a more manageable $7.19 million if released, a number that could be split across two seasons if the Rams were to wait until after June 1 to unload him.

What makes it more difficult for Bradford is that he has little to fall back on. The Rams were not a good team before his injury. Pro Football Focus had rated him as the 30th QB in the NFL, which was actually worse than their grade on him the year before. This was after bringing in a left tackle and tight end to help him. In addition the Rams not only are on pace to finish the year with a losing record, but they also own the first round draft pick of the Washington Redskins, who currently have two wins on the season. The ammunition will be there to draft a QB.

Whenever I think of injuries to a QB I am always reminded of Chad Pennington of the New York Jets many years ago. Pennington was a former first round draft selection who rode the bench for two years before taking over the job and leading the Jets to an improbable division title and playoff run in 2002. Pennington would get injured in 2003, but between the draft status and 2002 efforts the Jets rewarded him with a lucrative $64 million dollar extension in 2004 with an $18 million dollar signing bonus.

Pennington would go on to injure his shoulder in both 2004 and 2005 with the Jets having paid him $22 million dollars for a total of 16 regular season games.  They were prepared to move on in 2006 rather than to throw more money at what looked like an average QB that could not play an entire season. His cap charge and dead money was an equal $12 million and the Jets would save $9 million in cash by parting ways.

Pennington had no recourse but to take a $6 million dollar paycut in 2006 to have a chance to remain with the Jets. At that point he knew his career was damaged badly by the injuries and general mediocre play and that his best chance to resurrect his career was with the Jets. The Jets would give him opportunities to earn the $6 million back through playtime incentives and to earn other lost salaries in future years back through playtime escalators. The Jets still traded for Patrick Ramsey and drafted Kellen Clemens in the 2nd round knowing that Pennington would not be handed the starting job. To Pennington’s credit he played 16 games in 2006 to earn his money back. He would subsequently suffer a small ankle injury in 2007 with the Jets and then major injuries in 2009 and 2010 as a member of the Miami Dolphins.

Though Bradford’s latest injury is different than Pennington’s  there has to be concerns with a player who has given the team 33 games in 3 years with a record of 11-21. In that timeframe the Rams have paid Bradford nearly $48 million dollars. The Rams have to take a pessimistic view of his future just as the Jets did with Pennington and not sink more money after a bad investment.

Bradford’s only real quality at this point is his draft status. If he was a second round pick this would not even be a discussion. But teams will feel there is something there that deserves a second chance, a chance almost every first rounder with a pulse receives.  But like Pennington he’ll need to take a significant paycut from the $14 million he would have earned in 2014 prior to  the injury and like Pennington his best chance to keep a job may come by staying with his team provided they are not in a position to draft a QB in round 1.

Pennington was asked to covert two thirds of his salary back in 2006 to an incentive. Pennington had been to the playoffs twice in his career when that occurred with a 21-16 record as a starter. But he also did not have the same physical tools as Bradford and had an injury that impaired his passing more than it should hamper Bradford’s. Another more recent point of reference would be that of Mike Vick, another often injured QB. Vick had over 50% of his salary cut from his contract in 2013.  Vick received $3.5 million guaranteed while Pennington received $2.45 million guaranteed. Vick is older than Bradford but also a more electric player with much more history behind him.

Using those numbers as a guide Bradford is probably looking at a salary shift from $14 million to somewhere in the ballpark of $5.5 million.  If they guaranteed $3 million of that figure they could get his cap hit down from $17 million to a manageable $7.595 million, which is essentially the cost of releasing him and replacing him with a minimum salaried player. I would imagine if the sides agreed to that he would get the 2015 year in the contract to void, similar to the Vick contract. The Rams have done this type of contract with other players including T Jason Smith, a bust drafted with the second overall pick in 2009, so it would seem to fit with their cap philosophies.

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The Past and Future of the St. Louis Rams

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After back to back no-show games and a 1-3 record I wanted to take a look at the St. Louis Rams, some of their roster planning, and where they could be going forward.  The Rams could easily be 0-4 right now and need to really turn  this around quickly if they want to salvage their season.  Luckily for the Rams no “secondary” team in the NFC has really jumped out with multiple zero loss teams atop a division so there is clearly still time for them, but it’s a uniquely constructed team that I think is worth a longer look.

Building it Up

Since the end of the Marshall Faulk era the Rams have struggled badly to remain relevant in the NFL. Their last winning season was 2003 and their last playoff appearance came as an 8-8 team in 2004. The Rams are an interesting collection of talent.  They have made heavy investments in the draft, specifically on defense, but have also spent top dollar to bring in or retain free agent players, making them one of the more “capped out” teams in the NFL.

Of the 11 defensive starters, four were drafted in the 1st round, two in the 2nd,  and one in the 3rd by the Rams. Only three starters came from other organizations, so this is a highly drafted “homegrown” unit.  Offensively the team is built slightly differently as the commitment to high draft picks is not there.  The only starting first rounder is Sam Bradford and there are just a total of four players drafted higher than the 3rd round compared to seven for the defense. Five of the offensive starters arrived in St. Louis via other organizations.

For the most part the credit or blame for the Rams status is going to go to Jeff Fisher and GM Les Snead who took over the reins in 2012. 14 of the 22 starters on the team have either been drafted or signed as free agents since 2012. DE Chris Long and LB James Laurinaitis were both extended to large contracts following the takeover by Fisher and Snead.

The most critical decision that the pair faced came as soon as they had taken the job; the decision  to move forward with or on from Bradford.  Bradford was the last monster rookie contract of the old CBA. He was guaranteed $50 million dollars before even stepping foot on the field. He had a passable rookie campaign in which the Rams nearly stole a terrible NFC West division crown before regressing and then being injured in 2011.

Fisher was faced with the possibility of drafting Robert Griffin III with the 2nd pick overall in the 2012 draft and attempting to trade Bradford. Bradford at the time would have cost the Rams $14.38 million in dead money, but they would have saved $12 million in salary making the net cap hit just $2.38 million, a reasonable figure. Would there have been a market for a player with $20 million in guarantees and $48 million to be earned over 4 years?  That’s a question that would be left unanswered as the Rams elected to trade the draft pick to the Washington Redskins and received a heist in the process.

The trade allowed Fisher and Snead to make the team over in their image. In return for Griffin they received three first round picks and a 2nd round pick. The Rams became extremely aggressive with trades after that move. They used pieces in the Washington trade to swap with both the Cowboys and Bears in 2012 and then again with the Redskins first rounder from 2013 in trades with Atlanta and Houston. Thus far the trade has turned into DT Michael Brockers, CB Janoris Jenkins, RB Isaiah Pead, G Rok Watkins, LB Alec Ogletree, WR Stedman Bailey, and RB Zac Stacy with a 2014 first rounder on the way. Of those seven players three are starters, one is a contributing backup, two rarely play, and one was released. Griffin had an electric rookie season but was injured late in the year and is slowly coming back to form in 2013.

The Rams would enter the trade market again in 2013,  this time sending four picks to the Buffalo Bills to move up into the top 10 in round 1 and a few spots in round three. The main prize was WR Tavon Austin  who has caught 20 passes for 124 yards through four games and has people questioning if the Rams can know how to use a unique player like Austin.

Capping It Out

Despite the large number of players on rookie contracts the Rams have almost no cap space to use on the season, primarily because the Rams are being as aggressive in signing players as they are in making draft day trades. I personally have not been a big fan of the big moves that the front office has made, which was something I mentioned when doing the best and worst contracts on the Rams. The Rams have overpaid significantly for players to attract them to the Rams. Perhaps it’s a calculated risk as the Rams were not exactly an ideal free agency destination as they worked their way through the bad years and some ownership questions. The following chart shows the big money moves made by Snead and Fisher, where I estimate their annual values at their position and the rankings Pro Football Focus gave to the players in 2012 and 2013 among players with at least 25% playtime.

Edit: the Jake Long data from PFF is based on LT and RT rankings. His corrected ranks should be 24 and 8. (Thanks to Ryan for pointing it out)

rms cap

In 2013 these 7 players account for about $64 million dollars of the teams $122 million dollars allocated towards the salary cap. It’s a significant investment for the team and only Long has really lived up to his contract. When you include Bradford’s contract in the mix the Rams have 67% of their payroll in 8 players. Bradford ranks 31 out of 33 QBs that meet the 25% criteria according to PFF.  It does not reflect well on a coach or GM when this is your legacy at least currently.

Moving to the future

Like I said above it is way too early to give up on 2013, but as we look ahead the Rams will have some major decisions ahead. Here are my estimates for the teams cap over the next few seasons.

rams spending

If the Rams remain the status quo there is little room to improve. That brings up the important question as to “blowing it up” or revamping what you have. Though it is just 4 games into the season this is a plan that needs to actually be put in place now because of the Rams tight cap. As of the 27th of September the Rams only have $674,000 in cap room to work with for the next 14 weeks. That means they are two injuries away from potentially needing to create cap room to have a 53 man roster. Often cap space is created through restructures of big stars. Based on the performance of their stars they should not go there.

In some ways I think the Rams have planned for the inevitability that the season could have proven to be washed out. While I think the team has gone overboard with spending they have built in flexibility in most of their contracts. Though  the Rams have significant cap dollars tied up in just a handful of players and limited cap space to work with that is only the case because the Rams have not compromised their future the way other organizations like the Saints and Cowboys have done.

All offseason many of us all believed it was a given that the Rams would have restructured some of these big money contracts for cap relief. The only one they touched was Chris Long’s contract when they converted a portion of his salary into a prorated bonus. Rather than restructuring the stars the Rams forced Harvey Dahl into a paycut to become cap compliant for the regular season.

The Rams position is a bit compromised because of large guarantees given to their players. Based upon information I believe to be accurate the following players have salary guarantees in 2014.

Chris Long- $13,200,000

James Laurinaitis- $9,000,000

Jared Cook- $6,000,000

Jake Long- $4,000,000($8,000,000 if 2013 finished on active roster)

Cortland Finnegan- $3 million

Of all these names the one with the least leverage is Finnegan. Finnegan is set to earn $9 million in salary, of which just $3 million is guaranteed, in 2014. His cap charge is $10 million and the Rams save $4 million by releasing him. Finnegan has little leverage because his play has been so poor since becoming a Ram. He would likely get the Nnamdi Asomugha treatment as a free agent, with a low base value contract and some incentives. Considering his $3 million guarantee contains offsets his max earnings anywhere for 2014 are going to be $3 million. That makes it realistic for the Rams to approach him to convert his $3 million roster bonus into a $2 million dollar roster bonus and $1 million dollar base salary for the season, all guaranteed, reducing his cap figure to just $4 million.

Many of the contracts that do contain the guarantees do contain limited prorated money making it possible to trade certain players. For example Laurinaitis’ contract was heavily frontloaded with low base salaries from 2015 to 2017. That could be attractive to a potential trade partner who would only have one year of a high cap charge, which could, of course, be lowered via a restructure. In turn the Rams could also do the same restructuring deal to create cap room if they want to keep him. Beyond trades releasing Wells, Dahl, and Langford would save $4 million each in cap space to give the Rams more breathing room.

The big decision then becomes what to do with Bradford. Bradford has two years remaining on his contract at cap figures of $17.6 and $16.58 million. The Rams have stated that they want to extend him, but considering his current level of play the situation would seem eerily similar to that of the Jets Mark Sanchez if they simply extend him for the sake of cap relief and guarantee more money in his contract.  That’s just chasing sunk costs and putting more bad money on the books.

Conceivably the Rams could get a high draft selection either on their own or via the Redskins. Perhaps that will determine Bradford’s fate as well as decisions for long term planning. If the Rams end up with two top 10 picks they may feel that they can get two impact starters that can fit into the current structure allowing them  to give it one more go in 2014 before it becomes reasonable to release most of the high ticket items before the 2015 season. If the picks end up in the mid first round they could begin looking at moving the veteran players if possible and building strictly for the future and letting those players gain experience while the team acquires more assets for future drafting.

It is certainly an interesting and important time for the Rams. They have drafted a number of young players, made very aggressive trades, and made big contract commitments but are sitting at 1-3, two years into their rebuild. Is this where they expected to be or is the plan currently a fialure?  If its a failure how do they change the plan to learn from their mistakes.  It is likely that this power structure will make the decision that impacts the organization for the next 5 years which is to stick with Bradford or to start again with a rookie and let him learn as all these other draft picks begin to enter the prime years of their careers. Its a huge decision and the wrong one could continue years of losing football.

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Stock Up: Week 1

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Every Monday during the season we will take a look back at three players who are entering important stages of their contract that may have helped their stock in upcoming negotiations with their play on Sunday. In addition we will also look at one player signed in the offseason to a new contract that exceeded all expectations and provided exceptional value to his team.

Stock Up

Anquan Boldin– Boldin had a historic Sunday catching 13 passes for 208 yards. He was targeted 17 times out of 38 passes meaning he was pretty much it for the 49ers offense on Sunday afternoon. Boldin earns $6 million dollars in 2013 and his price tag was considered too high for the defending champion Baltimore Ravens. Considering the 49ers only gave up a 6th round pick for Boldin, there were probably a number of other teams that felt the same way.  This is the final year of his contract and at 33 years old needs to prove he is capable enough to snag a Reggie Wayne style three year contract for about $5.5 million a year. Boldin hasn’t produced 1,000 receiving yards since 2009, but should be well on his way to getting there in 2013.   A big day for Boldin’s pending free agency.

Charles Tillman– Tillman had a big day on Sunday picking off Andy Dalton of the Bengals twice and proving to be a major reason why the Bears defeated the Bengals in week 1. Tillman’s first interception on the day helped set up the Bears first score and his second one likely prevented at least 3 points from going on the board for the Bengals. . Though Tillman did have a costly penalty I believe the impact plays easily outweigh the negatives.  Tillman is in the final year of a six year contract and will have a chance to earn a payday from someone in 2014 based on his ability to be a defensive playmaker. Two interceptions right away puts him on pace to get a third straight Pro Bowl nod and parlay that into a nice little contract for the 32 year old corner.

Sam Bradford– Though Bradford is not in a contract year he is in a unique situation because his salary cap hit in 2014 is gigantic, over $17 million, and so is the cost to cut him from the team. It sets the stage for an extension for cap relief regardless of the player deserving the money or not. Matt Stafford recently received a similar contract and the year before Mark Sanchez did the same. While both got good deals that would allow them to hit free agency at a young age after a short term extension, both came off mediocre seasons that limited their bargaining power and chances to get bigger contracts. The Rams have shown a propensity to pay their performing draft picks well and the game Bradford had will help him join that group. While the 299 yards is impressive, more impressive is the fact that he shook off an interception and was productive down the stretch helping lead his team to 14 unanswered points in the 4th quarter.

New Contract Player Of The Week

Reggie Bush– I have always been critical of Bush as being an overhyped and overvalued player, but there is no way to discount the impact he had on the game this week for the Detroit Lions. 21 carries for 90 yards and the big 77 yard reception where he just split apart and then outran the entire Vikings defense. At a $2 million cap number and $5 million cash number, it would be hard to find a better free agent bargain in the first week than Bush.


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Don’t Blame the Old CBA for the Lions Salary Cap Problems

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Sam, a fellow amateur capologist, brought up a point to me on Twitter that I had been hearing a lot in regards to Matt Stafford and how the old CBA was a considerable factor in the current cap values of Stafford and the Lions cap problems. Immediately I thought what a good topic for discussion. While the old CBA could certainly hamstring teams for players who bust or fail to live up to lofty expectations, that really was not the case for Stafford and the Lions.

Lets go back in time a bit and look at the backend of Stafford’s contract when as it stood when originally signed. We’ll compare it to the other number 1 draft picks that were QB’s selected close to him in JaMarcus Russell and Sam Bradford. Mainly what we are interested in here are the final two years of the contract.

Stafford

Russell

Bradford

Total Value

$72,000,000

$61,000,000

$78,000,000

Final Two Years Salary

$22,500,000

$15,185,000

$27,000,000

Final Two Years Cap

$29,460,000

$25,800,900

$34,190,000

Sunk Prorations

$3,480,000

$5,307,950

$3,595,000

Dead Money (Year 5)

$6,960,000

$10,615,900

$7,190,000

Clearly upon signing Russell’s was the worst deal for the team with 42% of the contract value being applied to the cap in the last two years  of his deal and dead money in year 5 equaling 17% of the total contract value. That was the Raiders and nobody looks at them as reasonable for anything when it comes to contracts, so it should have been expected. But Stafford and Bradford had nearly identical deals. Bradford’s was higher but in terms of sunk money, which is the prorated money per year that would need to be accounted for in an extension, they were about equal as was the cost to cut in the 5th year of the contract.

Those numbers are CBA related. From there everything done to the contract is the sole responsibility of the teams. The Lions approached Stafford in 2011 for his first contract renegotiation because they needed salary cap relief. He converted $8.475 million of his base salary into a prorated bonus to help the team. Just one year later the Lions again needed to tweak the contract, this time adding a void year to the contract to help with the prorated salary. Stafford also hit some moderate contract escalators that raised the total value of his deal, but those should have minimal impact on the sunk costs in the grand scheme of things.  By the time they were finished with the contract Stafford’s contract now compared as follows:

Stafford

Russell

Bradford

Total Value

$73,500,000

$61,000,000

$78,000,000

Final Two Years Salary

$23,000,000

$15,185,000

$27,000,000

Final Two Years Cap

$39,640,000

$25,800,900

$34,190,000

Sunk Prorations

$8,320,000

$5,307,950

$3,595,000

Dead Money (Year 5)

$19,361,250

$10,615,900

$7,190,000

The Lions were the ones responsible for turning the Stafford contract into a bigger disaster than  Russell’s head scratcher with Oakland. The sunk cost in Stafford’s contracts following the renegotiations was just a touch less than Russell and Bradford combined. The dead money associated with Stafford’s deal made him un-moveable even if he flopped. This had nothing to do with the CBA. It had everything to do with the Lions poorly managing their finances. Now, even in an extension, the Lions can get little cap relief due to the high prorated costs nor could they obtain any leverage in a negotiation with Stafford. Stafford’s cap charges over the next 5 years will be similar to those of a $19 million dollar a year player.

Some will point to the Lions being forced into such restructures because they picked Calvin Johnson and Ndamukung Suh at the top of the draft in the old CBA. That’s true, but didn’t the Rams pick Bradford, Jason Smith, and Chris Long back to back to back at the top of the draft?  They sure did and managed to make out ok with Smith being sent packing last year to New York. The Chiefs had three top 5 picks from 2008 thru 2010 and didn’t have these same issues early on in the contract life of the players. Both the Rams and Chiefs have been able to spend on talent. The Lions keep digging a deeper hole trying to improve.

The Lions didn’t make difficult decisions when they had to. Whether it was holding off on adding a piece here or there to a team that has won all of 20 games the last 3 seasons, playing a little more hardball with Calvin Johnson on his extension or being more proactive with veterans who were not cutting it, the Lions created the situation. The CBA didn’t help but other teams have gotten by just fine under similar circumstances and blaming the CBA just does not cut it with the Lions.

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