Percy Harvin: Candidate for contract restructure?

Seattle Seahawks (57, $3.3 million over): Not a bad spot for a team that just won the Super Bowl, but there are still decisions to be made. Sidney Rice has a big base salary and could be gone. Percy Harvin has a big salary which could be converted to signing bonus, so just like that the Seahawks would be under the cap and recruiting players.

Click to expand...

From Pat Kirwan's article about each teams cap situation.. this is the first I've heard of Harvin's contract possibly being redone somewhat to free up some room.. do any cap experts know how much such a move would free up?

I think the timing is too soon he would never go for it currently. We have to play out 2014 to see if it's an option (it won't be by the way given he will show all you Percy haters the Superbowl was just a tiny taste of how he and Wilson will transform the offense going forward).

Doesn't that just increase the cap hit in future years?

Mizzou, if they convert it to a signing bonus, he gets the same money just allows them to play games with how to spread the bonus out over the remaining years and lower his cap hit. He just gets more of his money sooner since that part of the salary wouldn't have to be paid out in 17 week intervals but rather lump sum.

-The Glove-":1rdgl22e said:

Doesn't that just increase the cap hit in future years?

Click to expand...

Yeah, his 13M would add 2.5M per year for the remaining 5 years of his contract. So next season would be 2.5M against the cap unless he had some other monies due in workout/reporting bonus. Not sure how those are added in. But I would think his other seasons would increase by 2.5M

Why would he not go for it?

If he is due $10 million this year you redo the contract - everything else stays the same but this years salary becomes a $10million signing bonus

Boom he gets $10million minus minimum wage full up front guaranteed. Doesn't matter if he is cut / injured / suspended whatever he is making minimum wage as salary. The money gets split in the years left of the deal minimizing impact this year

Furthermore it increases dead money cap hit for future years making it even less likely he gets cut in the future

Such a resign is all GREAT for the player but not good from a long term TEAM perspective.

No reason Percy says no. However no reason for the Seahawks to do it - others can be renewed under similar circumstances and makes more sense.

Now here is a point that I am surprised about this

We should do more of this. Not for Perxy type players but some others.

Players should accept less money when you do this because the money isn't taxed in the State of Washington but income for road games are taxed. You can lower the players tax bill and split the savings.

kirwin is a noob.

drdiags":6sr9mq17 said:

Mizzou, if they convert it to a signing bonus, he gets the same money just allows them to play games with how to spread the bonus out over the remaining years and lower his cap hit. He just gets more of his money sooner since that part of the salary wouldn't have to be paid out in 17 week intervals but rather lump sum.

Click to expand...

Wouldn't that screw us for resigning Wilson and Sherman? I already assume they will resign Thomas this year after whatever plays out with Bennett and Tate.

drdiags":1tn0b2bd said:

Mizzou, if they convert it to a signing bonus, he gets the same money just allows them to play games with how to spread the bonus out over the remaining years and lower his cap hit. He just gets more of his money sooner since that part of the salary wouldn't have to be paid out in 17 week intervals but rather lump sum.

Click to expand...

Every NFL player has a "financial consultant" who attempts to obfuscate "Uncle Sam's" IRS in order for the player to keep as much of his salary as possible. The folks inhabiting the top floor at the VMAC are too shabby either.

It's actually a possibility, if he want some cash in his pocket in exchange for a contract that is less favorable salary wise that will eventually be restructured.

The bonus is that he's young enough and good enough that you can give him cash out of your pocket without too much concern that he won't be around long-term. the biggest risk is obviously injury. But that's where having the league's richest owner helps. Usually this is the kind of deal you only do with a QB.

Look at Brady's contract for example, he only earned 1m in base salary in 2013 after restructure:

http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/new-england- ... tom-brady/

percys contract was for 14.5m guaranteed, of which he has already earned all of it (12m signing bonus, 2.5m base salary) so it's in his best interest to restructure for more cash directly into his pocket.

His contract is also for 6 years meaning that his final year has no deferred signing bonus money since it's only deferred 5 years (2013, 14, 15, 16, 17 @ 2.4m per)

He could be givin another signing bonus to restructure, that is guaranteed money in his pocket. We could for example give him a 25m signing bonus to restructure, just as an example, and lower his base salary by the same amount and then defer out the signing bonus.

this would put his current salary at an average of 5.5 per year and for the next 4 years a bonus number of 7.4 and then 3m in 2018.

Then you tweak his salary for the next few seasons so t hat it's back-loaded with the idea that you'll restructure again before too long, probably about 3 years.

So then you back load the contract to something like this

2014 base salary - 2m + prorated bonus of both contracts of 7.4 = 9.4 cap number vs. 13.4
2015 base salary - 3m + 7.4 = 10.4 vs. 12.9
2016 base salary - 3m + 7.4 = 10.4 vs. 12.3
2017 base salary - 8m + 7.4 = 15.4m (you would restructure again at this point, knowing you can defer out the prorated signing bonus of a new contract out another 5 years)
2018 base salary - 11.5m + 5 = 16.5m (would never see this due to restructure or cut in which case you incurr a 5m cap penalty)

Although these numbers are based on keeping his remaing salary the same. if you give a guy 25m guaranteed you can probably also talk them into reducing their base salary.

I'm no expert on this stuff but that is fairly accurate. whether or not it's realistic is another story.

the risk is that by converting salary to signing bonus in a restructure, you defer out that bonus money 5 years and if he say, gets cut, or gets injured and you have to cut him, then all of that deferred bonus is charged to the cap for that year.

You could do a less 'extreme' version of this setup and free up a million here or there though as well.

MizzouHawkGal":2ytg4ejj said:

drdiags":2ytg4ejj said:

Mizzou, if they convert it to a signing bonus, he gets the same money just allows them to play games with how to spread the bonus out over the remaining years and lower his cap hit. He just gets more of his money sooner since that part of the salary wouldn't have to be paid out in 17 week intervals but rather lump sum.

Click to expand...

Wouldn't that screw us for resigning Wilson and Sherman? I already assume they will resign Thomas this year after whatever plays out with Bennett and Tate.

Click to expand...

not necessarily.

There is a huge reason that percy's guaranteed money just happened to equal his signing bonus + his base salary in his first year. guaranteed money is the only money that really matters in the NFL.

mikeak":15nmsrdo said:

Why would he not go for it?

If he is due $10 million this year you redo the contract - everything else stays the same but this years salary becomes a $10million signing bonus

Boom he gets $10million minus minimum wage full up front guaranteed. Doesn't matter if he is cut / injured / suspended whatever he is making minimum wage as salary. The money gets split in the years left of the deal minimizing impact this year

Furthermore it increases dead money cap hit for future years making it even less likely he gets cut in the future

Such a resign is all GREAT for the player but not good from a long term TEAM perspective.

No reason Percy says no. However no reason for the Seahawks to do it - others can be renewed under similar circumstances and makes more sense.

Click to expand...

But if it is an option, and the Hawks don't act upon it, wouldn't Percy's fans call the Hawks "haters"?

Hawknballs":2s50u90v said:

MizzouHawkGal":2s50u90v said:

drdiags":2s50u90v said:

Mizzou, if they convert it to a signing bonus, he gets the same money just allows them to play games with how to spread the bonus out over the remaining years and lower his cap hit. He just gets more of his money sooner since that part of the salary wouldn't have to be paid out in 17 week intervals but rather lump sum.

Click to expand...

Wouldn't that screw us for resigning Wilson and Sherman? I already assume they will resign Thomas this year after whatever plays out with Bennett and Tate.

Click to expand...

not necessarily.

There is a huge reason that percy's guaranteed money just happened to equal his signing bonus + his base salary in his first year. guaranteed money is the only money that really matters in the NFL.

Click to expand...

Interesting.... I don't think he'd go for it this year but who knows? Might be worth a shot.

The OP didn't say a pay cut. A lot of high dollar players (mostly QBs) routinely restructure to help the team. Since PH is the highest paid player it makes sense that he'd be a candidate. The hope is that in the not too distant future a new TV contract will help boost the cap and restructures like this can take advantage of that.

I still like the idea of moving to a salary cap where the starting QB's salary doesn't count towards the cap. Nothing wrong with admitting a huge disparity in the pay that exists and making it more reasonable for teams to be more flexible. Much like the franchise tag, you just designate your franchise QB every year and they don't count. ( realize franchise tag still counts against cap, just meaning the designation part of it)

It will be more sensible to pay Percy this year and negotiate a restructure in 2015. In 2015 we will have Russ, Sherm, and Thomas needing the big money, so if we can pay a good chunk of guaranteed money for Harvin and Bennett this year we would be in better shape of 2015, you'd think.

Sure Schneider has a few tricks up his sleeve.

I believe it's possible, but not necessarily advantageous.

He has $9.6M remaining in dead money from his previous signing bonus. If you convert his 2014 salary into a new signing bonus, I believe that $9.6M in old dead money gets accelerated to this year. PLUS, you have to pro-rate his new signing bonus ($11M salary/5 remaining years = $2.2M cap hit). So, you end up with a $11.8M cap hit instead of $13.4M.

So, you could feasibly save $1.6M on the cap. The PROBLEM is that it makes the dead money hits larger in subsequent years than if you had just left it alone. So, in 2015, his new dead money hit (if cut) would be $8.8M vs. $7.2M (original contract). In 2016, it would be $6.6M vs. $4.8M. In other words, you lose some flexibility in later years for a marginal benefit this year. Very possible that I calculated this incorrectly, though.

The original pro rated bonus doesn't get accelerated, it remains the same with the new pro rated bonus tacked on.

I don't thing you can renegotiate until after a year though so if it does happen , it won't be for a while.

Hawknballs":1gmeqsf6 said:

I still like the idea of moving to a salary cap where the starting QB's salary doesn't count towards the cap. Nothing wrong with admitting a huge disparity in the pay that exists and making it more reasonable for teams to be more flexible. Much like the franchise tag, you just designate your franchise QB every year and they don't count. ( realize franchise tag still counts against cap, just meaning the designation part of it)

Click to expand...

that would simply lead to other positions demanding more money after a couple teams idiotically overpaid certain FA's. (Same reason the QB cap number is so high now)