Earl Thomas Contract Details

From Otherthecap.com

http://overthecap.com/cap.php?Name=Earl ... m=Seahawks

S Earl Thomas signed a four year contract extension worth $40 million with the Seattle Seahawks on April 29, 2014. Thomas received a signing bonus of $9.5 million. His 2014 salary remained the same as in his rookie contract and is fully guaranteed. In 2015 his $5.5 million base salary is also fully guaranteed. Thomas has a $6 million guarantee on his 2016 base salary which we are, at this time, assuming is a vesting guarantee. I will update when I can verify the guarantee structure. Base salaries of the contract are $4,725,000(2014), $5,500,000(2015), $8,000,000(2016), $8,500,000(2017), and $8,500,000(2018).

Click to expand...

It looks like his signing bonus is being spread out over a 5 year period. I assume they must have not just signed him to an extension, but basically dropped his last year on the rookie deal and it's a new 5 year contract starting this year (2014).

Is that correct?

I am exceptionally happy to see that his deal is not back-loaded. We're not going to have to cut him because of a huge number towards the end, and considering how much the cap is supposed to grow...

Love it.

kf3339":2w3joslq said:

It looks like his signing bonus is being spread out over a 5 year period. I assume they must have not just signed him to an extension, but basically dropped his last year on the rookie deal and it's a new 5 year contract starting this year (2014).

Is that correct?

Click to expand...

It's a 4 year extension. Spotrac and Overthecap are estimates, but close enough for the sake of people interested.

Thomas was scheduled to make 4,625,000 with a 100,000 workout bonus. The workout bonus is now part of his base salary as far as estimates go, so he has a base salary of 4,725,000 next year.

His new bonus immediately becomes prorated for cap purposes. His prior contract included $748,215 allocation which is now added to his new proration of 1,900,000 million a year. So he approx has a cap number of $7,373,212 next year. In essence his cap hit is only about 2 million additional dollars next year.

Looks good to me.

Basis4day":3rm4asta said:

kf3339":3rm4asta said:

It looks like his signing bonus is being spread out over a 5 year period. I assume they must have not just signed him to an extension, but basically dropped his last year on the rookie deal and it's a new 5 year contract starting this year (2014).

Is that correct?

Click to expand...

It's a 4 year extension. Spotrac and Overthecap are estimates, but close enough for the sake of people interested.

Thomas was scheduled to make 4,625,000 with a 100,000 workout bonus. The workout bonus is now part of his base salary as far as estimates go, so he has a base salary of 4,725,000 next year.

His new bonus immediately becomes prorated for cap purposes. His prior contract included $748,215 allocation which is now added to his new proration of 1,900,000 million a year. So he approx has a cap number of $7,373,212 next year. In essence his cap hit is only about 2 million additional dollars next year.

Click to expand...

Thanks. So the signing bonus is just spread out over his last year of the rookie deal and the 4 year extension. Otherwise everything else is the same. Looks good to me!

What is a vesting guarantee?

What I do not understand is Russell Okung's contract... the day he signed it, it was reported as a 6 year, 58 mil deal... but if you go to any of the contract sites they'll report it as a 6 year, 48 deal.

Then doing the research Okung received 10 million guaranteed that was neither base salary, a signing bonus, a roster bonus, or a workout bonus... it was called a guaranteed salary advance. Is that the same thing as a vesting guarantee? Or No?

What's the cap hit for each year?

vin.couve12":37mczivi said:

What's the cap hit for each year?

Click to expand...

http://overthecap.com/cap.php?Name=Earl ... m=Seahawks

2014: $7,373,212
2015: $7,400,000
2016: $9,900,000
2017: $10,400,000
2018: $10,400,000

Pandion Haliaetus":qyht4j4w said:

What is a vesting guarantee?

What I do not understand is Russell Okung's contract... the day he signed it, it was reported as a 6 year, 58 mil deal... but if you go to any of the contract sites they'll report it as a 6 year, 48 deal.

Then doing the research Okung received 10 million guaranteed that was neither base salary, a signing bonus, a roster bonus, or a workout bonus... it was called a guaranteed salary advance. Is that the same thing as a vesting guarantee? Or No?

Click to expand...

No, a guarantee for a vested veteran is a bit different.

Okung's contract was prior to the current CBA, so there is a lot of confusing options and escalators in it. The original value was max 58 million with an option for the Seahawks to give him the 10 million salary advance in 2011. They did so, which reduced the max value of the contract to 48 million once he received the advance in 2011. Hence why the initial rpts were 58 and are now reduced to 48. I wish overthecap had historical records of contracts, but that's me being greedy.

A vesting guarantee refers to a player with 4 or more years in the nfl who is under contract before season starts. Once the season starts, their base salary becomes fully guaranteed. I believe a player may exercise this guarantee once in their career, but am not positive.

Earl Thomas's contract is such a great deal for what he means to this team, and only counts for $1.9 m against the cap this year.

Seahawks still are at least $12-13 mil over the cap.

RHopefully, Sherman can follow suit and be extended to reasonable deal. Like 4 years, 48.5 mil. Which will inevitably turn his contract into a 5 year, 50 million deal. But you can manipulate the cap situation and give him a 12.5 mil signing bonus + $30 mil in guaranteed language.

2014: 4 mil (about 1.5 base salary with 2.5 signing bonus)
2015: 16 mil (just get it out of the way and make him highest paid by far*)
2016: 10 mil
2017: 10 mil
2018: 10 mil

*or the Seahawks probably could squeeze $3-4 from the 16 mil salary into 2014. Doesn't matter though because any money they don't use will roll over anyway and do the same things but I guess it would be better for Sherman to get that money a year earlier..

And If Sherman plays out his contract and maintains his current performance, a HoF caliber CB would have cost the Seahawks less than $52 million over 8 years of service or less than about $6.5 per year.

Seahawks will have a good chance with guys like Lynch, Okung, Miller, Mebane, and Avril coming off the books in the next two years, the cap going up to a possible $160 by 2016, + any dead cap to re-sign a lot of their key players like Wilson, Baldwin, Maxwell, Wright, etc... because they can stagger those contracts until the other ones come off the books.

This show isn't over because we have to pay some guys... Seahawks know what they are doing... they have a plan and will stick to it.

And this is why you ignore reports of APY salaries until the details are out. Earl's extension technically averages $10m/yr, but only exceeds a $10m cap hit in the fourth and fifth years when the deal is no longer guaranteed and the dead money hits are manageable. This looks like a well-structure agreement to me. Never going too high or too low. It's palatable as long as ET maintains a Pro-Bowl level of play, and, at just 24 years old, this is a good bet to make for at least the next three seasons.

Pandion Haliaetus":140m1waf said:

Earl Thomas's contract is such a great deal for what he means to this team, and only counts for $1.9 m against the cap this year.

Seahawks still are at least $12-13 mil over the cap.

Click to expand...

You mean under the cap, right?

Yeah, definately under not over.

Its crazy even if it seems the Seahawks have done absolutely nothing to get better... they've had a great off-season all things considering, set themselves up for conditional picks next years, means they can use some of that draft capital to obtain some more picks this year, and health wise as long as the key players hold up better than they did a year ago, you're pretty much looking at a team with similar talent to the team that won the Superbowl despite losing 8-10 guys that contributed in some capacity last year.

For those saying how the Hawks have done such a fine job --a 100% agree. Hence the reason they allowed Golden Tate to walk. Not to bring that back up again, but paying guys like Golden what he received from Detroit or a comparable figure, is what makes it impossible to do the great things they have been doing. It's not like Golden by himself would have stopped much, but deals like his (in number) would. This is why I don't understand why so many people were up in arms regarding Golden Tate earlier in the offseason.

plyka":2jaufqey said:

For those saying how the Hawks have done such a fine job --a 100% agree. Hence the reason they allowed Golden Tate to walk. Not to bring that back up again, but paying guys like Golden what he received from Detroit or a comparable figure, is what makes it impossible to do the great things they have been doing. It's not like Golden by himself would have stopped much, but deals like his (in number) would. This is why I don't understand why so many people were up in arms regarding Golden Tate earlier in the offseason.

Click to expand...

Some fans are naive and think player's should be loyal to their teams. Which is fine when the feelings are mutual.

Golden didn't have a choice, Detroit's offer was like 40% more than any other team including the Hawks offered.