The three-year contract is worth $18.5 million and drops Bledsoe’s cap charge for 2004 from $8.33 million to a much more palatable $4.147 million. Bledsoe, who is coming off the worst season of his career, received a $6.5 million signing bonus. His base salaries will be $2.25 million (for 2004), $3.3 million (2005) and $4.35 million (2006). There are roster bonuses of $1.05 million each for 2005 and 2006. The salary cap charge will rise to $6.5 million for ’05 and to $8.316 million for ’06, but those are still far less than the cap charges for those seasons under the old contract.