Browns restructure Watson, to free up $36 million. How do you restructure a fully guaranteed deal?

[buffaloboyinATL]

Seriously? How do you re-structure a fully guaranteed contract without adding years to the deal?  The article says they converted salary into a signing bonus, but if it was already fully guaranteed, why would that matter? I want them to choke on that contract, so I hate seeing that there are loopholes available to them.  Anyone get how this works?

 

https://news.yahoo.com/ap-source-browns-restructure-watson-134639003.html

[Buffalo_Stampede]

1 minute ago, buffaloboyinATL said:

Seriously? How do you re-structure a fully guaranteed contract without adding years to the deal?  The article says they converted salary into a signing bonus, but if it was already fully guaranteed, why would that matter? I want them to choke on that contract, so I hate seeing that there are loopholes available to them.  Anyone get how this works?

 

https://news.yahoo.com/ap-source-browns-restructure-watson-134639003.html

He has high base salary. The contract won’t be a problem for them unless Watson sucks and they want to move on from him in the next few years.

Edited March 13, 2023 by Buffalo_Stampede

[balln]

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2023/03/13/browns-restructure-deshaun-watsons-contract/
 

they added more years

[Freddie's Dead]

***** POShaun Watson and the Browns.

[MasterStrategist]

1 minute ago, buffaloboyinATL said:

Seriously? How do you re-structure a fully guaranteed contract without adding years to the deal?  The article says they converted salary into a signing bonus, but if it was already fully guaranteed, why would that matter? I want them to choke on that contract, so I hate seeing that there are loopholes available to them.  Anyone get how this works?

 

https://news.yahoo.com/ap-source-browns-restructure-watson-134639003.html

He's just converting base salary to some type of bonus...  just a cap-maneuver to spread the hits to future years.  It doesn't change how much will be paid to Watson in TOTAL/Guaranteed, over life of his contract (unless he accepts a pay cut, highly unlikely)

[K D]

They replaced his base salary with massage incentives

Edited March 13, 2023 by KDIGGZ

[John from Riverside]

They better hope he doesn’t suck
 

He didn’t look that great last year whenever he came in

[Jay_Fixit]

2 minutes ago, Freddie's Dead said:

***** POShaun Watson and the Browns.

This hit harder in your head.

[78thealltimegreat]

Ever see Arrested Development…his contract is proof there’s always money in the banana stand 

[extrahammer]

They could just continue to backload it. Browns fans still have to wake up every morning hoping Watson hasn't started jumping in DMs again. 

[MiltonWaddams]

1 minute ago, John from Riverside said:

They better hope he doesn’t suck
 

He didn’t look that great last year whenever he came in

The ownership and management of the team deserves the worst possible quarterback they can get out of Deshaun Watson. The fans and the other players deserve so much better.

[cle23]

6 minutes ago, buffaloboyinATL said:

Seriously? How do you re-structure a fully guaranteed contract without adding years to the deal?  The article says they converted salary into a signing bonus, but if it was already fully guaranteed, why would that matter? I want them to choke on that contract, so I hate seeing that there are loopholes available to them.  Anyone get how this works?

 

https://news.yahoo.com/ap-source-browns-restructure-watson-134639003.html

 

When you covert salary into a bonus, it spreads the bonus out evenly over the remaining years, plus over any added years.  So if you convert $30M into a bonus, and you have 4 years remaining, it would lower the 1st year by $22.5M, but add $7.5M to the other 3 years.

[balln]

My question is - why don’t nfl teams just “extend” a player for like 20 years. Makes the cap hit negligible year to year. Certainly will have dead cap for the last 10 years as player no longer w team or even playing in nfl - but by that time the cap limit will assuredly go up. There has to be some kind of rule

[Captain Hindsight]

 

1 minute ago, balln said:

My question is - why don’t nfl teams just “extend” a player for like 20 years. Makes the cap hit negligible year to year. Certainly will have dead cap for the last 10 years as player no longer w team or even playing in nfl - but by that time the cap limit will assuredly go up. There has to be some kind of rule

My guess is a player would never agree to that type of deal

[cle23]

1 minute ago, balln said:

My question is - why don’t nfl teams just “extend” a player for like 20 years. Makes the cap hit negligible year to year. Certainly will have dead cap for the last 10 years as player no longer w team or even playing in nfl - but by that time the cap limit will assuredly go up. There has to be some kind of rule

 

If the player retires, it accelerates any bonus money amount to the immediate year.  So yeah, you could add $5M a year for 20 years to spread it out, but when the player retires after 10, you'd get $50M upfront onto your cap.

[Buffalo_Stampede]

2 minutes ago, balln said:

My question is - why don’t nfl teams just “extend” a player for like 20 years. Makes the cap hit negligible year to year. Certainly will have dead cap for the last 10 years as player no longer w team or even playing in nfl - but by that time the cap limit will assuredly go up. There has to be some kind of rule

Injuries. Way too risky. Plus the dead cap at the end would be killer. Only position you could possibly do a mega long term deal with is QB but you better hope he never gets hurt.

 

 

[Beck Water]

14 minutes ago, buffaloboyinATL said:

Seriously? How do you re-structure a fully guaranteed contract without adding years to the deal?  The article says they converted salary into a signing bonus, but if it was already fully guaranteed, why would that matter? I want them to choke on that contract, so I hate seeing that there are loopholes available to them.  Anyone get how this works?

 

https://news.yahoo.com/ap-source-browns-restructure-watson-134639003.html

 

It works the same way as any other restructure.  You can always convert salary to signing bonus, and amortize it over the life of the contract which lowers the current cap hit.  The player gets his money up-front instead of paid weekly in 18 installments, so usually the player's finance guy does an NPV calculation and tells the player he doesn't care even though in a state like NY he'll pay more state taxes that way.

 

 

Edited March 13, 2023 by Beck Water

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

9 minutes ago, KDIGGZ said:

They replaced his base salary with massage incentives

 

But they have to report it to avoid losing draft picks

[MasterStrategist]

1 minute ago, cle23 said:

 

If the player retires, it accelerates any bonus money amount to the immediate year.  So yeah, you could add $5M a year for 20 years to spread it out, but when the player retires after 10, you'd get $50M upfront onto your cap.

Exactly!

 

Plus in a perfect world of no injuries, perhaps we'd see some of this (not 20 yr deals, but maybe 5 fake years)....but in the NFL, injuries obviously happen alot and a serious injury to said player basically screws this entire strategy.. 

 

Too risky and not guarantees a future season of being extremely handicapped against the cap

[balln]

And you need an ownership that can pay cash year in and year out for “bonus” to do these maneuvers