A look at the numbers: 49ers and their salaries

There has been much discussion about contract extensions of late. Of particular concern are Vernon Davis who's a free agent at the end of the year, Aubrayo Franklin and Dashon Goldson who are also free agents. In a surprise announcement the 49ers organization announced yesterday that they had signed Willis to a five-year extension worth $50 million. Now because of the CBA there are some rules in place that make extensions kind of difficult. I wanted to take a look at some basic salary information for the 49ers, as well as describing the ruels in place in an uncapped year and see if we can figure out what kind of money we'd need to come up with to extend our other franchise players. 

First thing I want to point out is that according to USA Today's salary tracker the 49ers spent a total of $107,746,232   on player salaries in 2009. This is not what was counted against the salary cap, which for 2009 was about $142 million. The amount counted against the cap (according to Ninercaphell.com) was $133 million. Of that $133 million $10.16 million was signing bonuses, $41,088,440 was bonus money that wasn't signing bonuses.

Top 5 total salary

Join me after the jump as we get into more detail.

2009 salaries

2009 / San Francisco 49ers

Player Base Salary Sign Bonus Other Bonus Total Salary Cap Value Position    Baas, David $ 666,875 $ 0 $ 7,280 $ 674,155 $ 1,274,155 OL    Balmer, Kentwan $ 385,000 $ 0 $ 2,487,500 $ 2,872,500 $ 1,517,000 DT    Battle, Arnaz $ 1,490,000 $ 0 $ 7,280 $ 1,497,280 $ 2,117,280 WR    Bly, Dre' $ 845,000 $ 0 $ 21,560 $ 866,560 $ 481,560 CB    Brooks, Ahmad $ 535,000 $ 0 $ 7,280 $ 542,280 $ 542,280 LB    Brown, Tarell $ 460,000 $ 0 $ 7,280 $ 467,280 $ 511,530 CB    Bruce, Isaac $ 1,725,000 $ 0 $ 25,000 $ 1,750,000 $ 2,362,500 WR    Clayton, Thomas $ 385,000 $ 0 $ 7,280 $ 392,280 $ 237,280 RB    Clements, Nate $ 3,516,666 $ 0 $ 500,000 $ 4,016,666 $ 5,683,332 CB    Coffee, Glen $ 310,000 $ 828,244 $ 0 $ 1,138,244 $ 517,061 RB    Crabtree, Michael $ 2,393,077 $ 0 $ 0 $ 2,393,077 $ 1,830,000 WR    Davis, Nate $ 310,000 $ 150,300 $ 0 $ 460,300 $ 347,575 QB    Davis, Vernon $ 2,440,000 $ 0 $ 100,000 $ 2,540,000 $ 4,880,000 TE    Evans, Demetric $ 1,000,000 $ 0 $ 750,000 $ 1,750,000 $ 1,575,000 DE    Franklin, Aubrayo $ 2,000,000 $ 0 $ 50,000 $ 2,050,000 $ 2,683,334 DT    Goldson, Dashon $ 460,000 $ 0 $ 7,280 $ 467,280 $ 570,499 S    Gore, Frank $ 2,500,000 $ 0 $ 1,850,000 $ 4,350,000 $ 6,264,250 RB    Haralson, Parys $ 880,000 $ 0 $ 4,857,280 $ 5,737,280 $ 5,781,280 LB    Harris, Walt $ 1,700,000 $ 0 $ 1,820 $ 1,701,820 $ 2,368,488 CB    Heitmann, Eric $ 800,000 $ 0 $ 1,057,280 $ 1,857,280 $ 2,169,780 OL    Hill, Jason $ 460,000 $ 0 $ 7,280 $ 467,280 $ 655,734 WR    Hill, Shaun $ 1,400,000 $ 0 $ 50,000 $ 1,450,000 $ 2,600,000 QB    Hudson, Marcus $ 535,000 $ 0 $ 7,280 $ 542,280 $ 563,949 S    Jean-Francois, Ricky $ 310,000 $ 43,000 $ 0 $ 353,000 $ 320,750 DT    Jennings, Brian $ 745,000 $ 1,105,000 $ 1,820 $ 1,851,820 $ 1,151,155 TE    Jones, Brandon $ 620,000 $ 3,500,000 $ 1,280,000 $ 5,400,000 $ 2,600,000 WR    Lawson, Manny $ 915,000 $ 0 $ 25,000 $ 940,000 $ 1,967,500 LB    Lee, Andy $ 1,000,000 $ 0 $ 7,280 $ 1,007,280 $ 1,288,946 P/K    Lewis, Michael $ 1,900,000 $ 0 $ 3,100,000 $ 5,000,000 $ 5,000,000 S    McDonald, Ray $ 460,000 $ 0 $ 7,280 $ 467,280 $ 615,405 DE    McKillop, Scott $ 310,000 $ 192,250 $ 0 $ 502,250 $ 358,062 LB    Morgan, Joshua 'Josh' $ 385,000 $ 0 $ 7,280 $ 392,280 $ 418,780 WR    Nedney, Joe $ 1,472,500 $ 0 $ 1,007,280 $ 2,479,780 $ 2,869,780 P/K    Norris, Moran $ 745,000 $ 1,282,500 $ 224,780 $ 2,252,280 $ 1,397,280 RB    Pashos, Tony $ 1,200,000 $ 0 $ 0 $ 1,200,000 $ 1,700,000 OL    Rachal, Chilo $ 460,000 $ 0 $ 55,000 $ 515,000 $ 887,000 OL    Robinson, Michael $ 535,000 $ 0 $ 7,280 $ 542,280 $ 900,094 RB    Roman, Mark $ 900,000 $ 0 $ 25,000 $ 925,000 $ 1,425,000 S    Sims, Barry $ 870,000 $ 0 $ 307,280 $ 1,177,280 $ 1,639,780 OL    Smith, Alex D. (QB) $ 2,000,000 $ 2,000,000 $ 7,280 $ 4,007,280 $ 5,673,946 QB    Smith, Justin (DE) $ 3,500,000 $ 0 $ 5,250,000 $ 8,750,000 $ 10,583,333 DE    Smith, Reggie $ 385,000 $ 0 $ 7,280 $ 392,280 $ 588,280 CB    Snyder, Adam $ 1,400,000 $ 0 $ 100,000 $ 1,500,000 $ 2,300,000 OL    Sopoaga, Isaako $ 1,862,500 $ 0 $ 2,200,000 $ 4,062,500 $ 5,017,500 DT    Spencer, Shawntae $ 1,670,000 $ 0 $ 600,000 $ 2,270,000 $ 3,470,000 CB    Spikes, Takeo $ 1,250,000 $ 1,000,000 $ 756,760 $ 3,006,760 $ 2,506,760 LB    Staley, Joe $ 460,000 $ 0 $ 12,217,280 $ 12,677,280 $ 13,527,280 OL    Taylor, Curtis $ 310,000 $ 59,880 $ 0 $ 369,880 $ 324,970 S    Ulbrich, Jeff $ 950,000 $ 0 $ 7,280 $ 957,280 $ 1,357,280 LB    Walker, Delanie $ 535,000 $ 0 $ 7,280 $ 542,280 $ 927,780 WR    Wallace, Cody $ 385,000 $ 0 $ 7,280 $ 392,280 $ 514,405 OL    Wilheim, Matt $ 620,000 $ 0 $ 0 $ 620,000 $ 297,647 LB    Willis, Patrick $ 500,000 $ 0 $ 2,057,280 $ 2,557,280 $ 3,142,280 LB    Wragge, Tony $ 645,000 $ 0 $ 6,760 $ 651,760 $ 739,260 OL

Top 5 highest base salaries on the team

Top 5 highest signing bonuses

Top 5 other bonus money

Top 5 against the cap

30% rule and contract extensions

To keep owners from going crazy with spending in an uncapped year there exists a rule called the 30% rule. Essentially it states that a player can not receive pay raises of more than 30% of his base salary in the last capped year. If an extension is to be done it will have to be guaranteed money. Vernon Davis' base salary in 2009 was $2.44 million. With the 30% rule in play that means he can't receive annual pay raises of more than $732,000 (30% of his 2009 base salary). 

Earlier I reported a way teams were getting around the 30% rule which was hiding salary increases in "completion bonuses". However, upon further research it seems that that is effective only in negotiations carried out before 2010. As of 2010 the 30% rule is in full force and there's not much you can do about it. The text:

30% Rule (Article XXIV, Section 8(b), pages 133-134 and 241)

Renegotiations/extensions entered into in the 2010 League Year of 2009 NFL player contracts may not increase per year from 2009 to 2010 or beyond more than 30% of 2009 Salary. For example, if 2009 Salary is $2m, the maximum Salary available in 2010 is $2.6, 2011 is $3.2m, etc. Salary for 30% Rule does NOT include amounts treated as Signing Bonus or early termination buyout prorations tied to NLTBE incentives (those tied entirely to LTBE incentives are open issue with NFL), but DOES include option extension bonus prorations.

 

Veteran Incentives (Article XXIV, Section 7(c) (xix and xxv), pages 128-129)

No rules on Veteran Incentives. However, incentives will be valued LTBE or NLTBE for 30% rule purposes in 2010 renegotiations/extensions of 2009 contracts.  

The way I read that it seems that any incentives that are counted as unlikely to be earned (say reaching the Pro Bowl or finishing top 5 in a statistical category) do not count against the 30% rule, whereas incentives that are likely to be earned (starting 90% of the snaps in a season, making the 53 man roster, etc) do count against the 30% rule.

Patrick Willis

That means a player like Willis can have money hidden into his contract that includes those incentives that he'll likely earn but nobody else would. 

Reports are that Willis' extension is 5 years, $50 million with $29 million guaranteed. That leaves another $21 million in salary that has to be accounted for. 

According to USA Today his base salary in 2009 was $500,000. He had $2.5 million in other bonus money that would also have counted as base salary (since it wasn't listed as signing bonus money). That's a total of $3 million in salary which means his annual pay raise could be no more than $1, 000,000. 

2012--$1.5 million

2013--$2.5 million

2014--$3.5 million

2015--$4.5 million

2016--$5.5 million

Between the signing bonus of $29 million and his salary we're still $3.5 million short, which I imagine would come in the form of incentives. 

One other thing worth mentioning about the guaranteed money. $29 million in one shot is quite a bit of money to be paying a guy for one year's worth of work, so teams have a way around that with a technique called "supersede signing bonus", and in fact Adam Schefter is saying that this is what happened.  Basically you've got two contracts going on. One that pays the bulk of the guaranteed  money this year, and a new contract that starts in 2011 that has a new signing bonus on it (so in reality it's a one year contract and a four year contract). This allows teams to spread the money out and the second signing bonus is only guaranteed in the case of injury, so if Willis decides to retire or hold out he won't get any of it. 

Profootball Talk is reporting that the first bonus is $15.5 million with the 2011 bonus being $4.8 million, but that doesn't add up to the reported $29 million that Willis is supposed to be guaranteed. I guess we'll have to wait and see what details emerge. 

(Thanks Fooch for the links)

Adam Brandt wrote about Willis' contract today and explained how it went down.

 The Willis deal has a total value of roughly $50M over seven years, with $29M guaranteed and a signing bonus of $15.5M.

The 53.3M of the deal is in the following form:

23M in 30% increase money
20.3M in signing bonus and supersede money
10M in easily-earned escalators

The 29M guarantee for Willis is in the following form:
15.5M signing bonus
4.8M supersede bonus (see below)
8.7M in future salary guarantees (injury only)

Thus, the Willis deal.

Now let's look at three other players that need extensions.

Vernon Davis

2009 salary--$2.540,000. 30% rule says only $762,000 in annual pay raises. Brent Celek just signed an 8 year deal with the Eagles worth $34 million. I think we can give VD more love than that. I think a 6 year, $40 million contract isn't out of the question. 

2011--$3,302,000

2012--$4,064,000

2013--$4,826,000

2014--$5.588,000

2015--$6,350,000

2016--$7,112,000

That would leave $9 million guaranteed which is a completely fair deal.

Dashon Goldson

Goldson's 2009 salary was $467,280. 30% rule says you can't give him an increase of more than $15k a year which means you're looking at $20 to $30 million to extend him. I can't see that happening, no way, no how. Here's what i think does happen. We franchise him (franchise money is guaranteed and doesn't come under the 30% rule), and that bumps his salary up to $6.445 million and suddenly we have much better numbers to work with. 

Aubrayo Franklin

2009 base salary $2,000,000. 30% rule says pay raises can only be $600,000 per year. Luckily we have two freshly signed veteran NT to give us an idea of what we can expect to pay Franklin. Wilfork signed a 5 year, $40 million deal, and Hampton signed a 3 year $21.3 million deal. Franklin has very little wear and tear on his body so I think we sign him for more than Hampton, but less than Wilfork.

My guess is a 3 year deal worth $25 million. 

2011--$2.6 million

2012--$3.2 million

2013--$3.8 million

That leaves $15.4 million guaranteed and a pretty nice salary. When you factor in the franchise tag we gave him that gives him a 4 year deal worth $34 million.