Antoine Bethea contract details: Signing bonus, salaries emerge

The contract details for Antoine Bethea's four year contract are now coming available, thanks to our man Jason Hurley. The contract was originally reported as $23 million over the four years. However, according to the numbers Jay is seeing, it's a 4-year $21.5 million deal. That is closer to the $21 million that Matt Barrows was reporting yesterday.

According to Jay, the deal includes $9.25 million in total guarantees, with $3 million of that in the form of immediate injury guarantee, but not full guarantee. Per Jay, Bethea gets a $5 million signing bonus, and a full guarantee of his $1.25 million 2014 base salary. His $3 million 2015 base salary is guaranteed upon signing for injury, and will be fully guaranteed on April 1, 2015.

This kind of deal does not leave the 49ers locked in too long, but the prorated signing bonus likely means he won't be going anywhere for at least two years. It pro-rates at $1.25 million per season, so after one year, that leaves $3,750,000 in dead money. The 49ers will already be carrying $1.5 million in dead money from Carlos Rogers contract, so they can't be loading up too much. They've done a good job recently in terms of dead money. They need to maintain some discipline in that regard.

What does that mean at the safety position? Well, the I don't think the 49ers are going to ignore the position in the draft, but maybe they wait a year, or go deeper in the draft at the position. I suppose the potential future dead money isn't a back-breaker, so they could decide one of the top safeties is worth adding. I suppose a second or third round pick would not exactly break the bank in the rookie cap era. It will make for an interesting few days of the draft.

Here is a rundown of Antoine Bethea's contract based on Jay's report. The three escalators and the 2017 playing time incentive are not 100 percent clear, but all indications are there is $1 million in such additional potential money.

Signing Bonus: $5,000,000

2014
Base: $1,250,000
Roster Bonus: $400,000
Workout Bonus: $100,000
Cap Number: $3,000,000

2015
Base: $3,000,000
Roster Bonus: $400,000
Workout Bonus: $100,000
Escalator: $250,000
Cap Number: $4,750,000

2016
Base: $4,500,000
Roster Bonus: $400,000
Workout Bonus: $100,000
Escalator: $250,000
Cap Number: $6,250,000

2017
Base: $5,250,000
Roster Bonus: $400,000
Workout Bonus: $100,000
Escalator: $250,000
Playing Time Incentive: $250,000
Cap Number: $7,000,000