The Philadelphia Eagles agreed to terms on a 2-year, $36 million contract with quarterback Sam Bradford, and details are starting to leak out. There had been reports that the deal included $26 million in guaranteed money, but obviously there would not be nearly that much in "fully" guaranteed money.
Not so fast....
Andrew Brandt has details on the contract, and he is reporting it includes $22 million in fully guaranteed money! He says the deal includes an $11 million signing bonus, and a $7 million base salary in 2016. He can earn an additional $2 million with some kind of playoff wins (I don't know if it's just one, or what exactly). His 2017 base salary is $13 million, with $4 million of it fully guaranteed upon signing. He also has a $4 million roster bonus next March, 17. If the Eagles cut him before that roster bonus is due, they would take a dead money hit of $9.5 million for 2017.
That's some kind of deal. Bradford shows flashes of talent, but I'm surprised he was able to get that kind of guaranteed money. I suppose given that it's only two years, it is a relatively limited risk to some degree, so the Eagles can see what Bradford can do with a little more time. And this does not preclude the Eagles from adding a quarterback in the draft. Odds are good they draft a quarterback on day three and wait and see what happens from there.
Where it gets interesting is that the $4 million in 2017 guaranteed salary makes this a tradable deal. If the Eagles were to trade him prior to the March roster bonus, the $4 million base salary guarantee would go with Bradford, thus lowering the Eagles dead money in 2017 to $5.5 million. That will be something to track next offseason.
And of course, this raises the question of what it all means for Colin Kaepernick. He is due an $11.9 million base salary in 2016, along with $2 million in game-day active roster bonus money, and a $400,000 workout bonus. If the San Francisco 49ers were to trade Kaepernick, that's a potential $14.3 million cap hit for the new team, with the 49ers eating the remaining prorated signing bonus dead money. That's a lot of money, but in light of Bradford's contract and Kirk Cousins getting franchised, that's suddenly moderately reasonable for a team that thinks Kaepernick is worth starting.
Maybe that means the 49ers hold onto him, maybe they trade him, or maybe they still release him. His numbers never looked toooooo prohibitive, and these deals coupled with Kaepernick's rolling guarantees only further show that.