On Monday, Pete Dougherty of the Green Bay Press Gazette ran an article breaking down the numbers on left tackle Chad Clifton’s three-year, $20 million contract, signed on Friday.
(Quick aside: We probably don’t give the GBPG guys their full due here often enough. They’re very good, as well.)
After looking at it, I have to say this was a very good deal for the Green Bay Packers.
As always, get ready to deal with a lot of numbers here, okay?
The only real guaranteed money given to Clifton comes in the form of a $6.375 million roster bonus, which he will receive Wednesday.
Now, take a look at his salaries for the three years of the deal:
- 2010 – $855,000
- 2011 – $5.75 million
- 2012 – $5.25 million
The rest of the deal is composed of playing time and workout-related bonuses:
- 2010-2012 – $250,000 each year that he participates in the team’s workout program which, of course, is strictly voluntary. As far as I know, at least recently, Clifton has been a part of this program.
- 2010 – $100,000 total if he’s on the active gameday roster each week (or $6,250 per week).
- 2011-2012 – $250,000 total if he’s on the active gameday roster each week (or $15,625 per week).
Here, then, are Clifton’s cap numbers for the duration of the contract (if he hits all the various incentives, of course):
- 2010 – $7.580 million
- 2011 – $6.250 million
- 2012 – $5.750 million
Again, though, that’s only if he hits all the incentives. Clifton is almost a lock to miss at least a few games every year, so you can bring those cap numbers down a bit.
And, as I said Friday, there is pretty much no way Clifton sees the last year of this deal. He’ll be 34 by the time this season starts and my best guess is that this is, in reality, a two-year contract whether there’s a work stoppage in 2011 or not. That said, you can basically lop off all the money due Clifton in 2012. That makes it a two year contract worth a maximum of $13.83 million.
Also, Ted Thompson and chief negotiator Russ Ball did exactly what I thought they would. They frontloaded the hell out of the deal, choosing to pay Clifton the most money in the year that happens to be uncapped. Even if he completely breaks down physically – or gets beaten out at some point by the team’s No. 1 draft choice, Charles Brown (fingers crossed that Brown is the pick) – Green Bay is off the hook for most of the money. So the Packers could still cut Clifton after this season and not take much of a cap hit at all.
Finally, when you consider that Clifton made $6.37 million last season, his cap number for this season isn’t bad at all. An extra $1.2 million for a solid veteran who plays a crucial position (also one where Green Bay would have been left with nothing had he signed somewhere else) is not that much at all.
Nice work, Ted and Russ. Now if you guys would just pick up the phone and call Nick Collins’ people, we’d all feel a hell of a lot better.
-Chris Lempesis
Let the debate commence!