Jacksonville Jaguars Fan Forums

When it comes to signing contracts, everybody says to ignore the total value and just look at the guaranteed money - then they go onto just judge every contract by the total value anyway, because looking at contract details takes actual work. When talking about the contracts the Jags have handed out in free agency this is even more important, because the Jaguars haven't given out a penny of signing bonus. All of the guarantees come in the form of roster bonuses and guaranteed base salaries in the first or, rarely, the second year of contracts. If you don't want to read everything, the cliff notes are:

 

1. Contracts are flat or frontloaded in terms of cap hits, never backloaded. 

2. Contracts that seem large can be cut with no dead money after 1 or, rarely, 2 years with no impact on future caps. 

3. Contracts that seem like long-term commitments are, in practice, 1 or 2 year trials. 

4. You can look at most of the contracts as 1 year deals with annual team options - keep them if they deserve it, if not, you can cut them with zero detriment. 

5. If every single player was cut after 1 year, there would only be a $6m Dead Money cap hit for 2015. $5m of that is Zane Beadles. If he is cut due to injury the total dead money would only be $4m. if every single player was cut after year 2, there would be no dead money incurred at all. 

 

Now onto the details. I'm only going to list the cap hits by year for simplicity. 

 

Zane Beadles (5 Years/30 Million)

2014: 7.5m

2015: 5m

2016: 5.5m

2017: 6m

2018: 6m

 

This is the big one and the only one that really represents a multi-year commitment, as his 2015 cap hit is guaranteed, so if he sucks in year 1 and you cut him you wouldn't save anything against the cap that year and you would have paid Beadles $12.5m for 1 year. It's worth noting that his 2m roster bonus in 2015 is guaranteed only for performance and not injury so if something goes horribly wrong medically then you could cut him and it would only be 1/10.5, but realistically the worst case scenario on Beadles is a 2 year/12.5m commitment since he has no guaranteed money in the last 3 years. 

 

Red Bryant (4 years/19 Million)

2014: 5.46875m (lol)

2015: 4.25m

2016: 4.75m

2017: 4.75m

 

Almost all of his first year cap hit (5.225m) is guaranteed, but there is no guaranteed money past that so it's a pay as you go contract. It could be a 1 year/5.47m contract, a 2 year/9.72m contract, etc. Pretty much all the rest of the contracts, minus small exceptions for Gerhart and Watson, are the same pay as you go contract so you can see how little the Jags have really committed.

 

Chris Clemons (4 years/17.5 Million)

2014: 5.1875m

2015: 4.5m

2016: 4m

2017: 4m

 

I was a little concerned when the Jags gave a 32-year-old coming off ACL surgery a 4-year contract, but a closer look reveals it'll only be 4 years if he deserves it. Again there is no guaranteed money after the first year so it could be a 1 year/5.2m deal, a 2 year/9.7m deal, etc. 

 

Ziggy Hood (4 years/16 Million)

2014: 4.025m

2015: 3.975m

2016: 3.5m

2017: 4.5m

 

This was the deal that really raised my eyebrows, as Hood has been a huge disappointment in the pros and seemed to be paid like an established player, but with only $4m guaranteed in his first year, if he doesn't pan out, you're looking at a 1 year/4.025m contract which may be worth it to see if a former first-round pick can make the position switch. 

 

Toby Gerhart (3 years/10.5 Million)

2014: 4m

2015: 3m

2016: 3.5m

 

Gerhart's isn't quite a 1 year deal with options as he has a 500k guaranteed roster bonus in 2015. Cutting him would add 500k dead money, but that's negligible. If they cut him, you're looking at a 1 year/4.5m or 2 year/7m commitment. 

 

Jason Babin (3 years/8.275 Million)

2014: 3.1m

2015: 2.35m

2016: 2.35m

 

Babin is the one player signed this free agency who could realistically be cut this off-season as he only has 500k guaranteed. So if the Jags get Leo help in the draft I think it's very likely that Babin is gone. Otherwise, there's zero guaranteed and you can pay as you go. 

 

Dekoda Watson (3 years/6.25 Million)

2014: 2m

2015: 2.25m

2016: 2m

 

Like Gerhart, Watson has a negligible 500k guaranteed roster bonus in 2015 so cutting him after one year would only save 1.75m against the cap. At such a small amount the question with Watson, like all the others except Beadles, will be year-to-year performance without the cap or finances factoring into the equation. 

Good stuff.

Nice work there, Slinger.   Thanks for posting that. 

I like when someone puts this much detail into a post instead of just blustering and "harumph"ing. Appreciate the intel Slinger.

Nice research and more evidence that Caldwell knows what he's doing.

The contracts have been structured brilliantly.

He plans on drafting each position as these guys fall off and in 1-2 seasons we wont have bad cap hits and wlll again have alot of money if FA to go after bigger signings or more signing just like this.

 

Caldwell is a planner and he thinks with a vision in mind. Other than Beadles theses are all temp players who can be solid depth and fringe starters until the studs are drafted or if the studs dont exactly work out we wont be bare bones like the Gene eras. He isnt leaving the shelves bare and hoping everything just falls into place he is building backup plans before he even drafts guys.

 

Brilliance and pretty much the exact opposite of Gene SMiths days.

Slinger, where did you get the contract info?

This all sounds awesome, definitely good for the Jags, I just wonder what source you used for the info?

Spotrac for almost everything. 

I figured as much. That's a pretty cool website they got there.

Good post.  One thing you do not note is the negative to have all these contracts built this way:  If a player really develops then the cost of resigning the player after 3 to 4 years will be pretty high. Given how to the FO has handled it so far, I trust them to make the right calls based on long term performance and not contract year production.

Quote:Good post.  One thing you do not note is the negative to have all these contracts built this way:  If a player really develops then the cost of resigning the player after 3 to 4 years will be pretty high. Given how to the FO has handled it so far, I trust them to make the right calls based on long term performance and not contract year production.

 

Don't think the 34/36 year olds will be up for re-signing.  If Gerhart is our starter/workhorse I don't think a 30 year old HB gets re-signed either.

 

Hood/Watson/Beadles are the only ones that will possibly get re-signed if they perform and of those 3 only Watson would see a "significant" raise if he performed at a really high level.

Love how they're structured.  

Quote:Don't think the 34/36 year olds will be up for re-signing.  If Gerhart is our starter/workhorse I don't think a 30 year old HB gets re-signed either.

 

Hood/Watson/Beadles are the only ones that will possibly get re-signed if they perform and of those 3 only Watson would see a "significant" raise if he performed at a really high level.

 

And the cool thing is that even if Watson, Hood, Beadles, et al need to be re-signed, you just slap a hefty Roster Bonus on the contract so that they get their money up front and you take the cap hit all in one year. You can do that since there is adequate room on the Cap and you don't have to use the Signing Bonus trick to spread the hit out.

EXCELLENT POST !!!    I thnk this goes to show that the players were acquired are transitional players to make us competitive as they continue to build through the draft.  It's obvious, the upcoming year or perhaps even 2015 is not our SB goal years and by the time we get our own players via the draft, the above contracts will be set to expire and those players will be getting replaced in 2016-2017 so we won't be restricted to carrying players that are no longer starters or play a significant role with the team.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. Even though the structure of the contracts favor the Jags tremendously as noted above, really we didn't sign anyone worth noting. What this means is whoever we draft ultimately has to come in and play at a pro bowl level for years to come. Caldwell's approach certainly has set us up for a B.A.P. scenario for the first three rounds

Quote:Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. Even though the structure of the contracts favor the Jags tremendously as noted above, really we didn't sign anyone worth noting. What this means is whoever we draft ultimately has to come in and play at a pro bowl level for years to come. Caldwell's approach certainly has set us up for a B.A.P. scenario for the first three rounds

 

I think that is the big picture...

 

We aren't going SB hunting this year or next so these signings allow us to be flexible in drafting.  We aren't forced to take anyone except possibly a Center.  

 

Say Clowney falls to 3 or we take Mack...let them learn the system under Clemons then cut Clemons year #2 when you have a replacement.  If we don't take Leo early you have acceptable players until you repeat the draft/FA next year and can cut Clemons year #3.

Quote:Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. Even though the structure of the contracts favor the Jags tremendously as noted above, really we didn't sign anyone worth noting. What this means is whoever we draft ultimately has to come in and play at a pro bowl level for years to come. Caldwell's approach certainly has set us up for a B.A.P. scenario for the first three rounds

 

Clemons, Bryant and Beadles aren't note worthy?  We'll see when the season starts.

Quote:Don't think the 34/36 year olds will be up for re-signing.  If Gerhart is our starter/workhorse I don't think a 30 year old HB gets re-signed either.

 

Hood/Watson/Beadles are the only ones that will possibly get re-signed if they perform and of those 3 only Watson would see a "significant" raise if he performed at a really high level.

 

The three you mentioned are the three that would be best to resign and have potential to improve through the prime of their careers.