The guarantees communicate the front office intent. De’Ernest has $50k guaranteed at signing, Ollison has no guaranteed money. Snoop is going into his 2nd year of his rookie 4 year deal. $326k signing bonus was his only guaranteed money which has already been paid though he would have a dead cap number of $244k for the unaccounted for as of yet signing bonus. He’s also the cheapest to keep this year at $870k vs ~$1.2M for Johnson and ~$1.1M for Ollison.

Hard to read intent into year 2 of a rookie deal especially if they’ve soured on him. The other two deals are non-committal and basically saying, “sure, you can come try out for the team but we’re not promising anything.” I think the signings were part insurance against the draft board not going as they hoped/expected and part insurance against pre-season injury. None of these contracts prohibit anyone from getting cut. Even Hasty who is on a fresh 2 year deal doesn’t have a big enough guarantee to necessarily protect him, but his deal is a lot more committal than the other 3. At the very least it shows they expect him to make the team.

Bottom line is, Johnson or Ollison is likely going to have to show to be significantly better (or more useful on special teams) than Snoop to make the team. If the difference is negligible, they’ll just roll with Snoop’s youth and cheaper salary.

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