Breaking Down Money Owed To Jay Cutler
(CBS) Bears quarterback Jay Cutler was inked to a seven-year contract worth more than $126 million last January, but as many sharp NFL fans know, that latter figure is quite misleading. What matters in the NFL is how much money is guaranteed, and even within that framework, there can exist endless fine print in contracts that can be confusing to understand.
When Cutler first signed his deal, it was reported that $54 million was guaranteed over three years. That's true in the general sense, but as the Tribune's Brad Biggs has reported, the hard guarantee as of this moment is actually $38 million. That comes from the $22.5 million the Bears owe Cutler in 2014 ($5 million of which was actually deferred to the future, for cap flexibility purposes) and the $15.5 million he's owed in 2015.
If Chicago releases Cutler, he's still owed the remaining $15.5 million of that hard guarantee of $38 million. Complicating matters is that if the Bears release Cutler by March, they'd pay a cap penalty too and have $19.5 million in dead cap money, "sinking their 2015 team in the process," Grantland's Bill Barnwell wrote.
Of course, there's one more wrinkle to add in this if Chicago were to release him -- ESPN.com has reported there's "offset language" in Cutler's contract that in certain circumstances would have the Bears paying the difference of the $15.5 million that Cutler's owed in 2015 and what his new team would sign him for.
If Cutler were to have a serious injury that kept him off the field through 2016, the Bears would owe him a total of $54 million, as Biggs explained. That has led some to speculate that the Bears have benched Cutler for the last two games of the season because they want to keep him healthy and are considering trading him -- which is the primary way the Bears could get out of the remainder of the hard guarantee of $38 million.
If another team took on Cutler's salary, it would open up much more cap space for the Bears to use in 2015 for other areas of need, with only $4 million in dead money for Cutler, Barnwell reported -- but Chicago may have to attach a draft pick to Cutler to make it more appealing to a trade partner.
March 12 now looms as an important date for the Bears. That's the third day of the NFL's new league year, and $10 million of Cutler's $16 million salary for 2016 becomes fully guaranteed that day. If the Bears decide that Cutler isn't their quarterback of the future, they need to make a move before then.
