Panthers Converted OT Matt Kalil's $10M Option Bonus Into A Signing Bonus Guaranteeing He'll Be On Roster In 2018

[Mr. Scot]

1 minute ago, top dawg said:

I mean, if Mister wants it to happen, it's going to happen, regardless of the GM.

Well you can always disagree with him and get fired.

[Icege]

49ers did this with Staley a few years ago

https://www.ninersnation.com/2015/4/6/8353311/joe-staley-contract-adjustment-turns-option-bonus-into-signing-bonus

Possible explanation:

https://overthecap.com/explaining-the-joe-staley-salary-cap-charge-increase/

[Mr. Scot]

14 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

This jives with my understanding of roster bonus vs. signing bonus amd how each impact the cap. I have no idea why this is bold but I cant get it to stop.

https://www.behindthesteelcurtain.com/pittsburgh-steelers-nfl-features-news-blog-long-form/2016/2/23/11064246/nfl-101-getting-a-grip-on-salaries-and-bonuses-in-the-modern-nfl

Bonuses

There are several types of bonuses that can be included in a player's contract. The most common are Signing, Roster, Workout and Option bonuses.

 

Signing Bonus

 

A signing bonus is a lump sum of money to be paid to a player when he signs a contract. This bonus is often a key aspect of contract negotiations, because it is the only truly guaranteed money in any contract. Signing bonuses are not, however, counted in their entirety the year a player signs the contract. Instead, the dollar value is prorated over the length of the contract, up to a maximum of five years. That is only for accounting, though; the bonus is paid, in its entirety, at signing. Let's go back to our example contract. Let's assume Bob Player's contract includes a $3 million signing bonus. It would then be a three-year, $13 million contract, broken down as follows:

• $2 million ($1 million salary and $1 million signing bonus (prorated)) in year 1
• $5 million ($4 million salary and $1 million signing bonus (prorated)) in year 2
• $6 million ($5 million salary and $1 million signing bonus (prorated)) in year 3

 

Roster Bonus

 

Roster bonuses basically say, "if you are still on the team when the new league year begins (typically in early March each year), we will pay you a bonus of X dollars." Unlike signing bonuses, roster bonuses are accounted for in their entirety in the year which they are paid. Let's revisit Bob Player's contract once again. If he has a $1 million roster bonus payable in year three, his actual pay per year would be $4 million, $4 million and $6 million, while his cap impact would look like this:

 

• $2 million ($1 million salary, $1 million signing bonus (prorated)) in year 1
• $5 million ($4 million salary, $1 million signing bonus (prorated)) in year 2
• $7 million ($5 million salary, $1 million signing bonus (prorated), $1 million roster bonus) in year 3

Typically, roster bonuses are given to players who meet any of these conditions: a history of injury, unproven players and players with dramatic increases in base salary from one year to another. This allows a team to cut ties with a player for these reasons and avoid having to account for their salaries, while giving the player a moderately binding promise of a lump-sum payout at the beginning of a league year.

This wasn't referred to as a roster bonus. It was an "option bonus".

What that means? Who knows?

What I do know? The reporter who broke this says there's no cap benefit. The guys at Spotrac who do nothing but analyze the cap say there's no benefit. In fact, I can't find anybody who says there's a benefit to it at all, other than to Matt Kalil.

Until someone else comes out and explains that there's some kind of cap savings that comes with this, every indication right now is just that this was a favor.

Maybe we'll get different news later, but that's all we've got at the moment.

[Ricky Spanish]

10 minutes ago, TheSpecialJuan said:

Huddle response:  Hurney is a retard! 

To be honest, it's probably the safest reaction we have. 

[Snake]

8 minutes ago, Rags said:

Okay so here's how I see it.

Even if this does save us cap this year it's gonna damage us the years after that.

And there's not a person on this message board who things Kalil should be here at least two more years. 

Sure he could play better but he has not played Very Well consistently all his carrer. But now for the next two seasons we have him at LT or, at best, a really expensive Backup.

Cool job Hurndog.

In all honesty we are not going to find a better LT in two years. It's still a dumb move though. 

[Mr. Scot]

10 minutes ago, Rags said:

Okay so here's how I see it.

Even if this does save us cap this year it's gonna damage us the years after that.

And there's not a person on this message board who things Kalil should be here at least two more years. 

Sure he could play better but he has not played Very Well consistently all his carrer. But now for the next two seasons we have him at LT or, at best, a really expensive Backup.

Cool job Hurndog.

Valid point.

[jumpman910]

Just laugh thru the pain, this "family" atmosphere doesn't led to making the best football decision. 

[Jon Snow]

Welcome to Hurndog 2.0.

[RumHam]

1 hour ago, Ace_Aladdin said:

 

Why would Panthers make this move if it didn’t help CAP wise,  if he was going to be on the roster regardless?

Maybe it’s freeing up cap space in the future  for a new long term contract for someone else?

Kalil is 90% off the books after this season?

 

#Hurneymagic. That's why.

[LinvilleGorge]

30 minutes ago, Mr. Scot said:

This wasn't referred to as a roster bonus. It was an "option bonus".

What that means? Who knows?

What I do know? The reporter who broke this says there's no cap benefit. The guys at Spotrac who do nothing but analyze the cap say there's no benefit. In fact, I can't find anybody who says there's a benefit to it at all, other than to Matt Kalil.

Until someone else comes out and explains that there's some kind of cap savings that comes with this, every indication right now is just that this was a favor.

Maybe we'll get different news later, but that's all we've got at the moment.

The way I'm reading it is that it that the option bonus was basically structured as a recurring annual roster bonus instead of a lump sum roster bonus. This would make since as to why they're saying that this provides no current cap relief while negatively impacting our future cap flexibility. Hurney basically just removed the "option" from the option bonus by giving Kalil a lump sum payout.

If that's really what happened he should be fired for it. Straight up.

I'm really hoping there's something here that I'm missing or reading wrong.

[Mr. Scot]

4 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

The way I'm readong it is that it that the option bonus was basically structured as a recurring annual roster bonus instead of a lump sum roster bonus. This would make since as to why they're saying that this provides no curremt cap relief while negatively impacting our future cap flexibility. Hurney basically just removed the "option" from the option bonus by giving Kalil a lump sum payout.

If that's really what happened he should be fired for it. Straight up.

As much as I distrust Hurney's GM skills, it's still really difficult for me to believe that the team would do this without some kind of cap benefit. And at some point, perhaps someone with inside knowledge will be able to explain what that is.

Right now though, the only people with inside info who are talking about it say it offers no savings at all. It gives Kalil 10 million up front and basically ensures that he'll be guarding Newton's blind side through both this year and next year at least.

Doesn't make sense to me either, but that's all we've got so far.

Until we hear something different, it sounds like that's the story (and everyone is sticking to it).

[d-dave]

Reading over this thread, this is freaking stupid.

I thought it would be spread out like a signing bonus (thanks for the huddle education!), but it's not going to really change anything except make it harder to cut him.

Not a fan at all of that move.  Is there a better LT out there for us?  Where?  I feel like we're kind of screwed with Kalil here.  Or maybe he'll magically play better?

[panthers55]

2 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

The way I'm reading it is that it that the option bonus was basically structured as a recurring annual roster bonus instead of a lump sum roster bonus. This would make since as to why they're saying that this provides no current cap relief while negatively impacting our future cap flexibility. Hurney basically just removed the "option" from the option bonus by giving Kalil a lump sum payout.

If that's really what happened he should be fired for it. Straight up.

I'm really hoping there's something here that I'm missing or reading wrong.

No you are missing it. From what I read there are no cap savings because the option bonus didn't affect his cap until exercised and it was going to go up so there were no cap savings over his projected cap of 6 million plus for 2018. But by converting it to signing bonus the cap increase won't be as high if it would be if it was all accounted for in this year as would be the case if it converted to salary or stayed as an option bonus which would have put his cap hit at over 17 million. I'm am curious to see if this is correct or not.

[panther4life]

If someone is on twitter, tweet Joel Corey. He’s a former agent and will know exactly why the move was made and likely answer a detailed explanation if you ask him nicely