On Monday, we listed defensive tackle Nick Williams as one of the big winners of the first week of free agency from Detroit Lions. With a maximum of $ 5.7 million and $ 4.7 million unsecured, he looked like the top candidate to be launched. When it became clear that the Lions weren’t doing this, it was a big win for Williams, who had just 23 tackles and a sack last year.
But it turned out that it was not a big win for Williams. According to Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free press, the veteran defender has agreed to accept a significant pay cut to stay with the team. Based on his tweet from last week, he is still very happy about it, but the move could cost him more than $ 2.7 million in potential money earned.
For Lions, this saves just over $ 2.68 million, which is not a ton of money, but every penny counts.
Here’s a look at how they did it, comparing the old and the new contracts.
Figures via OverTheCap
Old contract
Base salary: $ 4.1 million
Ratio of subscription bonuses: $ 1 million
Active List Bonus: $ 400,000— $ 25,000 per game ($ 350,000 LTBE, $ 50,000 NLTBE)
Training bonus: $ 200,000
Maximum reach: $ 5.65 million
Dead limit if cut: $ 1 million
New Contract
Base salary: $ 1.25 million ($ 500,000 guaranteed)
Signature bonus + apportionment: $ 1.5M
Active List Bonus: $ 250,000— $ 15,625 per game ($ 218,750 LTBE, $ 31,250 NLTBE)
NO EXERCISE BONUS
Maximum reach: $ 2,968,750
Dead limit if cut: $ 2 million
So, here’s a closer look at what’s changed.
Base salary: Williams had a $ 2.85 million pay cut, but $ 500,000 of that is now guaranteed.
Signature Bonus: The prorated signing bonus of $ 1 million from the previous contract is transferred. Lions cannot get rid of this. Meanwhile, Lions gave Williams another $ 500,000 in signing bonuses that he receives immediately for his problems.
List Bonus: Williams receives another cut here of $ 400,000 in potential escalation bonuses to $ 250,000. Since he played only 14 games last year, only 14/16 of them count against the limit, reducing his number of $ 350,000 in “likely to be won” (LTBE) bonuses to $ 218,750.
Training bonus: Williams will no longer receive a $ 200,000 training bonus.
Cap hit: It drops from $ 5.65 million ($ 4.1 million salary + $ 1 million signing bonus + $ 550,000 LTBE bonus) to $ 2,968,750 ($ 1.25 million salary + $ 1.5 million) signing bonus + $ 218,750 LTBE bonus). Saving Lions $ 2,681,250 in maximum space.
Dead limit if cut: Raises R $ 1 million to R $ 2 million in total. This is due to the extra $ 500,000 in signing bonuses and $ 500,000 in guaranteed salary. This means that Lions would only recover $ 968,750 if they eliminated Williams before the season.
What are the advantages for Lions?
They keep Williams close by, saving them from yet another hole in the defense. And they add almost $ 2.7 million in limit space – which could be another player or two that they can add as a free agency.
What does this bring to Williams
He receives another $ 500,000 in advance, plus an additional $ 500,000 in guaranteed salary. With so few savings at stake now, if Lions end up eliminating Williams, it will also provide some security on the player roster.
Given that Lions had most of the leverage here – they could have just cut it and recovered $ 4.65 million – Williams did well for himself by mitigating the damage, putting $ 1 million guaranteed in his pocket and making sure to that would probably be in a Lions Uniform for 2021.