Andy Dalton's New Deal is My Kind of Deal

Andy Dalton will have to earn the better part of his new, lucrative contract

This morning, Andy Dalton reached a contract extension with the Cincinnati Bengals worth up to as much as $115 million over six seasons.

Yeah--that is nine figures.

It is a difficult amount of money to justify for Andy Dalton (and most anybody else, too), but what you don't see when you first look at that absurdly large sum, is that Dalton is only guaranteed $17 million, and must earn the rest. It follows hot on the heels of a similar deceptively magnanimous contract given to Colin Kaepernick by the San Francisco 49ers earlier this offseason. Reports went out claiming that Kaep's deal included $61 million guaraneed, which is true--maybe.

The thing about both of these contracts is that much of the money is left to be rightfully earned by the player. Does Kaepernick's new contract include $61 million in guaranteed dough? Yes. But only on a year-to-year basis. Here is how it works: beginning with $13 million in 2014, Kaepernick's base salary will decrease by $2 million annually--unless he hits certain benchmarks (i.e., winning the Super Bowl while taking 80 percent of snaps). If Kaepernick fails to reach these benchmarks, he incurs the aforementioned decrease in base salary. So, I guess the way to say it would be to say that Kaep's deal contains up to $61 million guaranteed. If he were to be cut before April 1st in any of the six years of his extension, the remaining "guaranteed" money stays with the 49ers; it only becomes guaranteed on that date, and only on an annual basis at a decreasing rate (assuming Kaepernick doesn't win the Super Bowl every year).

Dalton's new deal is incentive-laden too, and all I want to say about this, is that I like this trend. The NFL gives its players ludicrous amounts of money; guaranteed sums with the signing of a name that most of us won't see in a lifetime. It hurts and creates resentment to see somebody given millions and millions of dollars before they have earned it (e.g., Albert Haynesworth). Dalton and Kaepernick have still been given more money at the beginnings of their new contracts than I can ever hope to see, but worse deals have been made (see Haynesworth example). I hope the trend of low-guaranteed money, and high-incentive contracts continues; it's simply the way it should be.