Quote
kw13
If I am understanding the situation correctly, the Rams have continued to restructure Aaron Donald's contract to not only reward/pay him, but to take advantage of the restructure to make a little cap room in the current year. Rinse and repeat.
And you choose a player that you know you are going to keep to play this cap game.
However, what ultimately happens is that if you convert enough of the players salary to a bonus (which you can spread out across multiple years to help the cap) you also are creating a situation where he already has received that money or will receive the money whether he plays or not.
The point I am trying to make is, the player in this situation will basically make 90% of the money even if they walk.
So what incentive do they have to stay? Why would Donald have played this year or next?
You have pretty much put him I situation where his best option is to retire.
Am I wrong?
IMO opinion you are wrong.
This was the last year of AD's contract so playing next year was never on the table.
If he played this season under the terms of his original deal he would have been paid and additional $35M above and beyond all the money the Rams already paid him: a $10M salary, a $5M roster bonus, and a $20M option bonus.
If he played under the terms of his restructured deal he still would have gotten $35M, but that roster bonus and most of that salary would have been paid as a signing bonus rather than salary.
As it stands AD gets 'only' the signing bonus of $13.8M this year. Note, though, that he could have just stuck with his original deal and collected both the roster bonus and the option bonus before he retired. AD basically gifted the Rams $11.2M on his way out the door.
Bottom line: he got $13.8M this year but he would have gotten $35M if he played.
AlbaNY_Ram
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/15/2024 08:23PM by AlbaNY_Ram.
