speculations about some things unique about this contract

Some speculations.

I don't think anyone guessed all of this--22.5 M annual avg. 6 years, high 80s guaranteed, huge bonus. And I mean no one, not on any board or in the media. Quite a few guessed the between 22 and 23 annual avg. but the rest was not guessable.

Part of what makes this deal unique is the combination of bonus money and guaranteed money. And that would be because of Kroenke. If I have the details on this right, a team has to have the cash set aside in advance to cover guaranteed money. And of course with the cap, most of the money for players comes through league revenue, but that's not how signing bonuses work---the cap hit may be spread out over the length of the deal but the player gets the money upfront and for that you need cash flow.

So 2 things need cash flow money at hand---the guaranteed money and the bonus. AD got a huge bonus and a lot of guaranteed money, and then gave the Rams the years (6) and the annual avg. (22.5 is a bit less than the metrics say he should have gotten).

To me that looks like Kroenke's advantage was cash on hand, and that allowed AD to compromise on years and annual avg.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/01/2018 08:17AM by zn.