Colts and OT Braden Smith agree to 4 year contract extension
 

Reportedly a 4 year deal worth up to 72MM with approximately 42MM guaranteed.

https://twitter.com/JFowlerESPN/stat...81089265332226

https://twitter.com/zkeefer/status/1420381851710001156

https://twitter.com/HolderStephen/st...81622550028296

Great news - its worth highlighting that this appears to be an extension, meaning we will still have Smith under the last year of his rookie deal for next season at a cost of about $3M or so. So, combined, we actually have him locked up for another 5 years.

it will be interesting to see the details of the new contract when available. The five year one the Saints RT signed recently was fairly straightforward, with only the first few years really guaranteed.

Great news!

How does it compare to other RT contracts?

The Ramczyk contract with the Saints that was signed earlier this month (5 years, $96MM, $60MM guaranteed) is the top RT contract.

Braden's contract appears to be similar in AAV to Lane Johnson's contract.

Braden's contract will probably be the 2nd or 3rd highest of RT contracts at the time of signing - have to see the final details of the contract. Sometimes the initial reports don't have all the numbers correct.

I’m glad it’s done. I was skeptical of Smith at RT early on and thought they should draft a RT and slide him inside. Very happy to be wrong about that. Well earned extension.

Fantastic. He's a great RT and it's great keeping the continuity of this line together.

The details of the contract are now in:

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/indianap...n-smith-25136/

Looks like Smith’s extension is a much more team-friendly than the contract Saints RT (Ryan Ramczyk) signed a few weeks earlier. Smith is also 2 years younger.

Smith got $32M in guarantees, all of which are paid in this year and 2022, though there would be a sizable cap hit ($15M) if he was cut in the 2022-2023 offseason, so its pretty unlikely that would happen barring some sort of career-ending injury. After the 2023 season, he’s completely non-guaranteed, with the only potential cap hit being the remaining prorated portion of his signing bonus ($6M if he’s cut in 2023, $3M if in 2024). So in reality, I’d say it’s closest to a two-year, $39.5M extension, with two additional $15M-average option years,

By comparison, here's Ramcyzk's contract:

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/new-orle...ramczyk-21773/

Ramcyzk got $43M in initial guarantees, which mostly (but not all) are bunched into the 2021-2022 years. Plus, another $10.7M in 2023 becomes automatically guaranteed on the third day of next season (2022), so this is basically guaranteed as well barring a major injury (if they cut him before that they’d have to take a massive Wentz-like cap hit of at least $37M). After 2023, he receives some (but very limited) guarantees, and like Smith his cap hit if cut is reduces dramatically (though still higher than Smith's). So his contract is probably closest to a two-year, $52M extension, with three $18M-average option years. Plus, Ramcyzk’s contract has a few more bells and whistles like escalator clauses for being an All-Pro.

The contract figures for RT's keeps going higher.

Glad that Braden and the Colts found common ground before this season started.


https://twitter.com/RapSheet/status/1435678606152421380

https://twitter.com/CourtneyRCronin/...67965119246343

As long as the cap goes up the contracts will. Just hope these guys live up to their contract.

O'Neill is good, but he's not at Braden Smith's level and got paid much more. Some teams are just stupid with contracts.