Colts signing Justin Houston

[Dam8610]

Originally Posted by Chaka

I hesitate to respond at the risk of igniting a whole new debate, but I’ve got a number of issues with what you've said:

1) To begin with, your numbers are slightly off. The second year has $4.5 million guaranteed (according to Holder, the second year $1 million roster bonus is also guaranteed, though I’ll admit that’s kind of confusing). In sum, 100% of his 2019 salary is guaranteed, and 50% of his 2020 salary. Much larger than a typical buyout, as you characterized it.

2) This is nothing like an option – in fact, it’s the exact opposite. An option is for the team’s benefit. A buyout is for the player’s. There’s a reason buyout clauses aren’t very common in the NFL, given the risk of injury. We could end up paying $18.5 million for one year of a 30-year old Houston.

3) Further, $4.5 million (or even $3.5 million) is nothing to sneeze at, even in the cash-rich NFL. We just signed Geathers for $2.75 million, most of which isn’t even guaranteed.

4) Based upon Holder’s characterization, we’re tying up a minimum of $18.5 million (and up to $23M) in cap space on Houston – that’s an average of roughly 5-7% of our combined total cap space each of the two years on a single player. Such a large expenditure merits scrutiny.

In fairness, the one point you don’t bring up is that we don’t know what the guarantees apply to. I doubt Holder has seen the contract. As I’ve mentioned in other threads, the “guarantees” in some of these NFL contracts are only for injury, or only go into effect upon meeting certain criteria (being on the roster on a given date, etc.). By way of example, Colin Kaepernick signed a contract with the 49ers a few years ago that was reported to have had something like $60 million in guarantees, but a closer look at the language revealed that the “guarantees” were only effective if he was injured. So he could still be cut (and was cut) with limited cap impact.

1) Roster bonuses aren't guaranteed unless you're on the roster on a specific date, hence the name. It was how the Colts opted out of Manning's last contract with them.

2) Team options have buyouts in sports where they're prevalent. Hence it IS like a team option.

3) If the Colts don't want Houston in 2020, they'll cut him before the roster bonus date and be on the hook for $3.5 million, which won't even make a dent in their cap space. Further, a Houston cut would increase the Colts 2020 cap space overall by $5.5 million.

4) Houston is making $23 million over 2 years where the Colts are flush with cap space, and even then it's frontloaded. $9 million in 2020 will only happen if he's a good-elite pass rusher, and that's a bargain price to pay for that type of talent in the NFL.