Yes another Collins thread.
There’s a lot of confusion when discussing a players contract. I wanted to take a detailed look at Collins’ contract and how it changed at different times throughout his time here. Please check my work, I do make mistakes, but this is how his contract affected the Lions cap at different times during his 19 months with the Lions.
In March of 2020, Jamie Collins signed a 3 year, $30M contract with the Detroit Lions. That included a $7M signing bonus, base salaries of $4M (2020), $8.8M (2021) and $9.8M (2022) and workout bonuses of $200K (2021) and $200K (2022). His 2020 base salary was fully guaranteed, as was $7M of his 2021 salary. His cap charges was as follows:
| Signing | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Signing/ | Base | Workout | Cash | Bonus | Salary | ||
| Year | Option | Salary | Bonus | Paid | Amortization | Adjustment | Cap Charge |
| 2020 | 7,000,000 | 4,000,000 | 11,000,000 | 2,333,333 | 6,333,333 | ||
| 2021 | - | 8,800,000 | 200,000 | 9,000,000 | 2,333,333 | 11,333,333 | |
| 2022 | - | 9,800,000 | 200,000 | 10,000,000 | 2,333,333 | 12,333,333 | |
| 7,000,000 | 22,600,000 | 400,000 | 30,000,000 | 7,000,000 | 30,000,000 |
In March of 2021, the Lions did a simple restructure of Collins’ contract and gave him a $5M signing bonus and reduced his 2021 base salary by $5M and they added three voidable years to his contract. This was done so that they could save $4M against the 2021 salary cap. From Collins original contract, $7M of his base salary was fully guaranteed, after the restructure, $2M of his base salary is fully guaranteed ($7M - $5M restructured signing bonus). After this simple restructure, Collins cap charges were as follows:
| Signing | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Signing/ | Base | Workout | Cash | Bonus | Salary | |||
| Year | Option | Salary | Bonus | Paid | Amortization | Adjustment | Cap Charge | |
| 3 | 2020 | 7,000,000 | 4,000,000 | 11,000,000 | 2,333,333 | 6,333,333 | ||
| 5 | 2021 | 5,000,000 | 3,800,000 | 200,000 | 9,000,000 | 3,333,333 | 7,333,333 | |
| 2022 | - | 9,800,000 | 200,000 | 10,000,000 | 3,333,333 | 13,333,333 | ||
| 2023 | 1,000,000 | 1,000,000 | ||||||
| 2024 | 1,000,000 | 1,000,000 | ||||||
| 2025 | 1,000,000 | 1,000,000 | ||||||
| 12,000,000 | 17,600,000 | 400,000 | 30,000,000 | 12,000,000 | 30,000,000 |
Before the season started, $2M of Collins’ $3.8M base salary was fully guaranteed and on 09/12/21, Collins remaining $1.8M base salary became guaranteed, because he is a vested veteran (4 accrued seasons in the NFL). On 09/28/21, the Lions released Jamie Collins. Note that his non-guaranteed base salary and workout bonuses from 2022 are removed and his future cap charges from signing bonus amortization accelerates into next season. As a result his cap charges is as follows:
| Signing | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Signing/ | Base | Workout | Cash | Bonus | Salary | ||
| Year | Option | Salary | Bonus | Paid | Amortization | Adjustment | Cap Charge |
| 2020 | 7,000,000 | 4,000,000 | 11,000,000 | 2,333,333 | 6,333,333 | ||
| 2021 | 5,000,000 | 3,800,000 | 200,000 | 9,000,000 | 3,333,333 | 7,333,333 | |
| 2022 | - | - | - | - | 3,333,333 | 3,000,000 | 6,333,333 |
| 2023 | 1,000,000 | (1,000,000) | - | ||||
| 2024 | 1,000,000 | (1,000,000) | - | ||||
| 2025 | 1,000,000 | (1,000,000) | - | ||||
| 12,000,000 | 7,800,000 | 200,000 | 20,000,000 | 12,000,000 | - | 20,000,000 |
If you notice, the restructure that he did would basically just moved $4M of his cap charges from this year to next year. Without the restructure, we would have had $11.3M dead cap this year and $2.3M in 2022 and the Lions cap space for 2021 would currently be $500K. With the restructure, we have $7.3M dead cap this year and $6.3M next year and the Lions have $4.5M in cap space for 2021. At the end of the day, you get to the same spot. So it doesn’t matter if you restructure a contract on a player that will likely get cut next season. The first table is if we did nothing to Collins contract and the second table represents the restructure:
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cap Space | Cap Space | Charge | Charge | Charge | |
| Cap Space before Collins Restructure | 500,000 | 35,675,000 | |||
| Cut Collins | 10,000,000 | ||||
| Carryover to 2022 | (500,000) | 500,000 | |||
| 0 | 46,175,000 |
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cap Space | Cap Space | Charge | Charge | Charge | |
| Cap Space before Collins Restructure | 500,000 | 35,675,000 | |||
| Restructure Collins ($5M Sign Bonus) | 4,000,000 | (1,000,000) | (1,000,000) | (1,000,000) | (1,000,000) |
| Cut Collins | 10,000,000 | ||||
| Accelerate Sign Bonus Amortization | (3,000,000) | 1,000,000 | 1,000,000 | 1,000,000 | |
| Carryover to 2022 | (4,500,000) | 4,500,000 | |||
| 0 | 46,175,000 |
A lot of people (including those in the media) confuse cash payments with cap charges. This is how Collins was/is paid and how Collins will get his $20M.
| Cash | Signing | Workout | Base | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paid | Bonus | Bonus | Salary | ||
| 03/16/20 | Signing Bonus | 7,000,000 | 7,000,000 | ||
| 09/13/20 – 01/03/21 | Base Salary (17 Weekly Game Checks) | 4,000,000 | 4,000,000 | ||
| 03/10/21 | Restructure Collins ($5M Sign Bonus) | 5,000,000 | 5,000,000 | ||
| 06/30/21 | Workout Bonus | 200,000 | 200,000 | ||
| 09/14/21 | Game Check (1/18) | 211,111 | 211,111 | ||
| 09/21/21 | Game Check (1/18) | 211,111 | 211,111 | ||
| 09/28/21 | Game Check (1/18) | 211,111 | 211,111 | ||
| 10/05/21 | Game Check Part of Guaranteed Money | 211,111 | 211,111 | ||
| 10/12/21 | Game Check Part of Guaranteed Money | 211,111 | 211,111 | ||
| 10/19/21 | Game Check Part of Guaranteed Money | 211,111 | 211,111 | ||
| 10/26/21 | Game Check Part of Guaranteed Money | 211,111 | 211,111 | ||
| 11/02/21 | Game Check Part of Guaranteed Money | 211,111 | 211,111 | ||
| 11/09/21 | Game Check Part of Guaranteed Money | 211,111 | 211,111 | ||
| 11/16/21 | Game Check Part of Guaranteed Money | 100,001 | 100,001 | ||
| 02/01/22 | Termination Pay | 1,800,000 | 1,800,000 | ||
| 20,000,000 | 12,000,000 | 200,000 | 7,800,000 |
If someone signs Collins, we will get a small credit (less than $900K) when the league does it’s year-end reconciliations in February.
