Cornerback Troy Hill signed a two-year, $9 million contract with $4.5 fully guaranteed at signing to join the Browns as a free agent. Yet thanks to some creative contractual structure, Hill will count just $1.875 million against Cleveland’s salary cap in 2021.
It’s one of the prime examples of the new way the NFL is doing business, and the Cleveland Browns are at the forefront of the movement.
Hill’s contract is a great example. It’s a two-year deal, but it includes two extra years that automatically void. The contract is written through the 2024 season initially, but the 2023 and 2024 seasons don’t really exist other than on paper. The team cannot exercise any option on them, and Hill doesn’t have to do anything for them to go away.
The “void years” are a new phenomenon in the NFL. Those two years exist on paper to help amortize the bonuses in Hill’s contract. Instead of swallowing the cap charge on the $3.5 million bonus all at once, or in the two years he’ll play under the contract, the Browns tacked on the voidable years to further spread it out.
It creates dead money in the future for the Browns. But the anticipated rise in the salary cap, once fans are allowed back in stadiums and the new television contracts kick in, will more than cover the deferred dead cap room. This year’s salary cap crunch around the NFL has led to the concept of voidable years really taking hold. Hill and the Browns are one really good example of the new wave of creative contracts.
All info on Hill’s contract comes from Over The Cap.
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