What was initially reported to be a three-year, $28.5 million contract for offensive lineman Ezra Cleveland is a much cheaper deal, according to reports.
On Thursday evening, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk pulled back the curtain on many aspects of the contract and revealed it’s actually a three-year, $24 million deal with another $3.5 million available through incentives. Over The Cap corroborated that report with a breakdown of the deal that shows it’ll be cheap for the Jaguars.
The important details to know are that:
- Cleveland will count just $3,591,176 against the Jaguars’ salary cap in 2024 and $5.2 million in 2025 before the number climbs to $9.95 million in 2026. The deal is also set to carry a $5.2 million dead money hit in 2027, despite automatically voiding after the 2026 season.
- Parting with Cleveland in the next two years isn’t much of an option for the Jaguars, who would incur significant dead money charges if they released him. Jacksonville could, however, release Cleveland in the 2026 offseason to save $2.55 million (or $7.75 million with a post-June 1 designation) of cap space.
- Cleveland would need to 90 percent of the Jaguars’ offensive snaps and the team would need to make the playoffs three straight years for the offensive lineman to get the maximum of $27.5 million.
With Cleveland counting just $8.8 million against the Jaguars’ salary cap in the next two years combined, he’ll account for less than two percent of the team’s cap through the 2025 season.
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