Tag: contract

Oklahoma administration offers support for Sooners head coach Brent Venables

Speaking at the OU Board of Regents meeting, Joseph Harroz and Joe Castiglione offered Brent Venables a vote of confidence.

The Oklahoma Sooners have had a disappointing season to say the least. 5-5 is unacceptable at the University of Oklahoma regardless of the conference one plays in. Sure, the SEC is a different challenge than what the Big 12 has offered in recent years, but head coach Brent Venables and his staff knew what was coming, and the result this season hasn’t lived up to expectations.

The Sooners most recent loss to Missouri felt like arguably the most disappointing of the season. With a lead at halftime and then again in the final two minutes, Oklahoma watched the win slip through their grasp. Now, the Sooners are staring at a potential second losing season in three years under head coach Brent Venables.

But as the hot seat turns up, Oklahoma president Joseph Harroz and athletic director Joe Castiglione offered support for their head coach. At Tuesday’s OU Board of Regents meeting, Harroz and Castiglione were asked about their confidence in Venables.

“It’s unwavering right now,” Harroz told media members. “We know it’s been a tough season. I’ve been around Oklahoma Football for a long time. We have the right coach. This is our coach. We knew it was going to be a tough year going to the SEC, the first year. You add that with all of the things that are taking place around the shifting NIL landscape, with hopefully more certainty coming next year if the preliminary approval becomes final in the lawsuit. We knew there was going to be some turbulence. Obviously, we’d love to have more wins, but our confidence in the coach is as steady as it’s ever been.”

Harroz went on to share with The Oklahoman that his confidence in Venables is at “100%.”

The season has certainly had it’s share of issues from injuries to staff changes to inexperience on the offensive side of the ball. Castiglione is aware of the challenges Venables and his staff have faced.

“I believe in Brent,” Castiglione shared with The Oklahoman. “He’s gone up against the best offensive coordinators that college football has seen as a defensive coordinator. He understands, as any head coach would, what makes teams tough to defend, and we want to be focused on hiring a coach that can assemble the strategy to make our offense one of the toughest to defend in college football.

“You do that with getting the right coaches to identify the right talent and teach and develop them. Put the team in a position to be successful and play complementary football. Because we’ve seen all of the time how important that is to win games, especially in a very, very challenging league like the SEC. But we want to continue to have our sights set on being among the best in the SEC and beyond.”

The Oklahoma Sooners won’t likely reach a bowl game in 2024 unless they can find an offense over the final three weeks of the regular season. With games against Alabama and LSU remaining after the bye, the Sooners are on track for their worst season since 1998.

Brent Venables and the Sooners will have a number of important decisions to make this offseason. From the offensive coordinator to their quarterback situation. Venables has to get this offseason right.

Jonathon Cooper’s contract is even better than initially reported

Jonathon Cooper’s contract is worth an average of $13.5 million per season, even better than the initially-reported $15M per year.

When news broke earlier this week that pass rusher Jonathon Cooper signed a contract extension with the Denver Broncos, it was reported as a four-year, $60 million deal. That would average out to about $15 million per season, a very reasonable price for a productive edge defender.

It turns out that the deal was even better than initially reported (agents have a tendency to leak the “max value” of their clients’ deals). Cooper’s four-year extension is worth $54 million, giving him an average yearly salary of $13.5 million. He could earn an additional $6 million through incentives.

Cooper probably could have waited until the spring and earned more in free agency, but he wanted to stay in Denver.

“The process was pretty quick, easy and simple,” Cooper said of negotiating his second contract in the NFL. “I have really good agents and the people across the team, they like them. The process went really smooth, and I felt like I didn’t need to take it any further than what it was because I love this program. I love this team. I love the organization, and I just felt like I didn’t need to go any further and signing it there in the hotel, it just worked out as well as it could.”

Cooper received a $6,025,168 signing bonus that will be prorated as $1,225,168 cap hits in each of the next five seasons, according to OverTheCap.com. He also has a $4 million roster bonus due next spring and $510,000 game-day bonuses in each of the next four seasons.

Here’s a look at Cooper’s base salaries and cap hits from 2025-2028, courtesy of OTC:

2025: $5,635,000 / $11,345,000
2026: $11,490,000 / $13,200,000
2027: $12,990,000 / $14,700,000
2028: $12,990,000 / $14,700,000

Cooper gets a well-deserved raise with more than $16.7 million guaranteed and the Broncos got a team-friendly deal by getting the extension done before free agency. It worked out well for both sides.

“I’m very proud of ‘Coop’” cornerback Pat Surtain said this week. “When you talk about a guy who came in with the right approach, right work ethic and everything along the lines of becoming a great player, that’s him. Him being a seventh-round pick and going through the roster this and that — for him to be able to secure that contract is huge to him. I’m very proud of him.”

Cooper, 26, is tied with Nik Bonitto for the team lead in sacks over the last two seasons (14). After leading the club with 8.5 sacks last fall, Cooper is now on pace for the first double-digit sack season of his career in 2024. He deserves of penny of the new deal.

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Jonathon Cooper thankful, humble after getting new deal from Broncos

Jonathon Cooper fell to the seventh round of the 2021 draft before landing with the Broncos. “It all worked out the way it was supposed to.”

Jonathon Cooper had his NFL draft stock fall in 2021 after a pre-draft EKG revealed a heart irregularity. Cooper had known since high school that he had a Wolff-Parkinson-White heart condition, and that likely explained — at least in part — why he fell all the way to the seventh round in the NFL draft four years ago.

After being picked by the Broncos — who were aware of the condition — Cooper underwent surgery to help correct the irregularity. Fifty-six games in the NFL later, Cooper now has 38 quarterback hits and 18.5 sacks on his resume.

Denver rewarded Cooper’s production with a four-year, $60 million contract extension over the weekend. The humble pass rusher addressed the media for the first time after the news of his new deal broke earlier this week.

“I just want to start off by saying thank you to God,” Cooper said at his press conference on Wednesday. “Thank you to this organization, to Greg [Penner] and Carrie [Walton Penner], George [Paton], all of my coaches, head coach Sean Payton, everybody here that contributed [and] to the Broncos for believing in me. [I] just wanted to state that first and foremost, how thankful I am.”

Cooper’s heart condition likely cost him a few rounds during the 2021 draft, but he believes it all worked out the way it was supposed to.

“It was a tough process with the draft process and everything like that,” Cooper said. “I’m sure without that medical flag, I probably would have went a little bit higher. Honestly, it all worked out the way it was supposed to.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity than to come here and to get that call from George [Paton]. It was just awesome. Even looking back at that, it all worked out the way it was supposed to, so [I’m] really not upset or mad about it. Just know that it’s time to get back to work.”

Payton was pleased to see the pass rusher get a new deal that will keep him with the team through the 2028 season.

“I’m excited for him,” Payton said. “He’s tough, he’s competitive. I think he’s a really good teammate. We have a lot of these guys that are. You know exactly the physicality you’re getting with a player. Well, you guys know him, so he certainly deserved it.”

Up next for Cooper and Co. is a tough road game against the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday. Cooper has 2.5 sacks in six career games against the Chiefs, but just one win against them. He’ll aim to build on both of those totals this weekend.

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Broncos’ 2021 draft class is paying off big time

The Broncos picked Pat Surtain, Quinn Meinerz and Jonathon Cooper in the 2021 NFL draft. They’re now all signed through at least 2028.

The Denver Broncos made 10 picks in the 2021 NFL draft. Half of those players started for the team this season, and at least three of them will remain core players for the foreseeable future.

The Broncos used their first-round pick that year to select cornerback Pat Surtain, who received a four-year, $96 million contract extension in September. The team’s second-round pick was running back Javonte Williams, who remains Denver’s starting RB.

In the third round, the Broncos picked guard Quinn Meinerz, who signed a four-year, $80 million deal in August. In the final round of that draft, Denver picked pass rusher Jonathon Cooper. He received a four-year, $60 million extension earlier this week.

That’s three players at three key positions — cornerback, pass rusher and offensive line — who are now signed through at least the 2028 season. Broncos rookie quarterback Bo Nix also has a fifth-year option in his contract for 2028.

Building through the draft is the most sustainable way to build a winning roster in the NFL and three years later, Denver’s 2021 class is paying off.

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How trading Marshon Lattimore impacts the Saints salary cap

How does trading Marshon Lattimore impact the Saints salary cap? There’s little change this year, but they have to take their medicine in 2025:

The New Orleans Saints shifted gears and finally traded star cornerback Marshon Lattimore this week, just before the NFL trade deadline, sending thee playmaker to the Washington Commanders in exchange for multiple draft picks. But that isn’t the only cost of trading him. How did this move impact the Saints’ tense salary cap situation?

In brief, this will be felt for years. There isn’t much of a difference on 2024’s accounting since we’re in the middle of the season. Washington is paying the rest of Lattimore’s salary, saving the Saints about $605,000, but since he restructured his contract already they’re stuck with most of the dead money from those guarantees.

Let’s start with the bad news. The Saints are taking their medicine in 2025 with Lattimore counting against the cap by a whopping $31.6 million. Next year’s salary cap is projected to rise to about $273.3 million, but we won’t know the final number until the offseason. If it doesn’t move at all (it won’t), Lattimore’s dead money figure would take up 12.4% of this year’s cap, which was set at $255.4 million. If models are accurate, it’ll be almost 11.6% of the cap next year in 2025.

But the Saints shaved off more than $28 million from their 2026 salary cap spending. The cap is projected to reach as high as $292.4 million by then, which means their current cap commitments (about $237.9 million) are well beneath the spending limit. Inevitable restructures, free agent signings, and the next draft class will change that figure but so will any retirements and roster cuts this spring. We’re talking two years out so of course there’s going to be a lot of uncertainty.

This is a step in the right direction. The Saints didn’t get better by trading their best defender (if not their best player regardless of position), but their finances are going to improve. So is their ability to retain talent and sign upgrades in free agency. This is what a rebuild looks like. It isn’t pretty, and it won’t wrap up overnight. But the Saints tried the alternative — which blew up in their faces by hiring the wrong head coach and drafting the wrong players. So now they have to take the long, hard road back to success.

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Za’Darius Smith contract gives the Lions options with their new EDGE

Za’Darius Smith’s current 2-year contract gives the Lions options with their new EDGE

The Detroit Lions have a new pass rusher on the defense in EDGE Za’Darius Smith. Lions GM Brad Holmes pulled the trigger on a trade that sends two Day 3 picks to the Cleveland Browns for the 32-year-old Smith, plus a 2026 seventh-round pick, in return.

Smith should play extensively as the most accomplished pass rusher on the Lions roster. And he comes affordable for the rest of the 2024 season; Detroit is responsible for just $605,000 for the remainder of this year, with the Browns eating over $4.5 million in dead cap room.

The rest of Smith’s two-year, $23 million contract that runs through 2025 is now Detroit’s responsibility, and it’s a little complex. That’s because there are some options and void years that complicate it, though the Lions have options and control over how to handle them.

Smith has a base salary of a very affordable $1.2 million for the 2025 season and it’s not guaranteed. However, there is a $2 million bonus due on the third day of the 2025 NFL calendar. There is also a per-game bonus of $510,000 baked into the contract, as well as four void years at the end of Smith’s contract.

The Lions can keep the contract as-is, but that seems unlikely given the higher cap hits that assuming the void years and bonus structure creates: $5.4 million in 2025 and $5.6 million in 2026.

Because nothing is guaranteed after the 2024 season, the Lions could walk away from that deal, cut Smith and take on no dead cap room. They could also agree to a new deal with Smith in the offseason, one that would provide some guaranteed money to the defensive end but less long-term cap hit to make a more appealing contractual marriage for 2025. That, of course, depends on how well Smith fits into the Lions culture and defense for the rest of the 2024 campaign.

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Broncos kept Jonathon Cooper’s contract quiet, but there was a clue

The Broncos kept Jonathon Cooper’s contract extension quiet, but there was a clue on social media.

The Denver Broncos made a statement last Saturday when they gave outside linebacker Jonathon Cooper a four-year, $60 million contract extension. With that deal, Denver declared that Cooper is the team’s top pass rusher going forward. That declaration was made quietly, though.

Perhaps not wanting to upset any trade talks, the Broncos did not leak Cooper’s extension until after they agreed to trade fellow outside linebacker Baron Browning to the Arizona Cardinals on Monday.

With both players scheduled to become free agents in 2025, Denver opted to keep Cooper instead of Browning. That decision was made official with Cooper’s extension on Saturday, but the team kept it quiet while finalizing the Browning trade.

There was a social media clue that the deal was done over the weekend, but nobody could be blamed for missing it (Broncos Wire didn’t notice it until after Cooper’s extension).

Cooper took to Twitter/X on Sunday evening to respond to Devin Jackson’s three-year-old story about Cooper’s football journey.

“I don’t usually look up articles of myself or read them if it’s positive but I just wanted to say thank you for this and thank you for helping me remember where I came from,” Cooper tweeted Jackson on Sunday.

After getting an extension, it seems that Cooper was reflecting back on his journey to the NFL. That was perhaps the first public clue that the pass rusher had received an extension from the Broncos.

Denver now has Cooper signed through the 2028 season.

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Broncos sign OLB Jonathon Cooper to 4-year contract extension

The Broncos have secured Jonathon Cooper’s services with a four-year contract extension.

The Denver Broncos signed outside linebacker Jonathon Cooper to a four-year contract extension over the weekend, according to a report from ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

The four-year deal is worth $60 million and includes $33 million in guarantees, according to KUSA-TV’s Mike Klis. He’ll earn an average of $15 million per season.

The news broke shortly after the Broncos agreed to trade fellow pass rusher Baron Browning to the Arizona Cardinals on Monday.

Browning and Cooper were teammates at Ohio State and they were both picked by Denver in the 2021 NFL draft — Browning in the third round and Cooper in the seventh round.

Browning struggled with injuries during his time with the Broncos and totaled 9.5 sacks in 43 career games, with no sacks this season. Cooper exceeded expectations and recorded 18.5 sacks in 56 games, including 5.5 sacks through nine starts this season.

With both players scheduled to become free agents in 2025, it’s no surprise that Denver opted to keep Cooper. He’s been healthier and more productive than his counterpart since they entered the league four years ago.

Browning will get a fresh start in Arizona and the Broncos will move forward with Cooper, Nik Bonitto, Jonah Elliss and Dondrea Tillman. Drew Sanders could also return from the physically unable to perform list later this season.

Denver still has plenty of depth at the position, and the team’s top pass rusher is now locked up through the 2028 season.

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Report: Former Wisconsin Badger to have option declined, become free agent

Report: Former Wisconsin Badger set to have option declined, become free agent

The Washington Wizards are declining to pick up former Wisconsin Badger Johnny Davis’ team option for the 2025-26 season, according to The Athletic’s Josh Robbins.

That means Davis, who joined the Wizards as the 10th overall pick in the 2022 NBA draft, would become an unrestricted free agent.

Related: Big Ten basketball power rankings entering 2024-25 season: A first look at the expanded conference

This news doesn’t come as a huge surprise as Davis continues to struggle to establish his position at the NBA level. The shooting guard is currently playing just 5.3 minutes per game for a Wizards team that again projects to finish near the bottom of the league.

Those 5.3 minutes per game, albeit just three games into the 2024-25 season, also include averages of 0.7 points, 0.3 rebounds and 0.3 assists on 25% shooting. Those numbers are all down from his totals from the 2023-24 season — a year that saw him appear in a career-high 50 games at the NBA level.

Davis is currently listed on the Wizards depth chart behind rookies Carlton Carrington and Kyshawn George, veterans Corey Kispert and Jared Butler, and others. That, again, for a team that currently ranks No. 30 in ESPN’s latest power rankings.

Davis’ career-long NBA averages include 13 minutes per game, 3.9 points, 1.7 rebounds, 0.8 assists and 0.3 steals on 39% shooting and 28% from three. That is in 81 total games over two-plus seasons in the league.

The Wizards can still re-sign the former Badger star once he becomes an unrestricted free agent. Give his diminished role with the organization, it’s hard to see that becoming the case.

A change of scenery could be what’s necessary for the 2022 AP Big Ten Player of the Year and First-Team All-American. This will be a story worth monitoring with few former Badgers currently playing at the NBA level.

Contact/Follow @TheBadgersWire on X (formerly Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin Badgers news, notes, and opinion.

Alvin Kamara puts pen to paper on his new Saints contract extension

Alvin Kamara put pen to paper on his new Saints contract extension, emphasizing how it feels to have his loyalty reciprocated:

It’s been a big week for Alvin Kamara. The New Orleans Saints running back signed a two-year contract extension tying him to the team through 2026, giving him the opportunity to finish his career with the team that drafted  him. And for Kamara, it was great to see the loyalty he’s expressed be reciprocated.

“This city has been loyal to me. This organization has been loyal to me. I don’t feel like I would get this same feeling I get putting on the fleur-de-lis anywhere else,” Kamara told reporters this week.

Kamara did everything he could to emphasize his loyalty to the team by working hard every day at training camp (and not holding out), being a good leader and positive locker room influence, and even playing through injury.  And his efforts were recognized. Saints head coach Dennis Allen praised Kamara’s approach throughout the process.

“I think he handled it the right way,” Allen said. “He has been very productive for us and this year, he has been outstanding for us. He’s come in every day and gone to work, done the things we’ve asked him to do, so when you do those things you get rewarded.”

Now the five-time Pro Bowler gets to finish his career in black and gold. Kamara turned 29 in July and he has the rest of 2024, all of 2025 and a penultimate 2026 season to continue building his legacy. Will he keep going after that? We’ll see. But for now, this is a win for him. No wonder he was all smiles when signing his contract.

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