Tag: roster bonus

Chargers WRs Keenan Allen, Mike Williams restructure contracts

The Chargers restructured the contracts of receivers Keenan Allen and Mike Williams, saving nearly $14.5 million in cap space.

The Chargers’ salary cap situation got a bit of relief on Thursday when the team restructured the contracts of receivers Keenan Allen and Mike Williams to save nearly $14.5 million heading into free agency.

Even with this move, the Chargers still have work to do to get under the cap threshold before the regular season. Their decision to convert Allen and Williams’ salaries to bonuses is a swisemove by Los Angeles’ front office, though the increased flexibility won’t come without some strings attached.

Allen and Williams are effectively un-cuttable in this arrangement, and the team is fully committed to keeping both receivers on the roster through the end of the 2023 season. Should they need to part ways with either player, they would absorb the entirety of the bonus money against their salary cap, causing massive dead-money numbers that would not be able to be recouped.

While this risk certainly seems worth the reward at this juncture, the Chargers will need to do everything in their power to ensure that this move doesn’t come back to bite them throughout the 2023 season. Having their top two wideouts on the roster is undoubtedly an advantage for Los Angeles. Still, situations and circumstances will need to play into their favor to ensure that their decisions in March don’t affect their ability to contend in December and January.

Keeping Michael Thomas could cost the Saints more than $60 million in 2024

Keeping Michael Thomas could cost the Saints more than $60 million in 2024, making it even more likely that a split is coming this offseason:

Woof. If there were any doubts about the future for Michael Thomas and the New Orleans Saints, this should put them to rest. NewOrleans.Football’s Nick Underhill reports that there are additional wrinkles to the reworked contract Thomas and the Saints agreed to last week — if Thomas is active for at least four games with New Orleans in 2023, it will trigger a $30 million bonus for 2024. That’s in addition to the $31 million roster bonus the Saints moved from the 2023 salary cap calendar over to 2024, which becomes fully guaranteed in March, on the eve of free agency.

So that makes it even more likely that Thomas will be released before that $31 million comes into effect. The Saints moved that money around at the end of the 2022 season to beat an NFL deadline for restructuring contracts with a post-June 1 cut designation in mind, which lowered the salary cap hit owed for Thomas until a point where the Saints can shed as much of it as possible. That doesn’t necessarily mean Thomas is out in New Orleans (it’s possible he and the Saints circle back and restructure it yet again), but that is the likeliest outcome.

And there’s no way Thomas will be on the team next year if he’s going to singlehandedly account for $60 million or more in the season that follows. Again, the Saints could sneak in another contract tweak at the last minute to keep him on the squad for 2023, but don’t bet on it. All of these moves indicate that they’re preparing for a split this offseason, giving Thomas new opportunities elsewhere and opening up resources for the Saints to invest in other players.

It’s a shame things got to this point, but injuries and frustrating surgeries have derailed the career of someone who was on track to be one of the greatest to ever do it in black and gold. Hopefully Thomas can heal up, return to form, and find more success in the NFL — just, not at the Saints’ expense. Stay tuned for developments on this front as the offseason continues.

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