"Mike Brown is cheap"
https://www.spotrac.com/news/breakin...xtension-2013/
Breaking Down Joe Burrow's $275M Extension
Joe Burrow (hilariously) interrupted the NFL Kickoff Opener Thursday night with news of his brand new 5 year, $275,000,000 extension with the Bengals. Burrow scores a $40M pay raise this year, with a whopping $146.5M fully guaranteed at signing ($111M of new guarantee).
THE AVERAGE ANNUAL VALUE
Burrow didn’t just surpass Justin Herbert’s $52.5M per year - he blew by it. His $55M per year represents 24.4% of the current NFL Salary Cap ($224.8M), the highest percentage of cap in NFL history.
Three years ago, Patrick Mahomes’ $45M per year was the top number. Mahomes now ranks 8th on that list, with 4 players north of $50M per year (and that includes Aaron Rodgers taking himself OUT of that group).
THE CAP FLOW
The Bengals utilized a SIX BONUS structure with this extension: A $40M signing bonus, a $55M 2nd year option bonus, 3 consecutive $10M option bonus, and a final $5M option bonus in the 2028 season.
For the most part, this keeps the upfront cap hits relatively tenable, with a slight need for salary conversion coming in 2025/2026, and an excessive figure in the final season.
Annual Cap Allocations
2023: $19.5M
2024: $29.7M
2025: $46.25M
2026: $48.25M
2027: $52.25M
2028: $53.5M
2029: $68.5M
2030: $9M (dead)
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
Many, ourselves included, wondered if Joe Burrow would take the Peyton Manning approach (max out) or the Tom Brady approach with this rookie extension. Quite obviously he chose the former here.
The Bengals haven’t put together a contract like this in the history of their franchise, historically not fully guaranteeing any future salary - often not even for injury purposes. They haven’t been “cheap” in terms of overall payouts, but they’ve been frugal when it comes to the stability of their contracts.
There’s not a soul who can claim that about this Joe Burrow extension. It’s rock solid through 2027, with a bit of an out prior to the 2028 season, and a definitive one before 2029. Cincinnati will be sticking more than $100M into escrow with this deal (fully guaranteed cash not paid out in 2023), proving they’re on board for whatever it takes to keep this elite QB1 in town for as long as possible.