Courtesy of Matthew Emmons, USA Today Sports
When initial reports of guarantees and total values come out regarding NFL contracts, it’s always important to wait for the details before drawing a final conclusion.
Sure the Washington Redskins exhausting $75 million over five seasons for Josh Norman seemed to be pretty lofty. After all, it made the former Carolina Panthers cornerback the top-paid player at his position.
Add in the $50 million guaranteed, and the contract seemed to be just a bit outrageous.
Like all the contracts signed in today’s NFL, details released a day after Norman signed with Washington tells us a different story.
The deal is essentially for two years at $36.5 million guaranteed. The other $13.5 million is guaranteed for injury only and becomes fully guaranteed should Norman remain on the Redskins roster on the first day of the new league year in 2018.
Norman has a total cap hit of $28 million over the next two seasons, meaning that the Redskins would incur about an $8.5 million dead cap hit by releasing him following the 2017 season.
To be sure, Norman still received a sweet deal here. If he were to be released following the 2017 season, his average annual salary of $18 million over the first two years is over $4 million more than any other corner during that span.
His total guarantees of $50 million also ranks first among corners, about $2.6 million more than Patrick Peterson and $10 million more than Richard Sherman.