Official: Bears sign Roquan Smith

[UOK]

ProFootballTalk @ProFootballTalk
8m
Per source, Bears and LB Roquan Smith did a deal after reaching a compromise on how guarantees will void. Story explaining the specifics coming at PFT.

[UOK]

Per a source with knowledge of the deal, the two sides agreed to a specific formula that gives Smith protection against most of the potential incidents that would arise while he is in uniform and on a football field. As to anything that could happen during a play (for example, lowering the helmet, unnecessary roughness, illegal hit on a defenseless receiver, roughing the quarterback), Smith’s guarantees void only if the league office imposes a suspension of three games or more.

Smith can be suspended one or two games for a violation of the rules that apply during a given play with no consequence to his future guarantees. He can be suspended one or two games multiple times with no consequence to his future guarantees. Smith loses the guarantees only if a suspension of three or more games is imposed on him. (Over the last decade, that’s happened to only one player: Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict.)

As to a potential suspension arising from something happening after a play, Smith’s guaranteed money will not void if he’s suspended for one game for an incident that occurs while defending himself or a teammate. While it’s possible that a disagreement could emerge — and an arbitration may be needed — as to whether Smith was or wasn’t the aggressor in a given situation, the Bears yielded on their prior position that they should have discretion to decide whether to void guarantees based on a post-play incident. Instead, Smith’s guarantees will void only if he’s suspended two games for a post-play infraction, or if he’s deemed to be the aggressor as to an incident resulting in a one-game suspension.

In the end, the Bears found a way to keep the possibility of voiding the guarantees in play, and Smith received enough protection to make the possibility of an actual voiding of the guarantees unlikely. So it’s a win-win. The only loss is that it took so long to get to this point.

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2 ... uarantees/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

TL;DR:

Guarantees only void if:

-3+ game suspension for something during a play
-2+ game suspension for on-field after a play where he is defending a teammate or not the aggressor
-1+ game suspension for on-field after a play where he is the aggressor

[Z Bear]

The article mentions future guarantees. If I am reading that correctly the Bears can not pay him any future guarantees if he is suspended longer than the 3-2-1 depending on the type of incident. What future guarantees would be in a rookie deal of significant value? I thought most rookie deals only had the signing bonus as guaranteed money. If so....all of this was over literally nothing.

[Knuckles]

UOK... Actually pretty fair all around deal IMHO. So long as he's not a psychopath like Burfict trying to kill a player he will get paid. I watched all of Smiths highlight vids and game tape again man he's going to be fun to watch. He did have quite a few plays where it was borderline a helmet penalty though and I was thinking to myself man it's going to be a frustrating season IF any of those amazing plays are penalized. If you watched most of the preseason games so far there's been similar plays flagged with absolutely no consistency. It was good for him to work a deal with that alone.

[Knuckles]

The article mentions future guarantees. If I am reading that correctly the Bears can not pay him any future guarantees if he is suspended longer than the 3-2-1 depending on the type of incident. What future guarantees would be in a rookie deal of significant value? I thought most rookie deals only had the signing bonus as guaranteed money. If so....all of this was over literally nothing.

The helm rule is going to cost players a ton of cash this year and he wont lose a penny so long as he doesn't do something real stupid.

[UOK]

The article mentions future guarantees. If I am reading that correctly the Bears can not pay him any future guarantees if he is suspended longer than the 3-2-1 depending on the type of incident. What future guarantees would be in a rookie deal of significant value? I thought most rookie deals only had the signing bonus as guaranteed money. If so....all of this was over literally nothing.

This isn't a simple thing.

Here's something I read at SBNation that may help (Eagles writer):

https://www.bleedinggreennation.com/201 ... -contracts" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Most NFL contracts can consist of the following components:

Salary
Guarantees
Options
Signing Bonuses

Let’s talk about each of those, and then we’ll talk a bit more about the salary cap.

Salary

Salary is just the amount the player is paid for the year. All salary dollars go onto the cap for that year. So let's take a simple example:

4-year contract, $5 million salary each year. This is a contract for 4 years, $20 million, with a $5 million cap hit each year. Easy peasy.

But they could just as easily move the salaries around like this:

Year 1 - $1 million

Year 2 - $4 million

Year 3 - $8 million

Year 4 - $7 million

That’s still a 4y/$20m contract. It just distributes the salaries and the cap hit each year. Teams set numbers up like this often to deal with their cap situation. So, in the above example, year 1 is likely a low salary/cap hit because the team is tight on salary cap space for that season.

Guaranteed Money

Teams can guarantee money in a contract. It can result in some weird-looking language in the contract, but at the end of the day, guarantees are just about what level of security you are offering the player, and what level of risk the team is taking on. So, you could end up with this:

4-year contract, $5 million salary each year, $10 million guaranteed (first two years fully guaranteed)

Guarantees can be as simple or complex as they want, so you can get that weird stuff like "first year salary fully guaranteed, $2m of second year guaranteed, $6m guaranteed if player is on the roster on March 15, etc.". But at the end of the day, the larger the guaranteed money, the more the player likes it, and the more risk the team is assuming. Looking at guaranteed money is an easy way to gauge "team escapability," meaning, "If the team needed to get out of this contract, what’s the minimum amount they would end up having to pay?"

This is why people tell you to look at the guaranteed money in a contract, because that’s the best way to assess how risky a contract is for a team. In the above example (4/$20m, $10m guaranteed), it's a $20 million contract, which will get flashed all over the news. But the team can get out of that after only $10m if they need to. Whereas you look at Cousins’ new deal. It's only 3 years, but it's like $87m ALL guaranteed. Which means that if he stinks to high heaven or breaks his back in his first game, they still have to pay every penny of that $87m. (Actually, they probably have insurance that would pay some or all of that out if he had a serious injury, but that’s a separate topic.)

Options

Teams can make contract years "team options." Basically that means the team has the choice of whether to keep that player for that year, or let them go without owing them the money for that year. It’s a way for teams to keep control over talented players longer, but minimize the risk if the player goes downhill or something. Players often take these deals because they have confidence in their abilities and believe they will play well enough to get that extra money. (Personally, I think this is like candy from a baby for good GMs. You have a bunch of macho, aggressive, confident young men, it’s relatively easy to sell them on "Do you have confidence in yourself?")

I’m not sure if there are player option years in the NFL. I know they have them in MLB. But the idea is similar, it’s just a way for the team to potentially entice a player to sign a contract knowing they could possibly get more out of it in the long run, the team is just taking on the risk in this case. This would typically be used when you’re trying to lure a player to your team when you don’t have a ton of leverage. In MLB there can be mutual options too. (If both player and team agree, the next year of the contract goes into effect.)

So if you look at the Bradham deal again with all of this information:

It was touted as a 5-year, $40 million deal. But if you look at the info we’ve learned about the contract, the last three years are option years, and he is only guaranteed $14m. So, effectively, from a risk perspective, the Eagles can get out of this after 2 years and $14m, with no cap penalties, which is extremely low risk for them. Even moreso, they can get out after 1 year and $8m, although that would incur a $6m "dead cap hit". (We haven’t talked about that yet.)

Bonuses

There are a variety of bonuses available to GMs in constructing a contract. We won't go over all of them here. But broadly, bonuses are used to make a deal more favorable for the GM and/or more attractive for a player in two ways:

Players want signing bonuses, because money now is better than money later.
GMs can often restructure contracts by converting salary into bonus money, and we will see that this allows GMs to manipulate the cap.

We'll talk about two types of bonuses here: signing bonuses and roster bonuses.

Signing Bonuses

Teams can offer signing bonuses to players. Signing bonuses are part of what makes cap management tricky. Signing bonuses are fully guaranteed, and the cap hit is spread across the life of the contract. That’s the key impact. So, example:

4-year contract, $5 million salary each year, $10 million bonus

Year 1 - $5m salary, $7.5m cap hit ($5m salary + $2.5 mil from bonus)

Year 2 - $5m salary, $7.5m cap hit ($5m salary + $2.5 mil from bonus)

Year 3 - $5m salary, $7.5m cap hit ($5m salary + $2.5 mil from bonus)

Year 4 - $5m salary, $7.5m cap hit ($5m salary + $2.5 mil from bonus)

By the way, this wouldn’t be a very typical structure. Usually the numbers vary through the life of the contract. If the team is trying to clear space like we are due to being close to the cap, the numbers typically start low and increase. If a team has ample cap space and anticipates being in trouble later, it might start high and decrease.

If you look at Bradham’s new contract, his cap hit for next season is a paltry $2m. That was done because we are tight against the cap.

[G08]

[Knuckles]

Well he's officially signed LINK

[UOK]

Fuck yeah.

[G08]

Just stay healthy kid, I want to see you flying all over the fucking field this year.

[Mikefive]

UOK... Actually pretty fair all around deal IMHO. So long as he's not a psychopath like Burfict trying to kill a player he will get paid. I watched all of Smiths highlight vids and game tape again man he's going to be fun to watch. He did have quite a few plays where it was borderline a helmet penalty though and I was thinking to myself man it's going to be a frustrating season IF any of those amazing plays are penalized. If you watched most of the preseason games so far there's been similar plays flagged with absolutely no consistency. It was good for him to work a deal with that alone.

Assuming the posted information is correct, I agree. The Bears got what they wanted... Protection from paying a player doing really stupid malicious stuff. At the same time, Roquan gets protected from losing $$$ over stuff where he was playing football and there was a judgement call against him.

But couldn't we have worked this out earlier than now?

[UOK]

Just stay healthy kid, I want to see you flying all over the fucking field this year.

Let this quoted post apply to the entire roster.

[Knuckles]

[

But couldn't we have worked this out earlier than now?

I figured they would have ended the hold out after the HOF game seeing it was just a glorified scrimmage for 3-4th stringers but I guess it took one more week to get the Bears to budge before the fans went ballistic.

[Road]

All I can say is, it's about damn time.
I understand it's a business and all but it still pisses me off when 1st round rookies miss half of training camp.
Get to work Roquan!

[skamanfrank]

At llllaaaaaaaaast.

Wow, that's a good thing and to echo what's already been said, it seems like a pretty fair deal all round. I'm glad that the Bears didn't yield everything because that would have been an ugly precedent to set.

However, the issue of whether or not he is the aggressor in a given scenario sounds like it could be an extremely ambiguous and contentious point further down the line should it ever happen.

[docc]

So..Rockon Smith..

[UOK]

Smith already getting reps with the first team defense.

[GSH]

bye timu

[Z Bear]

Timu should go into coaching. He seems to have the instincts but he can't do anything with them do to his slowness. Even if they put the old IR red shirt on Iggy this season Timu would be 5th behind Anderson.

[Sugashane]

Timu should go into coaching. He seems to have the instincts but he can't do anything with them do to his slowness. Even if they put the old IR red shirt on Iggy this season Timu would be 5th behind Anderson.

I always thought Hunter Hillenmeyer would be a great coach. I remember Urlacher talking about how the defensive coaches had assignment points per play. If you were in the spot you needed to be in you'd get the point, if you wandered out of your assigned zone you didn't. Urlacher said Hunter almost always beat him and Briggs. Tank Johnson said he was the smartest guy on the team. Kreutz use to poke fun at him for having all the degrees but doing the same thing as him. Players on the team seemed to love him, even the guys wanting his spot.

Hell he made fun of Briggs because he made more money than him, knowing Briggs was going to get a big deal the next year and it was his only chance. lol

[G08]

Super. Precedent set and I'm beginning to wonder more and more if Pace is a bit of a sucker when it comes to these negotiations.

<Insert someone jumping to conclusions by thinking I'm referring to the trade up for Trubisky>

Do you need a hug?

@AdamHoge
Trevathan on the language in his next contract: "Oh I'm going to be talking. I'm definitely going to put it in there. Yeah, implement some stuff. Just a little fine-tuning. On the field, you got to fine-tune some things. Upstairs you gotta fine-tune some things."

[The Marshall Plan]

Your Biscuit avatar is awesome.

[UOK]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/fo ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Roquan Smith ran fine in his first padded practice as an NFL player.

He sprinkled in with the reserves during team drills and usually called the play in the huddle. There were a couple of plays on which Smith ranged from the middle to near the sideline, something we got accustomed to seeing in spring practices.

Beyond that, it’s impossible for us to know for sure whether Smith was sound in his assignments. He was asked after practice how often he found himself in the right spot and wrong spot.

“I remember a lot of the defense,” he said. “I had my tablet when I was back in Georgia, so I was watching a lot of film and stuff like that. It’s not like it’s my first time seeing some of the defensive calls.”

OK, so that didn’t exactly answer the question. On one play in team drills, Smith and safety Deon Bush ran to the flat to cover the same tight end. An educated guess is one of them was not supposed to be there.

On several plays in team drills and seven-on-seven, Smith’s ability to change directions was challenged by multiple crossing routes in front of him. For example, a tight end would cross his face going one way, then a running back would cross his face the other way. Smith was agile enough, and he’ll play faster and recognize things better as he builds experience. He’s behind in that regard.

[G08]

Your Biscuit avatar is awesome.

Kid is dripping in swag

[The Marshall Plan]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/fo ... story.html

Roquan Smith ran fine in his first padded practice as an NFL player.

He sprinkled in with the reserves during team drills and usually called the play in the huddle. There were a couple of plays on which Smith ranged from the middle to near the sideline, something we got accustomed to seeing in spring practices.

Beyond that, it’s impossible for us to know for sure whether Smith was sound in his assignments. He was asked after practice how often he found himself in the right spot and wrong spot.

“I remember a lot of the defense,” he said. “I had my tablet when I was back in Georgia, so I was watching a lot of film and stuff like that. It’s not like it’s my first time seeing some of the defensive calls.”

OK, so that didn’t exactly answer the question. On one play in team drills, Smith and safety Deon Bush ran to the flat to cover the same tight end. An educated guess is one of them was not supposed to be there.

On several plays in team drills and seven-on-seven, Smith’s ability to change directions was challenged by multiple crossing routes in front of him. For example, a tight end would cross his face going one way, then a running back would cross his face the other way. Smith was agile enough, and he’ll play faster and recognize things better as he builds experience. He’s behind in that regard.

He just had to mention the tablet didn't he?

[G08]

Bears Insider
‏

@bears_insider
5m5 minutes ago
More
#Bears top pick Roquan Smith exited Tuesday’s practice early with tightness in his left hamstring, according to Matt Nagy.

Dan Wiederer
‏

@danwiederer
33s34 seconds ago
More
Roquan Smith did very little on the field today at Bears practice. Matt Nagy says Roquan is dealing with a hamstring injury. Far from ideal.

Exactly what happened with Joey Bosa, per Waddle and Silvy.

It's almost -- ALMOST -- as if some of us actually worried about this!

[The Marshall Plan]

How in the fuck did he injure his hamstring?

[mmmc_35]

So Bears-ish

[G08]

I had a meatball sub for dinner (true story) in honor of UOK.

[mmmc_35]

I was going to grill burgers but might need to get a meatball sub