Tavaris Jackson’s Contract And How It Affect’s The Cap
In case you haven’t heard, the Seattle Seahawks have officially re-signed Tavaris Jackson. He’ll be back as Russell Wilson’s backup for the third-consecutive season.
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His contract is a one-year deal worth a guaranteed $1.5 million. He’s getting a $250,000 signing bonus, and a base salary of $1.25 million. He made $ 1.25 million last year.
How does this affect the Seahawks off-season salary cap for 2015? Remember that during the offseason it’s only the top 51 contracts that count. So when we add Jackson’s $1.5 million to the cap we have to remove whoever the current 51 is and bump him outside the top 51, to 52.
The player that Jackson is replacing is Gary Gilliam. He has a current cap hit of $514,000 next year. $510,000 in base salary and $4,000 in signing bonus pro-ration. The 4,000 stays regardless if he is in the top 51 or not.
So when you add Jackson’s $1.5 million and remove Gilliam’s $510,000 you get a total cap increase of $990,000 for adding Jackson. This is a pretty sweet deal for the Seahawks since the average salary for veteran back up quarterbacks is much higher.
Seattle’s top two quarterbacks have a combined cap hit of about $3.2 million. Former Seahawk Matt Hasslebeck has a cap hit of $3 million by himself for the Indianapolis Colts.
This is where the patience of John Schneider has really paid off. He didn’t panic and just waited Jackson out. Once Jackson realized that his other options were gone, the Seahawks were able to get him back on a very team-friendly deal.
Hopefully the $3.2 number is only short-term and the Seahawks are able to strike a long-term deal with Wilson. If they are to come to terms it should only add one-fifth of his signing bonus to the cap hit this year. If the bonus was $20 million then it adds $4 million go the cap. $25 million adds $5 million go the cap and so on.
Let the six-week countdown start to training camp. Go Hawks!
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