The deal also grants a base escalator of $1 million for 10 bags in 2021 and 2022 and another $1 million as a bonus. In that case, the Cardinals would count Watt for $10.6 million in dead money in 2022 if traded. The contract also contains a no-trade clause. 2021: $4.9 million2022: $15.9 million2023: $7.2 million (all the dead money as Watt`s contract goes void after the 2022 season) In the event that the Cardinals trade Watt in 2022, they would end up with the $9.6 million signing bonus prorated for the deal. The remaining money would then be paid by the team that was traded for J.J. Watt and his contract. The contract has three years of nullity. As a result, Watt`s signing bonus is prorated above the $2.4 million cap for each of the next five seasons. If the deal is canceled before the 2023 season, the Cardinals will have $7.2 million in dead money on their salary cap for 2023. What Watt pays into his bank account per year is different from how his contract affects the team`s salary cap. Considering that the Cardinals have so many free agents in key positions, this one is important from a broader perspective. For those who haven`t followed the details of the contract Watt signed with the Arizona Cardinals, what was advertised as a two-year, $31 million contract is actually a two-year, $28 million contract with $3 million in incentives available based on meeting certain bag production thresholds.
Although the contract is actually a two-year contract, the Cardinals added three empty years following the deal to keep the cap low in the early years of the deal. Given this, Watt`s contract collapsed: the structure of J.J. Watt`s contract with the Cardinals was fascinating. Of Watt`s $23 million in guarantees, $12 million is a signing bonus. There is another fully guaranteed salary of $2.5 million in 2021. That leaves $5.5 million in collateral for 2022, with an additional $3 million guarantee on the third day of the 2022 league year. Former Houston Texans defensive end JJ Watt has signed with the Arizona Cardinals ahead of next NFL season. The NFL star confirmed the news on social media, while several league insiders confirmed the details of the same.
The 31-year-old had spent 10 seasons in the NFL with the Texans before moving to the Cardinals on Tuesday. Here are the details of JJ Watt`s Cardinals contract. Watt`s contract includes a $12 million signing bonus with an underlying value of $14.5 million for Year 1. Over the two years of the transaction, Watt has an underlying value of $28 million. Therefore, Watt`s contract provides for $3 million incentives based on bags. After 10 seasons with the Houston Texans, J.J. Watt will play for another NFL team in 2021 after signing a contract with the Arizona Cardinals. Let`s take a look at Watt`s new contract and its impact on the Cardinals` salary cap for 2021.
Surprisingly (not really), the structure is very different from the original reports that circulated on the day of signing. It`s always “beware of readers” when contracts are flagged quickly. Agents are the source of these reports, and they want the stories to make them as beautiful as possible. They signed a two-year contract with defensive winger J.J. Watt that could bring in up to $31 million, including incentives. According to reports, $23 million is guaranteed. J.J. Watt signed a 2-year, $28,000,000 contract with the Arizona Cardinals, including a $12,000,000 signing bonus, a $23,000,000 guarantee, and an average annual salary of $14,000,000.
In 2021, Watt will earn a base salary of $2,500,000 and a signing bonus of $12,000,000 while carrying a cap of $4,900,000 and a dead limit value of $20,000,000. In 2021, JJ Watts asked to be fired by the Texans and signed a 2-year, $28 million contract with the Arizona Cardinals. The proportional increase in his signing bonus is $2.4 million per year, compared to the $6 million that would have been with a two-year contract. This makes its 2021 cap a fee of $4.9 million, which takes into account the $2.5 million portion of salary and bonuses. NFL Network`s Ian Rapoport and CBS Sports` Jason La Canfora revealed some of the most important points of the contract Wednesday morning. If Watt gets 10 sacks in 2021, he will receive a $1 million bonus and his contract for 2022 will increase by $1 million. If he gets 10 bags again in 2022, he will receive another $1 million bonus. Until more information is known, these incentives will be treated as “probably unearned” (NLTBE). Therefore, they will not be taken into account in the number of Watt capitalizations in 2021.
That said, with many teams running against the ceiling, it was expected that there could be agreements. This will probably remain the case, but like J.J. Watt saw it with his approval of a two-year, $31 million contract with the Arizona Cardinals, it may not be as much of a buyers` market as many expected. More than a month ago, on February 2, the Field Gulls explored several methods available to teams to aggressively use the cap space of future seasons to sign free agents for 2021. Now that the details of J.J. Watt`s contract have been released by former agent Joel Corry, it seems that teams are not hesitating to use many of these aggressive tactics. JJ Watt signed a 2-year contract with the Arizona Cardinals on March 1, 2021. The contract has an underlying value of $28 million with guarantees of $23 million. Watt received a signing bonus of $12 million, as well as a guaranteed salary in 2021 and $5.5 million in 2022. Another $3 million is guaranteed for signature injuries only.
Watt can earn an additional $3 million through incentives and escalators for bag performance. The contract also provides for 3 invalid years to allocate the capping costs for 2021/2022. Watt also has a no-trade clause. In 2023, although his contract ends, the remaining three years prorated signing bonus will be pinned to Arizona`s cap of a total of $7.2 million, according to OverTheCap. Watt and the Cardinals aren`t the first to use empty years to get under the salary cap, and since the 2021 cap goes from $198.2 million in 2020 to a likely range of $182 million to $183 million, empty years seem to be widely used this offseason in search of free agents across the league. Add to that the little capping space the Seattle Seahawks are currently considering for 2021, and there`s a chance that this is the year they become aggressive and want to take advantage of the capping machinations that allow contracts to be reloaded. On March 1, J.J. Watt signed a two-year contract with the Arizona Cardinals. The deal is worth $31 million, with $23 million guaranteed.
Of that $23 million, $20 million is guaranteed upon signing, and an additional $3 million is guaranteed for injuries. On March 3, Ian Rapoport revealed more information about the details of J.J. Watt`s contract. However, if Watt gets 10 sacks in 2021, the Cardinals will also retain the $1 million incentive bonus after a trade as dead money. In that case, the Cardinals would count Watt for $10.6 million in dead money in 2022 if traded. The Cardinals also have the option to extend J.J. Watt`s contract for the 2022 NFL season. Watt`s $28 million contract over 2 years can be broken down as follows: The Cardinals could mitigate some of the capping issues by downsizing the roster. But they can also do it by structuring contracts in a certain way. It took a few days, but the real numbers are now available on the contract defensive end J.J. Watt signed with the Cardinals. Technically, the contract signed by Watt actually has an underlying value of $35.2 million over five years.
For practical reasons, this is a two-year, $28 million base contract that has three years (2023-2025) at $2.4 million per year, which automatically becomes invalid when it is on the list on the last day of the 2022 league year. This allows the signing premium to be increased pro rata over five years instead of two years. JJ Watt`s contract guarantees the defense $20 million upon signing. This amount includes a signing bonus of $2,400,000, a salary for 2020 and an alignment bonus of $2,250,000 starting in 2022, as well as $3.5 million of his salary for 2022. $3 million of salary for 2022 is the injury reserve and will be fully guaranteed in March 2022. As a reminder, it was originally said that the two-year contract was supposed to be worth $31 million, with $23 million guaranteed. To be clear, these figures are not inaccurate. They simply don`t tell the whole story of the deal, which also includes a no-trade clause. As for the deal between JJ Watt and the Cardinals, the two sides agreed Monday on a two-year, $31 million contract, with the defensive end expected to pocket $23 million guaranteed during his time in Arizona. .