Russell Street Report Salary Cap Full Breakdown of Webb’s New Deal

Finally, CB Lardarius Webb’s contract restructure has been processed and the final numbers are known – and those numbers look even better than expected for the Ravens and their Salary Cap.

According to Aaron Wilson of The Baltimore Sun:

Lardarius Webb’s new salary-cap figures in restructured dealt: $9.25 million, $9.5 million and $7.5 million, salaries $2.25M, $5.5M, $5.5M — Aaron Wilson (@RavensInsider) March 24, 2015

Lardarius Webb’s $2.25M salary 2015 full gtd, gets $3M roster bonus April, $750K in incentives this year, $500K incentives 2016, 2017 — Aaron Wilson (@RavensInsider) March 24, 2015

Prior to the restructure, the breakdown of Webb’s contract was as follows:

After the restructure, the final 3 years of Webb’s deal now break down like this:

Now, there are incentives of $750K (2015), $500K (2016) and $500K (2017), that are reportedly based on playing time and team qualifiers, which are classified as “not likely to be earned” (NLTBE) and don’t presently count against the Cap. If earned, those will ultimately count, but as a base deal, Webb’s restructure saves the team $2.75M (2015), $2.5M (2016) and $3M (2017) in Cap space each year versus what he was to count under his prior deal. That’s potentially a total savings of $8.25M over the remaining years of the deal.

Even if Webb reaches all of his incentives, he would only earn $18M over the next 3 years versus the $24.5M he would have earned under his prior deal.

Again, a pretty good deal for the Ravens.

While it was initially thought that Webb’s $3M bonus would be a “signing” bonus (which would have prorated and counted $1M each year on the 2015-2017 Caps), it turns out that the Ravens gave Webb a “roster” bonus, which all counts on the 2015 Cap. That means that while Webb’s 2015 Cap number is higher than it could have been, the Ravens have not added any potential future “dead money” onto the 2016 and 2017 Caps.

With that said, though, the timing of the payment of the roster bonus (in early April), as opposed to paying it immediately, does make one wonder if the Ravens are leaving open the option to convert that roster bonus into a signing bonus (thus prorating the $3M over the next 3 years at $1M each year), thereby creating an additional $2M in Cap space if they feel the need to have a bit more Cap space over the next couple of weeks.

So, all in all, a very nice deal for the Ravens – with some added flexibility to boot.