A few of you have asked about contract of running back Felix Jones, who the Pittsburgh Steelers acquired in a trade Friday with the Philadelphia Eagles in exchange for second-year linebacker Adrian Robinson so below is a quick look at it.
Jones signed one-year qualifying contract with the Eagles back in May that included a $715,000 base salary and a signing bonus of $32,500. In addition to that, Jones has another bonus due of $32,500 should he be on the week one roster. The Eagles are charged the $32,500 signing bonus as dead money for 2013 due to them trading Jones, so thanks to the terms of a veteran qualifying contract, Jones will only count $587,500 against the Steelers 2013 salary cap should he make the final 53 man roster. If, however, Jones is released prior to the start of the regular season, the Steelers will not have any dead money associated with him.
As for Robinson, the Steelers signed him to a three-year, $1,445,000 contract last year as an undrafted free agent and it included a $5,000 signing bonus. As a result of the trade, the Steelers will have a meaningless dead money charge of $3,333.34. Robinson was scheduled to count $481,666.67 against the cap in 2013 had he made the final 53 man roster.
As you can see, that trade really doesn\’t move the Steelers salary cap needle very much at all. Where the trading for Jones could come in to play, however, is if he winds up forcing either Isaac Redman or Jonathan Dwyer off the roster. Redman and Dwyer are each scheduled to count $1.323 million against the 2013 salary cap due to the one-year restricted tenders that they signed. By releasing one of them and keeping Jones, the Steelers would stand to save $735,500 in cap space.
