There’s a new update on the contract signed Thursday with the Carolina Panthers by former Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery.
While panthers.com and David Newton of ESPN.com both call it a two-year contract, evidently it is a five-year deal worth $8.015 million and includes a $2.25 signing bonus.
Cotchery’s base salaries in the first two years of the deal are $1.25 million and $1.45 million per Adam Wilson and the last three years are voidable. Cotchery is also due a $50,000 workout bonus in 2015.
Based on these numbers, Cotchery’s 2014 cap charge with the Panthers will be $1.7 million and that’s if indeed it is five years.
So why give Cotchery five years?
The Panthers likely did this so they could spread out the signing bonus as long as they could. Had the contract been for just two years, Cotchery’s cap charge in 2014 would be $2.375 million. Being as they entered the day already low on cap space, it’s understandable why they structured it this way.
Basically, this is a two-year, $5 million contract as Newton previously reported.
