On Wednesday, the San Francisco 49ers signed quarterback Colin Kaepernick to a six-year contract extension that can be worth up to $126 million. While the exact breakdown of the deal is still a little bit fuzzy, it appears as though Kaepernick will receive roughly $61 million guaranteed as part of that deal.
Being as Kaepernick as set to earn a base salary of $973,766 in 2014 and a $100,000 workout bonus, you can see that his extension is full of new money.
While Kaepernick certainly has played well in his first three years in the league, he’s yet to win a Super Bowl and has a career completion percentage of 59.8. He’s also only thrown for more than 2,000 yards in a season just once and that was last year.
It’s dangerous to do without knowing the full breakdown of the contract, but Kaepernick’s new money over the additional years works out to an average of $21 million a year. However, being as his old money was likely rolled into that contract, in reality his yearly average is $18 million, as it’s really a seven-year deal. I bet that the media will frame this as $21 million per season, however.
So what will Kaepernick’s new deal mean for Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who currently has two years remaining on his current contract?
I really don’t think that it changes a thing with Roethlisberger as Kaepernick is only really getting an average of $18 million per season. Roethlisberger will more than likely be looking for around $22-23 million per season in new money over old money. He currently is set to earn $23.7 million over the next two seasons. With Roethlisberger it likely will be more about the guaranteed money.
It will be interesting nonetheless to see how the media runs with this. If former sports agent and current salary cap expert Joel Corry views Kaepernick’s deal as $18 million per year, so should everyone else.
Kaepernick's deal gives Cam Newton more ammunition to join the $18M per year/$50M in guarantees club. Newton has the same agent as Cutler.
— Joel Corry (@corryjoel) June 4, 2014
