While Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown is unlikely to get his contract reworked this offseason, former Washington Redskins salary cap analyst J.I. Halsell has come up with a restructure/extension plan that would result in the league’s leading receiver in both catches and yardage from last year averaging $11.5 per season moving forward.
Halsell’s plan, which was requested by Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com, includes Brown receiving $11.54 million in new money over old over the course of the next three seasons. In order to do that, Brown would need to have his contract extended by two years and $16 million signing bonus given to him.
Brown is currently scheduled to earn $14.25 million over the course of the next two seasons and $22.96 million over the course of the next three. By doing Halsell’s restructure/extension it would result in him earning $24.3125 million over the course of the next two seasons and $34.5 million over the course of the next three.
Perhaps the best aspect of Halsell’s plan is that Brown’s currently scheduled cap charges in 2015 and 2016 will virtually stay about that same. In fact, Brown’s 2016 cap charge would be the only one of the two to change and it does so by a mere $462,000 as part of the restructure/extension.
Brown’s currently scheduled cap charge in 2017 would increase by 4.677 million as part of Halsell’s plan, however. Brown will be 29 in 2017 and his base salary that season would then be $10,187,500.
I really like Halsell’s plan and it will be interesting to see if the Steelers wind up doing something similar to it prior to the start of the regular season even though it will be out of character for them. Brown would then be averaging $11.5 million per season and he would then be considered the fifth-highest paid wide receiver in the league behind Calvin Johnson ($16,207,143), Demaryius Thomas ($12,823,000), Dez Bryant ($12,823,000) and Mike Wallace ($12,000,000).
Below is a before and after look of Brown’s contract that follows Halsell’s suggestions.
| CURRENT CONTRACT | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| YEAR | BASE SALARY | SB PRORATION | WORKOUT BONUS | ROSTER BONUS | CAP CHARGE |
| 2015 | $6,000,000 | $3,787,500 | $0 | $0 | $9,787,500 |
| 2016 | $8,250,000 | $3,787,500 | $0 | $0 | $12,037,500 |
| 2017 | $8,710,000 | $2,087,500 | $0 | $0 | $10,797,500 |
| SUGGESTED CONTRACT | |||||
| YEAR | BASE SALARY | SB PRORATION | WORKOUT BONUS | ROSTER BONUS | CAP CHARGE |
| 2015 | $2,800,000 | $6,987,500 | $0 | $0 | $9,787,500 |
| 2016 | $5,512,500 | $6,987,500 | $0 | $0 | $12,500,000 |
| 2017 | $10,187,500 | $5,287,500 | $0 | $0 | $15,475,000 |
| 2018 | 11,500,000 | $3,200,000 | $0 | $0 | $14,700,000 |
| 2019 | 11,500,000 | $3,200,000 | $0 | $0 | $14,700,000 |
