What A 2016 Contract Extension For Lawrence Timmons Might Look Like

Earlier this morning, I wrote about how Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Lawrence Timmons is hoping to receive an extension in the offseason so that he can rightfully end his long career right where it started. As I mentioned it that post, it won’t be surprising to see the Steelers try to take the same course of action with Timmons as they did a few years ago with tight end Heath Miller and safety Troy Polamalu.

If you remember, when the Steelers extended both Miller and Polamalu, neither received any new money outside of their new future new base salaries. While Miller and Polamalu were both kind enough to take those kind of extensions, it really didn’t provide either player with any new guaranteed money.

Assuming Timmons is willing to have his extension done in a similar manner, here’s what it might look like.

For starters, I would expect the Steelers to pay Timmons at least $7.25 million of the $8.75 million he’s currently scheduled to earn in 2016 as a signing bonus. In addition to that, I would expect at least two more years will be added on to his contract so that bonus many can be stretched out over a minimum of three years.

If we were to use those exact amounts of both signing bonus and years, Timmons’ base in 2016 would then drop down to $1.5 million and his salary cap charge would then lower to $10,297,916.67, which would be a decrease of $4,833,333.33.

By giving Timmons base salaries of $7 million in 2017 and $9 million in 2018 as part of the extension, the linebacker would then stand to average $8.25 over the course of the three years (2016-2018). Obviously, those base salary amounts could be a bit lower if Timmons is willing to accept them, but neither would likely to be guaranteed regardless. Also, those base amounts used in my example would be on the high side, in my opinion.

Should Timmons wind up agreeing to an extension similar to the way I laid it out above, the Steelers could still cut him after the 2016 season if his skills were to diminish greatly next season. However, if he were to be cut after the 2016 season, he would likely be designated as a post June 1 release so that the team wouldn’t have to absorb all of the $4.833 million in dead money in 2017.

We’ll have to wait and see how all of this ultimately plays out with Timmons, but I think odds are good that his extension will look somewhat close to my example below.