Feb 3, 2013; New Orleans, LA, USA; Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco (5) celebrates a second quarter touchdown pass against the San Francisco 49ers during Super Bowl XLVII at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Chuck Cook-USA TODAY Sports
So we have known the broad details of Flaccos deal for a few days now. Flacco is getting 120.6 million over 6 years. Now we now almost the entire story thanks to Adam Caplan of Sirius XM Radio.
Caplan Is reporting that Flacco will have just a 6.8 million cap hit for this season. That is significantly lower than the 7.4 million that was originally projected. Based on the Ravens projected cap space, minus the 6.8 million for Flacco, the Ravens still have over 10 million to spend against the cap. That is a ton of money and will almost assure Dannell Ellerbe will get a fair offer from the team. It will also allow the Ravens to make a run at Ed Reed.
The other big number(literally) is the guaranteed money. Flacco will make an incredible 52 million guaranteed. This is another category in which Flacco will get the highest paid monoker. His 52 million(8.67 per year average) guaranteed tops Drew Brees and his 40 million(8 per year average). That is a monster number, but when you consider his signing bonus(which i will get to in a second), it isnt really as insanely high as it sounds.
Speaking of the signing bonus, Flacco is going to be getting 29 million tomorrow when he signs the deal. Instantly. Not a bad day. The deal also includes future option bonuses of 15 million and 9 million. It is not clear if those are timed bonuses or incentive based bonuses.
All in all, Flacco will be getting 62 million over his first three years. we can infer, based on the 29 million bonus and 6 million base salary this year, that Flacco will make about 27 million over the 2nd and 3rd seasons of the deal(13.5 per season). Again, those numbers sound remarkably managable. especially if that 15 million option bonus comes in one of those two years which would drop the average yearly base salary to 6 million(over years 2 and 3).
The numbers sound huge, but this looks like an extremely team friendly deal that creates a win win for Flacco and the Ravens. Flacco is getting paid enough money to live extremely comfortably for the rest of his life(and if he uses the money wisely, for the rest of his kids life).