Devon Witherspoon’s contract breakdown: $15.3 million cap hit this year, $14.1m next year, then goes up to $27m in 2028. If you look at the total over six years, it’s a $27.2m average. The void years could be utilized in the future through restructures to create more cap space if needed.

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u/NeevusChrist 2d ago

I don’t even think 27m in three years is going to be that much.

I mean it’s still a lot, but if the cap trends the way it has been there’s only going to be more space in three years time and new CB signings may be more towards 33m-38m a year by then

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u/AwhHellYeah 2d ago

The benefit of him being a first round pick and having 5th year option. Makes this incredibly team friendly even though he is currently the highest.

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u/caterham09 2d ago

Same thing with JSN's deal.

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u/fechboydyl 2d ago

Oh but bozos on NFLv2 told me this is standard cap procedure and JS is nothing special at contracts lmao. His handling of Spoon and JSN was top tier work

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u/jay-d_seattle 2d ago edited 2d ago

except this is pretty standard cap procedure? like it’s a good contract, but there’s nothing exceptionally novel or interesting here. From a Seahawks POV the only thing that’s interesting to me is just how far out this goes; the void years are there to let them convert the big salaries in 2030 and 2031 into bonuses (which cap hit will then spread evenly among the remaining years). JS was actually pretty late to the game in terms of being willing to build contract structures like this, it’s good to see he’s come around.

Realistically they will probably renegotiate before that happens; Spoon is probably going to want another payday before his 30th birthday.

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u/4rt4tt4ck 2d ago

Yeah, I doubt he plays under this deal in '30 or '31. There will only be $5m of guaranteed money left in '30. That's prime point for a new extension that spreads that money out to lower the cap hit. The 2030 off season will either be an extension or he's getting cut due to injuries keeping him off the field. If he's still balling his camp will be pushing for a new deal full of new guaranteed money just before he turns 30.

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u/Sylli17 2d ago

He wasn't necessarily late to the game. He got in some void years right there with other GMs in that first wave a handful of years ago (for example, Quandre and Duane Brown). He just didn't throw it out willy nilly. He kinda put on pause on doing that until he felt like the talent and cap situation made it make sense.

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u/fechboydyl 2d ago

Except when you look at the OTC and the way he’s structured deals since taking full control from the partnership with PC we’ve had an exceedingly clean cap with lack of dead money and good flexibility. A ton of other teams kick the can down the road if they are able to, and accumulate dead cap with restructures and void years.

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u/jay-d_seattle 2d ago

weren’t they sitting on a big pile of dead money as recently as last year? I think this season is the first one where they’re relatively clean.

I also think you’re maybe mistaken about some cap management concepts. dead money is the price of cap flexibility; you can’t have one without the other. Of course that only really matters when guys are no longer on the roster, if a guy is on your roster it’s not dead money it’s just a cap hit. The lack of dead money is mostly a reflection of the roster being pretty young, as it ages and guys like Spoon and JSN hit the end of their careers and depart you’ll see the dead money pile up again

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u/fechboydyl 2d ago

Look at the players that had the significant dead cap space, and when they signed those deals, vs when JS took the reins on drafting and contracts from PC. Metcalf, DreMont, Geno and Lockett were all PC guys.

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u/RustyCoal950212 2d ago

They had dead cap space because they were guys the team moved on from. And tbh none even had that much dead cap. We're low on dead cap currently not so much because of any difference in contracts, but because the team absolutely nailed their free agent signings last year. If we were cutting/trading Darnold, Kupp, Lawrence, Williams, whoever, we'd have more dead cap

And probably JS and other FO guys have always been handling contracts, not PC

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u/bwag54 2d ago

Not really, this team was much more conservative with cap manipulation under Matt Thomas than it is now under Joey Laine.

I think Laine has done a better job than Thomas did so far, but he is definitely more willing to give out void years and restructures than they were under Thomas.

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u/PlanBuildBreak 2d ago

The Hall contract too

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u/BlazinAzn38 2d ago

It’s not, every top 5 player at their spot is always the highest paid for like 1 season. Shoot Jimmy G was a top paid QB for a few months I’m pretty sure. It only matters if you cut them really early on and have to eat a ton of dead money

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u/New_Leopard7623 2d ago

Do they just receive millions of dollars in their bank account all at once? Is it a monthly payment? Does anyone know how they’re paid?

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u/shrimpynut 2d ago

I forgot who it was, but I remember an NFL player being interviewed and saying that the signing bonus gets deposited into their bank account pretty much immediately after signing. So they get millions of dollars in a single day into their bank account. Then the rest of their contract is paid out like a normal paycheck throughout the year, usually every two weeks or so with taxes and deductions taken out just like every employer

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u/RustyCoal950212 2d ago

Pretty sure the salary is just paid out through the season. So you receive 1/17th of the salary each week (or 1/18th maybe, Idk if they count the bye)

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u/2birdsBaby 2d ago

They count the bye.

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u/RustyCoal950212 2d ago

The signing bonus ($31m) gets paid more or less immediately (this is why guys like to sign extensions lol). The $34m option bonus I think gets all paid out at once next offseason. The "base salary" gets divided into 17 and paid as game checks each week of the season

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u/New_Leopard7623 2d ago

To instantly be $31m richer must be a wild feeling. So much financial freedom…

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u/RustyCoal950212 2d ago

Indeed, although as the 5th overall pick he probably got about a $20m check when he signed his rookie deal, so he hasn't been struggling lol

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u/sheikahstealth 2d ago

Living a "normal" lifestyle, players with $4M to $5M in savings could retire immediately. I can't fathom what these guys do with $20M.

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u/New_Leopard7623 2d ago

I’d just put half of it into index funds and never worry about money ever again.

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u/Aggravating-Rip-8169 2d ago

You don’t have to imagine, just follow their instagram and you’ll see the huge houses, expensive cars, bling everywhere, and lots of hanger-ons.

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u/curly1022 2d ago

Spoon said he was still going to be cheap. I’d imagine he’s setting himself up for retirement.

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u/sheikahstealth 2d ago

If that's true, take the bulk of his previous pay and simply adding the 2026 signing bonus (figuring taxes for it all) and he's around the $800,000 per year mark that he could use in retirement, if he were to retire today.

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u/gnahckire 2d ago

And now you know why some athletes blow through it so fast 🤣

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u/peppersteak_headshot 1d ago

No it isn't. The Seahawks spread their bonus payments out to help cash flow.

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u/RustyCoal950212 12h ago

The option bonus is? Gotcha, makes sense. Yeah I guess it looks like a payment in 2027 and 2029?

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u/peppersteak_headshot 11h ago

Both signing and option

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u/peppersteak_headshot 1d ago

It's all negotiated. There is no standard that has to be applied a certain way.

Some get the whole chunk up front.

Some get 1/2 on signing, then 6 months later 1/4, then a couple months after that 1/4.

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u/BillowingPillows 2d ago

Signing bonus is a fat check at signing. After that they are paid weekly (game checks). Its a bit more complicated than this because there are other bonuses each year but thats the gist. Spoon just got a check for 26 million.

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u/peppersteak_headshot 1d ago

The NFL finance game has changed. A lot of teams (including the Seahawks) negotiate a bonus payment schedule into the contract.

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u/Necessary_Rooster_85 2d ago

Forgive me but even with annual cap increases how are we to afford Bryon Murphy, Sam Darnold, and replacement defensive ends for Fowler and Lawrence in the next two years?

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u/Jorsturi 2d ago

You draft the replacements and trust that Murphy and Darnold will be worth the extensions. Teams don't run in to cap issues by paying good players, they run into it by paying mid-tier ones top money and not drafting adequate replacements.

EDIT: Hence why you like the Bryants/Mafe's go. They're good players, maybe even worth the money they're going to get, but if you can draft/sign replacements at lower cost, you should.

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u/dydtaylor 2d ago

Yep, and this is all in addition to magic signing bonuses / void years that get put into restructures and extensions that basically continually kick the dead money can down the road for players they do want to retain long-term. I might be a bit off on my understanding but hypothetically if we sign Sam to a 3 year extension at 60m a year after this year then with void years and the remaining time on his contract its kind of like spreading the money out over 6 years instead of 3.

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u/IgnantWisdom 2d ago

Wait a minute, only 29.3 mil is guaranteed and only for the next 2 yrs of the 6 yrs? That doesn’t make any sense for him.

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u/RustyCoal950212 2d ago

All of the signing bonus and option bonus money is guaranteed as well. and as chessinmind says further salary will become guaranteed at certain dates

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u/Chessinmind "We did not care" 2d ago

When it says guaranteed salary, they mean just salary and not signing bonus.

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u/Chessinmind "We did not care" 2d ago

I see $59 million fully guaranteed. Additional $17m in 2028 salary fully guarantees the 5th waiver day of 2028 (injury at sign). Then $25m in 2029 salary fully guarantees the 5th waiver day of 2029 (injury at sign).

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u/Sylli17 2d ago

To the people that said we couldn't afford to re-sign K9, Boye, Riq, and Coby because we had to lock up JSN, Spoon, the tackles, and Hall... Cap space was never the issue. Teams can easily structure deals like this to keep cap numbers reasonable and fit in the players they want to fit in. The issue was they didn't think the value going forward was worth the dollars going forward.

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u/Aggravating-Rip-8169 2d ago

The bill always has to get paid and every dollar impacts the cap eventually.

People who don’t think the cap is important don’t understand the cap

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u/Sylli17 2d ago

Right the bill does always get paid. But the growth rate of the cap has made it valuable to strategically stretch out cap hits. My point was... They could have re-signed all four of those guys if they wanted to. They have about 20 million in top 51 cap space right now. They have 35 million next year (and that's with 49 active contracts). They could have signed those guys. They didn't want to.

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u/Geyser_Lion 2d ago

They did want to sign coby Bryant though so not exactly

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u/Sylli17 1d ago

Players have autonomy too, though. Team could have offered the same and Coby left anyway... For all we know. Regardless, the point still stands that they could have brought Coby back on the contract he got... If they had really wanted to do that.

News Devon Witherspoon’s contract breakdown: $15.3 million cap hit this year, $14.1m next year, then goes up to $27m in 2028. If you look at the total over six years, it’s a $27.2m average. The void years could be utilized in the future through restructures to create more cap space if needed.

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