How Eddie Jackson's Record-Breaking Deal Affects Broncos' Negotiations with Justin Simmons

In the wake of what is perceived as a market-setting safety deal, what does the future hold for Justin Simmons and the Broncos?

Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

As the Denver Broncos begin negotiating with Justin Simmons on a new contract, another safety signed a contract extension that will have ramifications on what Simmons may command in a new deal.

The Chicago Bears gave Eddie Jackson a four-year, $58.4M contract on Friday. On the surface, the contract will average $14.6M per year, more than any other safety in the NFL. It would appear that Simmons — who just received second-team All-Pro honors from the Associated Press — will be in line to hit $15M per year.

However, there's more to Jackson's contract that APY salary. The full guarantees, total guarantees, and cash flow matter.

Devil's in the Details

Cash flow refers to when a player will collect the cash from a deal, whether in the form of a signing bonus, a roster bonus or a base salary. More cash committed to a player early in the deal is good for the player, but if the contract is backloaded and the majority of cash comes in the later years of the deal, there's a risk for the player that he won't collect that cash.

It's not known yet what the structure of Jackson's contract will be like, but given that the Bears don't have a lot of cap space, it's possible the contract is backloaded. Thus, it may not be as good of a deal for Jackson as it first appears, because he has to hope the Bears keep him beyond the first couple of years to collect a larger portion of the contract.

Further evidence comes in the full guarantees Jackson got, which were $22M. That's not even half the total sum of the contract. 

He got $33M in total guarantees, meaning $11M is injury-only guaranteed (protects a player if cut for injury reasons, but not skill or cap reasons). The total guarantees are less than 60% of the total sum.

Jackson didn't even get the most in full guarantees among safeties 1 Earl Thomas ($32M), Landon Collins ($31M), Tyrann Mathieu ($26.8M) and even Kareem Jackson ($23M) beat him out, even if Eddie Jackson beat them in other aspects. While it's certainly a nice deal overall for Eddie Jackson, the possibility of missing out on 40 percent of the sum isn't quite appealing.

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What it Means for Simmons

If Simmons' agent is looking closely at the Jackson deal, he should pay attention to the full and total guarantees and work to get a higher percentage of those in the total sum. Simmons doesn't need to hit $15M APY to get that.

Let's say, for example, that the Broncos offer Simmons $54M over four years, which is $13.5M APY salary. However, if Denver offers $27M in full guarantees and $37M in total guarantees, they're offering a higher percentage of the total sum in those guarantees and beating Jackson in both. 

Go up to $56M over four years, or $14M APY, and you could bump full guarantees to $28M and total guarantees to $38M — still more than Jackson and, in reality, a better deal.

There's also the question of cash flow. The franchise tag for safeties is expected to be around $12M. GM John Elway has typically used the cap hit for the tag to determine the first-year cap hit, meaning he might go with an $8M signing bonus and a $10M first-year base salary. 

On a four-year deal, that means a $12M cap hit 1 and it means a $20M first-year cash payout to Simmons. That means you need just an $8M base salary the next year to get to $28M — but you could add $2M in injury-only guaranteed money for a second-year cap hit of $12M and, by doing so, give Simmons a two-year cash flow of $30M.

In other words, there are ways for the Broncos to make a deal more attractive to Simmons and his agent from the guaranteed money (particularly full guarantees) and the cash flow standpoint than the Jackson contract. If Simmons and his agent are more concerned with that, they might be willing to accept a little less in APY salary.

Bottom Line

Either way, Simmons won't come cheap, but that's why it's a good thing the Broncos have the cap space to keep him around. He wasn't going to come cheap regardless of when the Broncos extended him. And I suspect Simmons' agent was inclined to wait and see how the market turned out before getting serious about extension talks, even if he knew the franchise tag was coming.

Just keep in mind that contract details matter. On one hand, Jackson's contract looks like a market-buster. On the other hand, it's not quite the great deal as it first appears — and the details show that Simmons can do better in some aspects, even if he takes a little less in other aspects.

Follow Bob on Twitter @BobMorrisSports and @MileHighHuddle.