https://overthecap.com/breaking-down-mark-andrews-56-million-contract-extension/
EDC and pat moriarty have an MO with contract signing - lots of cash early in the deals but those deals not re-setting the market in terms of total value or av/yr
This one's backloaded a lot more than I would like, though. I certainly understand the need for a lighter year 1 cap hit (2021), but his cap hit will triple from 2021 to 2022, and it jumps from $9M to $16M over a two year period.
If it were me, I'd have liked to have seen them go bigger in 2022 and flatten it out more after year 1. I loved Marlon's structure a lot more, and I liked Stanley's a bit more also.
The reason for that appears to be that second year option bonus. Andrews signing bonus is very much in-line with what they normally give to studs (similar to Marlon and Stanley's as a % of the contract), but Andrews looks like he's getting a $15.5M option bonus in 2022. That's just a little less than the option bonus Stanley got this year, and it's a little more than the one Marlon got. I wouldn't really bat an eye at that, but contextually, these are not the same size of contracts, as both Marlon and Stanley's extensions were a year longer and considerably more lucrative in guaranteed money, AAV and total money.
Or another way to look at it, is how much cash each got in the first two years of the deal as a percentage of the total deal:
Andrews: $30.1M out of $59.5M of total five years = 50.6%
Humphrey: $40.3M out of $99.6M of total six years = 40.5%
Stanley: $48.1M out of $107.1M of total six years = 44.9%
So they're definitely putting up more money earlier for Andrews than they did for Marlon for certain, and even more than Stanley.
Now the argument for this is that Andrews career will likely be a lot shorter than these two guys. Andrews may only have really like 3-4 really good years left in him before he breaks down. Tight end is brutal to play for the body in this league.
That being said, I would have liked to have seen them push more cap into earlier years, knowing that by the time Andrews cap hit rises to like $17M in the last two years, Lamar's cap hit will almost certainly be north of $40M at that point. Even with an extension, I'd expect Lamar's cap hit to probably be $30-35M or less for 2021, so I would try to utilize that to your advantage when structuring deals.
I loved Marlon's structure. There's a $7M jump from 2021 to 2022, but from 2022 through 2026, his cap hit stays between $17M-$21M consistently over a five year period.
Like people can marvel at like Pat Mahomes deal and all that, but just give it another year or two. Next year his cap number jumps $28.3M in a single year. The following year, it jumps another $11M. I wouldn't want any part of that. Even if you're one of the people who thinks the next TV deals are going to explode the salary cap, you're not going to consistently see $50M increase year over year. Maybe a one time leap when the deal kicks in, and then it will normalize.