Whatever amount of the deal that comes in the form of a signing bonus gets amortized over the 5 years of the deal. So without more information, we can't say what the cap hit will be only that he gets $18MM this year which is his salary and signing bonus. Depending on how things go with Myers, I think the Texans and Foster will alter what is the bonus and what is the salary to manage the cap for the coming years.
An argument could be made that we got Arian at a discount. Seriously- So excited for the team and Arian deserves every penny! Arian is going to go far, and the Texans - woo-hoo!
I think we got him for tremendous value. He's only 2 years in. This should be a rare instance where he's going to get paid when he deserves it, as opposed to when he's already played his best ball. True. That tweet made it read as if it were the cap number, but hopefully it's the entire signing bonus + 1st year base. His bonus (if $20.75M) will be a $4.2M/yr cap hit, and if he gets $30M of the entire deal in the first 3 years, that would suggest to me the first year should be about $3M base plus the cap hit ...a more reasonable $7.2M total cap hit in 2012. But the total guaranteed ($20.75) is bigger than the $18M he's reporting, so maybe they guaranteed some of his base salary down the line? If THAT's true, the cap hit should be even smaller (signing bonus less than $20.75). Maybe Mario isn't a goner...yet. Next year - which has had me thinking the team needed Foster, Mario, and Myers to accept a good signing bonus (spread out for cap purposes) and a small single year base to squeeze all three under the 2012 cap...and let it balloon up in 2013.
Congrats to Foster and the Texans. I'm glad they got the deal done (gotta love how this franchise rewards it's best players).
Wow, didn't realize that all OLinemen get the same franchise tag. In that case I doubt the Texans use the tag on anyone. Actually you're entirely wrong here. If the goal is super bowl what you want to do is borrow from the future, which means a long term contract where the SB gets spread out. If the $20 mil SB is true, that's $4mil in the first year from SB. And then perhaps $1mil of base salary + some incentives and I'm guessing a cap number of ~$6 mil. If his contract really is very little upfront, then it should signify the Texans willingness to once again spend big in FA>
. . . and he is still underpaid! Good work Rick Smith . . . .or does he get no credit for this either? Rocket River
So happy this got done. If they can get Myers and Brisiel to stick around as well I will be happy. We don't need to sign any other FAs. I will be sad that Mario walks, but I think our defense will do just fine without him. Offense without Arian or part of our O-line I'm not so sure of.
I think that's a sweet deal for the Texans. CJ and Peterson got much bigger deals, and usually, subsequent deals only get bigger. Yes, the Texans had some leverage because they didn't have to give him a long-term deal this year, but Foster could have demanded more. He's only 25 with less wear-and-tear than most top-flight backs, and we're basically giving $8.5 mil/year during his prime years. I applaud Arian for the way he went about this. No complaining during the year or even off-season, and he took a less-than-full-market deal that will help this team keep competitive. I'm no6t sure if it's about sticking with the team that gave him his shot, sacrificing money for winning, or just his own personal philosophy, but whatever his reasons, I love how he operates. He's making a bid to overtake AJ as my favorite Texan.
The picture becomes clearer. .....Foster signed for less. Ryans is either taking a pay cut or leaving.....combined w/ what the Texans said earlier ...I think Bob is bringing Mario back.
After thinking about it, my gut feeling is that they are going to bring back Mario (possibly even at the monstrous franchise tag number) and make some fairly major cuts/re-structuring (DeMeco, Cody, Leinart, Jacoby etc). They're going to go all out this year to try to build on last season. If there's any way they can keep Myers and Mario, even for just one more year, I think they do it. Considering our aggressive approach last year and the timing of this Foster signing -- we didn't have to pay him this early and we had cheaper options with the RFA or franchise tag -- they are being very aggressive.
@RavensInsider $12.5 over 5 years is 2.5 million per year for the signing bonus cap hit. If he gets all $12.5 million on Day 1, his Year 1 salary is $5.5MM
