Breaking down all the details of the Detroit Lions’ 4-year extension for safety Kerby Joseph.
Last month, we broke down the contracts for cornerback D.J. Reed and linebacker Derrick Barnes , pointing out a relatively new strategy the Detroit Lions are implementing: option bonuses.
In short, option bonuses are decisions that teams make by a certain date to keep the player on the team (exercise the option bonus) or cut the player before the option bonus kicks in. The benefit of an option bonus is two-fold. One, it is non-guaranteed money for the team before it is exercised (it becomes guaranteed when exercised). Two, once exercised, the option bonus is divided evenly over the rest of the contract (up to five years). For example, rather than giving a player a $15 million salary in Year 1 of a three-year deal, a team can use an option bonus of $15 million that will hit the cap at just $5 million each year. Essentially, it’s a way of kicking cap hit down the road.
With Kerby Joseph’s new four-year, $85 million contract extension, the Lions are using an option bonus for every single year of the extension. That way, it keeps the salary and cap hit numbers down each year, but it will result in a costly bill at the end of the contract.
Here are the details, as reported by OverTheCap :
Main points:
- Signing bonus: $10,011,000 ($2.0022M cap hit per year)
- 2026 option bonus: $9,625,000 ($1.925M cap hit per year)
- 2027 option bonus: $16,580,000 ($3.316M cap hit per year)
- 2028 option bonus: $19,035,000 ($3.807M cap hit per year)
- 2029 option bonus: $23,905,000 ($4.781M cap hit per year)
- Workout bonuses: $150,000 each year
- Up to $510,000 game-day roster bonuses each year
- 4 void years starting in 2030
As you can see above, the base salary amazingly stays under $2 million each year, but that’s because the Lions have basically replaced salaries with option bonuses. We often see teams restructure a contract by turning salary into a signing bonus that is spread over the length of the contract. The Lions have basically done that ahead of time.
All of the money in red automatically hits the cap in 2030—as they are the remaining guarantees from each option bonus that is exercised. However, if the Lions opt to extend Kerby Joseph at any time before the contract voids in 2030, those cap hits can stay in the years that they’re currently listed under rather than all hitting the cap at once.
Let’s say the Lions decide to go in the other direction and cut Joseph before his massive 2029 option bonus. His cap hit in 2029 will actually go from $17,926,200 to over $31 million, but he’ll be completely off the books in 2030—whereas the current contract has the team on the books for that massive $39 million dead cap in that year.
Here’s what that year-by-year breakdown would look like:
In short, the Lions have managed to keep Joseph’s cap hit down incredibly low for the next four seasons. Here’s where Joseph ranks among other safeties in terms of cap hit each year.
- 2025: $3.86M — 38th
- 2026: $5.8M — 23rd
- 2027: $9.16M — 11th
- 2028: $13.0M — 3rd (only five players under contract in 2028)
- 2029: $17.9M — 1st (only safety under contract in 2029)
The downside to structuring a deal like this is that, at some point, you’re going to have to pay a pretty massive dead cap hit. However, with so many Lions extensions on the horizon, the Lions are more than happy to kick that can down the road.