Golden Tate Contract

I'm trying to leave opinion out of it.

I read that if Tate is suspended his 2019 and 2020 base salaries are no longer guaranteed. If that is true then he can be released next season and we would actually save $3,000,000 in cap space. If he is not suspended then it would cost us $4,975,000 against the cap to cut him in 2020 meaning that he would most likely be released in 2021 since he would be 33 years old and save us $6,000,000 against the cap. It seems like this was only really a 2 year deal but if this suspension holds up it would give the Giants another option to get out of the deal if they wanted to. I just thought that was interesting.

Why is it a $3,000,000 savings in 2020 if he is suspended as opposed to a $4,975,000 cap hit of he isn't?

His signing bonus was $10,000,000. So, that number divided by 4, the length of the contract, leads to a prorated number of $2,500,000. His base salary in 2020 is $7,975,000 and was guaranteed before the suspension. That means his cap hit was be approximately $10,500,000. But when you add up the signing bonus that hasn't been accounted for yet of $7,500,000 ($2,500,000 x 3 years) plus his guaranteed salary of $7,975,000 then you get approximately $15,500,000. When you subtract that $15,500,000 from the $10,500,000 that is where you get the approximately $5,000,000 cap hit (OTC either estimates the numbers of there is something like a $25,000 workout bonus in his contract).

Well, if his 2020 salary isn't guaranteed then you subtract that $7,975,000 from the $5,000,000 cap hit you actually will save approximately $3,000,000.
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