Report: Tom Brady extension creates $19 million in 2021 cap space

[Pat Patriot]

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The Buccaneers are robbing Peter to pay Paul, but they’re still paying Tommy.

Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady‘s contract extension creates $19 million in 2021 cap space.

This implies that Brady dropped his $25 million in 2021 compensation to the minimum salary of $1.075 million, converting the balance to a signing bonus. With a four-year extension (the final three years are voidable), the $23.925 million signing bonus gets divided into five total years. For this year, the cap number becomes $4.785 million (20 percent of the signing bonus) plus $1.075 million.

That results in a total cap savings of $19.14 million.

This also means Brady isn’t getting more money for 2021. His terms for 2022 aren’t known. It is known, however, that $4.785 million of his 2021 cap charge will apply in 2022. It also means that the three phony years will trigger, eventually, a cap charge of $14.355 million.

Still, with the cap dropping this year, it makes sense to push that money into future years, when the cap will be up — and relatively speaking the cap dollars will mean less.