Analyzing Details of Garett Bolles' 4-Year Extension With Broncos
The Denver Broncos made Garett Bolles one of the highest-paid left tackles in the NFL with a four-year, $68 million extension last week.
A deep-dive on the contract reveals that Bolles will be getting a lot of money through 2022, yet the Broncos will still keep his cap hit low in 2021.
Ryan O'Halloran of The Denver Post reported that Bolles got a $20M signing bonus, which will be structured over 2020 and the four years of his extension.
In addition, Bolles has a $1M base salary for 2021 that is fully guaranteed. While that's not much, he will collect $21M in new money, in addition to the $1.9M base salary he got this year.
Bolles has a $17M salary in 2022 that will become fully guaranteed on the fifth day of the 2021 league year. Because there's no chance the Broncos will cut him before then, Bolles got $38M effectively fully guaranteed.
Originally, I had that amount as more than what Ronnie Stanley got in terms of new, fully guaranteed money. That’s actually incorrect — Stanley got $64.1M in total full guarantees, with $47.1M through March 2021. Still, Bolles will get a good deal, in that he’ll collect $38M through 2022, an amount that puts him among the highest-paid tackles in the NFL.
And it's a good deal for the Broncos, too, because the contract was structured so that Bolles has a cap hit of just $5M in 2021. Not until 2022 does Bolles count for a higher number against the salary cap, when his cap hit rises to $21M.
Bolles gets an additional $2M in 2023 that is injury-only guaranteed, but Broncos could still part ways with him without much of a cap hit at that point. If the team keeps him, his total base salary in 2023 is $14M for a cap hit of $18M. You can see the full breakdown at Over the Cap.
This contract is a win-win for both sides, with Bolles set to collect a lot of money through 2022, and the Broncos keeping him for a small cap hit in 2021 when the league-wide salary cap is expected to drop.
With Bolles extended, most Broncos fans are probably going to think about safety Justin Simmons as the next player to get extended. Because he's playing under the franchise tag, though, the Broncos can't negotiate until after their season ends.
Once it does, though, it won't surprise me if Simmons talks get serious. After all, like Bolles, Simmons is playing at a level worthy of the Pro Bowl.
Should Simmons get extended, the crucial part will be how the Broncos structure his deal. It will be interesting to see how cap-friendly they keep it for 2021, all while finding a way to ensure a big payday for Simmons.
This article was updated to reflect a correction in Ronnie Stanley's guaranteed money from $47.1M to $64.1M. A tip of the cap to Stanley’s agency for clarifying this discrepancy.
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