The Chicago Bears agreed to a five-year, $51.25 million contract extension with guard Cody Whitehair on the eve of the 2019 NFL regular season, the complete details of which are beginning to emerge.
Whitehair's big payday included a $6 million signing bonus and $27.5 million in guarantees. His salary-cap hit is as follows:
2019: $2.44M
2020: $7.4M
2021: $8.8M
2022: $10.4M
2023: $12.2M
2024: $11.35M
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The most important part of any contract like this, ironically, is the year the Bears can get out of it in the event Whitehair's play regresses. According to Spotrac, Whitehair's dead-cap number drops from $8 million to $5.7 million in 2022 and shrinks to just $1.1 million in the final year of the deal (2024).
Whitehair's contract is pretty team-friendly, considering his average annual salary ranks ninth among guards at the start of 2019. He'll drop lower on that list with each passing offseason and by the time the Bears are halfway through the terms of this deal, Whitehair's contract will likely become one of the team's biggest salary-cap bargains.
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