49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick is due to make $11.9 million in fully-guaranteed base salary this season. The Broncos want to pay him $14 million. Over the next two.
Mindi Bach of CSNBayArea.com reports that the Broncos have offered Kaepernick a deal that would pay him $7 million in 2016 and another $7 million in 2017.
It’s unclear whether the Denver offer would include a path to free agency after 2017. Still, with his $400,000 workout bonus and $2 million in per-game roster bonuses, Kaepernick could make $14.3 million this year, more than the Broncos are willing to pay over the next two.
Currently, Kaepernick’s contract pays a base salary of $14.5 million in 2017, another $400,000 workout bonus, and another $2 million in per-game roster bonuses. The salary increases by $2 million if he takes 80 percent of the snaps in 2016 and if: (1) the 49ers make it to the Super Bowl; or (2) Kaepernick is named a first-team or second-team All-Pro.
As a result, he’d be swapping out a maximum of $33.2 million over the next two years, with $11.9 million of it fully guaranteed, for $14 million over the next two years -- and with the 2017 compensation from Denver possibly not guaranteed.
While a trade is still possible, the Broncos may have to transform the offer into a one-year deal, allowing Kaepernick to become a free agent next March. If the Broncos, the 49ers, and Kaepernick simply can’t work out a revised contract, the question becomes whether the 49ers will simply cut him loose and pay the difference between what he makes elsewhere this year and the fully-guaranteed $11.9 million.
In the interim, Kaepernick is participating in the offseason program. As he and the coaching staff get to know each other, maybe they’ll decide to try to make it work in 2016. Or maybe their interactions will make a divorce even more inevitable.
