When you first look at the deals signed by Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant and Broncos wide receiver Demaryius Thomas on Wednesday, they look awfully similar.
Both contracts run five years and have an average of $14 million per season, with Bryant’s $45 million in guarantees landing a bit higher than the $43.5 million in Thomas’s deal. There are significant differences about how the two deals are structured, however.
PFT has learned that Thomas has $35 million of his deal fully guaranteed at signing. It will be paid out over the first two years. Bryant has $35 million fully guaranteed, via a $20 million signing bonus and a $3 million salary in 2015 and $9 million in fully-guaranteed 2016 base salary, with the rest of the $12 million vesting next March.
Mike Klis of 9News in Denver reports, and PFT has confirmed, that the Broncos had originally offered Thomas a seven-year, $100 million pact that had $42 million in guaranteed money, but that Thomas and his agent Todd France passed because the final two years and $30 million were not guaranteed. They changed to the current deal, which guarantees Thomas’s $8.5 million salary in 2017 against injury only until early in that league year.