We now know what a veteran free agent pass-rusher is worth, with the numbers in on a pair of yesterday’s deals.
According to Tom Pelissero of USA Today, the Giants guaranteed $8.5 million to Jason Pierre-Paul as part of his one-year, $10.5 million deal. Or in layman’s terms, a million per finger.
Pierre-Paul getting most of that money in guaranteed form is impressive, since he put just one sack on the board last year after blowing his right index finger and then some off in a fireworks accident.
The Giants are also giving him a $300,000 workout bonus, and $1.2 million in per-game roster bonuses, with $500,000 in incentives tied to sacks.
If Pierre-Paul has one of his good year, he stands to cash in next offseason. But he’s only topped 6.5 sacks in two of his six NFL seasons, so that’s far from a sure thing.
The Pierre-Paul deal is fairly similar to the one Mario Williams collected in Miami, though Williams tacked an extra year on.
Williams got $4 million in signing bonus and will make $8.5 million this year, with another $1.5 million in incentives available to him. He’s scheduled to make $8.485 million in base salary next year, with $3.5 million of that guaranteed for injury. That portion becomes fully guaranteed next March.
That makes the $3 million the Panthers spent for another year of Charles Johnson seem like a bargain, though he had already made around $60 million from them the previous five years, which makes it seem like much less of a hardship.