So either i'm reading this wrong, or this confirms there was no additional cap taken on by JAX before the trade. There goes the "4th round pick was thrown in for JAX to eat more of his salary" rumor.
Yes but in reading this again, it is actually better for both parties than I originally thought. The initial time remaining on the contract was 3 years with the following cap hits.
2020 - $15.625
2021 - $20.625
2021 - $20.750
Of the above $15.25m was guaranteed in 2020 and $5m in 2021 for total of $20.25m. So basically a one year contract where we could dump Foles if he sucked and if he was great we got him for 2 more years at reasonable starting salary amounts.
So initially with the restructure it seemed we were just moving cap space around but the structure of the deal was largely the same except that if Foles excelled he could void the deal and thus it had no upside for us. That is what made it seem terrible as we basically traded upside for salary cap allocation with the overall numbers being seemingly intact.
Now in reading it again it seems they got rid of virtually all the non-guaranteed money converting it into a backup contract. So it seems like it works like this now.
2020 - $8 million
2021 - $8 million
2022 - $8 million.
Basically most of the non-guaranteed money is gone. Foles basically has his 2020, 2021 and $4.25 million of his 2022 salary guaranteed to get to the same $20.25 million guaranteed. So if he is nothing more than a backup then he stays with the team as a good backup for 3 years as he never hits the triggers to void the deal. If he ends up being the starter he can earn 6 million of incentives which I presume would be if he starts and excels in 2020 after which it would only be fair for him to void the deal and be a free agent to negotiate a starter level deal since it was a backup contract.
Presumably if he does blow up and voids the deal that would also void the 8 million and 4.25 million in guarantees in 2021 and 2022. In addition, if they give Mitch his final chance and he blows, they can draft a young QB in 2021 and Foles can start for that year while the young dude learns and then he would likely void the deal after 2021 and at that point we can move on if the rookie had developed.
If if that is how it works then that is a great deal for both parties and I was wrong as misread the terms.