Inside Slant

[The Spaz]

OK, so how much money did the Bills save by re-working quarterback Drew Bledsoe's contract?
Approximately $7 million, but that's only assuming they were going to exercise an option to extend the next three-year phase of the deal he originally signed with New England.

According to figures from the National Football League Player's Association, Bledsoe was scheduled to earn a little more than $25 million over the next three seasons. His new deal will pay him $18.5 million if he sees the end of the contract.

The immediate savings for the team is lowering Bledsoe's 2004 salary cap figure to around $4.4 million and creating $3.9 million in room to do business.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/bills/home.htm

[Goobylal]

I think it's pretty safe to assume the Bills wanted to keep Bledsoe beyond this season, but didn't want to pay the $7M bonus AND the huge salaries he was scheduled to make. So they gave him $500K less and cut his salaries in half. IOW the Bills saved money, to the tune of $6.5M.

[Mr. Cynical]

"As for this season, he'll actually make $500,00 more than he would have under terms of his old contract, approximately $8.75 million in real money ($6.5 million in signing bonus, $2.25 million in base salary)."

[Goobylal]

That's spurious. If the Bills had kept Bledsoe for just this season, they would have paid him about $7.9M. However they wanted him for longer than that, so actually Bledsoe isn't making as much as the $12.9M he would have made if hey gave him that $7M bonus.

[madness]

So are USA today and CBS Sportsline using the same source? This is exactly the same format cbs sportsline uses.