The Arizona Cardinals inked safety Jalen Thompson to a new contract that keeps him with the team through 2025. The former fifth-round supplemental draft pick from 2019 gets a big pay day.
The original numbers reported were that the deal is worth nearly $40 million and has $24.5 million in guaranteed money.
Over the Cap has Thompson’s contract details. Below, we break down the numbers and details of the contract extension below.
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Contract details
Originally reported at nearly $40 million over the extension, Over the Cap has the total at $36 million. The numbers add up to $36.71 million through 2025.
Since it is a three-year extension, it will be known as a $12 million per-year average, even though he gets $36 million over four seasons.
The total in guarantees comes to $20.85 million.
He receives a $10.17 million signing bonus.
He is scheduled to receive a $7.935 million option bonus in 2023.
He has $170,000 in per-game roster bonuses he can earn from 2022-2025.
His salaries in 2022 and 2023 are fully guaranteed.
There is a voiding year in 2026 for cap purposes.
Yearly salaries
Thompson does not get a big bump in yearly salary until 2024. His raises come in the form of bonuses.
His yearly salaries are as follows:
- 2022: $965,000 (fully guaranteed)
- 2023: $1.1 million (fully guaranteed)
- 2024: $8.3 million
- 2025: $7.56 million
Salary cap implications
Thompson’s original rookie contract still carries a cap charge in 2022 of $85,730.
His $10.17 million signing bonus will be prorated over five seasons (2022-2025 as well the voiding 2026 year), making his cap charge for the bonus each year $2.034 million.
His 2023 option bonus of $7.935 million will prorate over four seasons, including the 2026 voiding year, giving the deal a prorated cap charge of more than $1.98 million.
As such, this is what his cap hit looks like each year:
2022: Up to $3.08 million (2022 salary, old signing bonus proration, new signing bonus proration, potential per-game roster bonus)
2023: Up to $5.29 million (2023 salary, new signing bonus proration, option bonus proration, potential per-game roster bonus)
2024: Up to $12.49 million (2024 salary, new signing bonus proration, option bonus proration, potential per-game roster bonus)
2025: Up to $11.75 million (2025 salary, new signing bonus proration, option bonus proration, potential per-game roster bonus)
2026: $4.02 million in dead money from bonus prorations
Over the Cap has his 2025 cap hit being up to $13.75 million, but his salary and prorated bonus cap hits only come out to $11.75 million. It is likely he has a $2 million roster bonus that is not yet added to the salary chart.
If he does end up with a $2 million roster bonus in 2025, then his cap hit would then be up to $13.75 million.
The Cardinals would have a potential way out of the contract in 2025. They could save $5.7 million in cap space that year but would carry a dead money charge of more than $8 million.
