Bobby Wagner agreed to a five-year, $50 million contract with the Rams last week, remaining in the NFC West with one of the Seahawks’ rivals. Wagner still has not yet signed his contract with the Rams, so the details of the deal haven’t become public.
We don’t know how much money is guaranteed, what his cap hits will be each year or what the included incentives are. According to reports, however, his cap hit is on the lower side in Year 1.
Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk reported that “no fewer than four sources have told us that the deal actually pays out $6.5 million in the first year.” That’s lower than the $10 million per year Wagner will average with the Rams.
Ian Rapoport reported on Friday that his sense is “the Year 1 number is lower than $10 million” and that the rest of the deal is “kind of pay-as-you-go.”
"The Bobby Wagner contract seems like a massive number but the Rams structure contracts very smartly" ~@RapSheet#PMSLive pic.twitter.com/q0igpU9gxP
— WrestleMania Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) April 1, 2022
The Rams always find ways to creatively structure contracts so that they have smaller cap hits in the first year and usually void years at the end to spread out money at the end. That’ll probably be the case with Wagner, given the Rams’ limited cap space in 2022.
We’ll just have to wait to see the details before we’re able to break down the yearly cap hits.
