As you know, the Steelers signed Maurkice Pouncey to a five year extension yesterday. Initial reports revealed that the 5 year deal included a total value of $44 Mil, with a $13 Mil guaranteed signing bonus. Thanks to additional numbers provided by Jason LaCanfora, Tom Pelissero, and Aaron Wilson, I can break down the contract for you. FYI, anyone who says they aren’t using numbers provided by the latter two to give a full breakdown, are straight up full of it.

Pouncey’s total deal is for 6 years, $48 Mil. The contract includes roster bonuses that are due the 5th day of 2015 and 2016 league years, which are for $3.75 Mil and $3.5 Mil respectively. Pouncey’s 2014 salary has been reduced to $1 Mil, and now has just over a $5 Mil cap number. His 2014 cap number has been lowered a couple hundred thousand.

[table]

Year, Base Salary, Prorated Bonus, Roster Bonus, Cap Hit, Dead Money

2014, “$1,000,000″,”$4,000,625″,”$0″,”$5,000,625”, “$14,400,625”

2015, “$1,750,000″,”$2,600,000″,”$3,750,000″,”$8,100,000”, “$10,400,000”

2016, “3,500,000”,”$2,600,000″,”$3,500,000″,”$9,600,000″, “$7,800,000”

2017, “$7,500,000″,”$2,600,000″,”$0″,”$10,100,000”, “$5,200,000”

2018, “7,000,000”,”$2,600,000″,”$0″,”$9,600,000″, “$2,600,000”

2019, “$7,000,000″,”$0″,”$0″,”$7,000,000”, “$0”

[/table]

As you can see, the deal is actually very team friendly, and is structured so that the team can get out easily in the last couple years. Don’t get too wrapped up in that ‘total value’ number. The only money that is truly guaranteed is the $13 Mil signing bonus. If he is on the roster in March of ’15, and ’16, he’ll receive those roster bonuses. Hopefully Steeler Nation is feeling a little better about this now.

*Edit. I’ve added a column for dead money by year should he be released.