The Panthers signed former Steelers wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery to a five year deal yesterday.

Cotchery makes it official! RT to welcome @cotcheryfoundat to #PantherNation! pic.twitter.com/AtZj8aEVzT

— Carolina Panthers (@Panthers) March 20, 2014

There were early reports stating that it was a two year deal, but those were not correct. Cotchery’s contract is a 5 year deal, totaling $8.015 Mil. The deal includes a $2.25 Mil guaranteed signing bonus. The deal also includes a $50,000 workout bonus in 2015. Here is a breakdown of the contract.

[table]

Player, Year, Base Salary, Prorated Signing Bonus, Salary Cap Number

“Cotchery, Jerricho”, 2014, “$1,250,000”, “$450,000”, “$1,700,000”
“Cotchery, Jerricho”, 2015, “$1,450,000”, “$450,000”, “$1,950,000”
“Cotchery, Jerricho”, 2016, “$1,000,000”, “$450,000”, “$1,450,000”

“Cotchery, Jerricho”, 2017, “$1,000,000”, “$450,000”, “$1,450,000”

“Cotchery, Jerricho”, 2018, “$1,015,000”, “$450,000”, “$1,465,000”

[/table]

As you can see, this is a good deal for Cotchery, and a better one than the Steelers would have offered certainly. On top of that, Cotchery played at NC State in college, and has friends and family there. About the signing, Cotchery said, “I’m home. I’m coming back home.”

“I left Ben Roethlisberger. If you’re going to leave a quarterback like that, you better be sure that you’re going to go to someone that can play at a high level.”, Cotchery told the Panthers website.