The first 17 picks Saturday.

[Keith]

Originally Posted by papabear

Everyone keeps talking about all the money we tied up in Reeves, but I was under the impression that even though his contract had a pretty big number that the deal was structured so that we could get rid of him after one year without major cap implications. Maybe Keith can clear that up....because I'm not sure where I got that and it could be completely wrong.

Reeves signed a 5-year contract that included a $4 million signing bonus ($4MM / 5 yr = $800k/yr prorate). He also got an addition $2 million as a roster bonus on this year's cap, which is the reason why cutting him after this year or next would be less painful... that extra $2MM won't need to be spread over future years.

2008: $1MM base, $800k prorate, $2MM roster = $3.8MM cap hit

So getting rid of Reeves after just one year would mean ($800k * 4 years) $3.2 million in dead money. If taken as a June 1, 2009 cut, that would mean $800k on the 2009 cap and $2.4 million on the 2010 cap.