OT: Lions-Broncos.

Link--Lions made a mess of Suh contract

The Lions, however, would proceed to make a disaster out of Suh’s contract, showing almost no thought of long-term planning. Suh’s contract would be reworked for salary cap relief in both 2012 and 2013, pushing salary cap charges further and further into the contract. To make matters worse, Suh’s deal contained a voidable contract year in 2015, which was simply used as a placeholder for salary cap charges. The charges in the voidable year will remain with the Lions whether or not Suh is on the team that season.

Suh’s original contract would have called for a salary cap charge of $16.147 million in 2014 with just $3.472 million left in charges in the 2015 season. Following all of the restructuring, his cap charge grew to $22.4125 million in 2014 with $9.7375 million in charges still sitting in that voidable contract year.

These decisions have compromised the Lions’ ability to negotiate a long-term extension with Suh at a reasonable compensation level and contract structure. Normally teams will threaten a player with a franchise tag when negotiating a contract, and under his prior contract structure, that figure would have been $19.226 million. While that number seems incredibly high, it would be less cash than he would receive in a contract extension and both sides would have reason to get a contract done. Now the cost of the franchise tag will be $26.745 million with a salary cap charge of $36.483 million.