Tyrann Mathieu’s arrival likely means Eric Berry’s exit
Posted by Mike Florio on March 11, 2019, 11:09 PM EDT
Getty Images
The Chiefs will be paying $14 million per year over three years to safety Tyrann Mathieu. They also are paying $13 million per year to safety Eric Berry. For now.
The arrival of Mathieu likely means that Berry will be gone, a development that wouldn’t surprise many due to the injuries that have plagued Berry over the past two years. Berry has played in only three games since rupturing an Achilles tendon in Week One of the 2017 season.
Already owed $2.95 million in guaranteed money for 2019, another $7.25 million of Berry’s base salary becomes fully guaranteed on March 15. Which means that, if the Chiefs will be pulling the plug on Berry’s deal, they need to do it sooner than later.
Cutting Berry without a post-June 1 designation would trigger a $14.95 million cap charge for 2019. Of that amount $8 million could be pushed to 2020 by using the post-June 1 designation.
Keeping Berry would result in a cap charge of $16.5 million, and a cash expenditure of $12.5 million. Which makes it very difficult to justify keeping him on the roster, especially with so much invested in Mathieu. [Reply]
Originally Posted by htismaqe:
He's going to probably count about $7M against the 2019 cap and I've seen a couple of people say it might only be 1/3 guaranteed money.
Yeah, i'm thinking they misspoke on the 14 guaranteed part.
I think the handwriting is on the wall for Berry. Post June 1 cut, buh-bye. I was solidly in the pro-Berry camp until midway last season and then I saw what a fool I'd been when his spirit didn't move him. At that point, he was dead to me.
I do have a question for those that know the rules, however. If you cut him with a post June 1 designation, can he start looking for a new team now or does he have to wait for June 2? [Reply]
Originally Posted by oldman:
I think the handwriting is on the wall for Berry. Post June 1 cut, buh-bye. I was solidly in the pro-Berry camp until midway last season and then I saw what a fool I'd been when his spirit didn't move him. At that point, he was dead to me.
I do have a question for those that know the rules, however. If you cut him with a post June 1 designation, can he start looking for a new team now or does he have to wait for June 2?
I think he can go now. The June 1 designation is just about paperwork.
I'm still not sure about Berry's bonus money and guaranteed money. If Berry has another bonus of 7.5 million due on March 15 we pretty much have to cut him. If all that money is already guaranteed but we just pay it out on the 15th then maybe he stays.
Originally Posted by The Franchise:
Just cut him this year and take the dead cap hit now.
Exactly. This. If you wait until next year, the money/cap results are roughly identical.
Originally Posted by GloryDayz:
Worst contract in history IMO. Proof that you deal with players without emotion, no matter how much people have come to love them.
Lord knows they're only in it for themselves, so Chiefs management needs to have learned from this very hard lesson, and make sure they understand the best way to deal with these employees.
I'm pretty sure that's the last time you'll see Clark go to bat at the negotiating table for a player.
Also, if we haven't fired our medical staff from the start of the Reid era, we need to do so immediately. Doctors and trainers are a dime a dozen. [Reply]
Originally Posted by JakeF:
I think he can go now. The June 1 designation is just about paperwork.
I'm still not sure about Berry's bonus money and guaranteed money. If Berry has another bonus of 7.5 million due on March 15 we pretty much have to cut him. If all that money is already guaranteed but we just pay it out on the 15th then maybe he stays.