Colin Kaepernick only got $13 million guaranteed in new deal with 49ers
By Josh Sanchez
When San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick received his contract extension on Wednesday, fans and media members were flipping their lid because of the astronomical number of “up to” $126 million with $61 million guaranteed.
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However, the $61 million guarantee is far from reality.
Pro Football Talk broke down the contract which shows there is actually just north of $13 million guaranteed in Kaepernick’s new deal.
"For 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and part of 2018, the base salaries are guaranteed only for injury. On April 1 of each year, the guarantees convert from injury only to fully guaranteed. That gives the 49ers the ability to decide, in any given year, to move on from Kaepernick. And with the deadline for the conversion of the guarantee coming on April 1, the 49ers can squat on his rights until several weeks after the start of free agency, making it harder for him to get paid elsewhere.The base salary for 2015 is $12.4 million, guaranteed for injury only until April 1, 2015.For 2016, the base salary is $13.9 million, guaranteed for injury only until April 1, 2016.For 2017, the base salary is $16.5 million, guaranteed for injury only until April 1, 2017.For 2018, the base salary is $17 million, $5.2 million of which is guaranteed for injury only until April 1, 2018."
There is a lot of other language in the deal which really fluffs the actual value of his contract.
You can read that here.
It doesn’t come as the biggest surprise to see a contract talked up more so the number sounds better, but perhaps this will ease the minds of some of those fans and media members that were losing their minds over the amount of money that was going to be coming Kaepernick’s way over the next six years.