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The full, year-by-year contract details for Cleveland Browns CB Tramon Williams are now available, per several sources. The deal was originally reported as being for 3 years and $21 million, but no information was revealed in relation to how much guaranteed money he would be getting or how much his cap hits would be from 2015-2017. Williams' year-by-year contract details are illustrated below.
| CB Tramon Williams - Browns' Contract Breakdown | ||||
| Base Salary | Signing Bonus | Roster Bonus | Total Cap Hit |
|
| 2015 | $ 3,700,000 | $ 500,000 | $ 2,300,000 |
$ 6,500,000 |
| 2016 | $ 6,200,000 | $ 500,000 | $ 300,000 | $ 7,000,000 |
| 2017 | $ 5,700,000 | $ 500,000 | $ 1,300,000 | $ 7,500,000 |
| Total | $ 15,600,000 | $ 1,500,000 |
$ 3,900,000 | $ 21,000,000 |
- Williams' contract includes $10 million in guaranteed money. This includes his entire base salary for 2015, and $2.8 million of his base salary in 2016. Together, that is $6.5 million guaranteed in base salary. His signing bonus of $1.5 million bumps that number up to $8 million. Lastly, Williams is due a $2 million roster bonus on March 20th.
- In 2017, Williams is due a $1 million roster bonus if he's still with the Browns on the third day of that league year.
- For the life of his contract, Williams is due a roster bonus of $18,750 for every game that he plays in. This equates to a roster bonus of $300,000 per season, or $900,000 over the life of the contract. This is a likely-to-be-earned bonus, so it counts toward his cap hit despite the fact that he hasn't actually played those games yet.
- Williams' $6.5 million cap hit in 2015 is the 7th highest cap hit on the Browns this year. His cap hit goes is pretty even dispersed through all three years of his contract. Since nothing besides his $500,000 prorated signing bonus is fully guaranteed in 2017, it's highly likely that Williams plays for the Browns from 2015-2016. In 2017, the Browns can then make a decision heading into the offseason as to whether or not Williams is still worth retaining for the final year of his deal.
- Even though it's only a three-year deal vs. a four-year deal, the Browns are paying more for Williams than the Jets are paying for departed CB Buster Skrine. Skrine had a 4-year deal worth $25 million and $13 million guaranteed. Skrine's deal was structured similar in the sense that most of his guaranteed money comes in the first two years of his contract. After that, his contract is very cuttable from 2017-2018.
It's interesting how much the Browns were willing to pay Williams compared to what Skrine got on the open market. It tells me that despite the praise the team gave CB Buster Skrine last year, they felt a guy like Williams would be a better fit for Mike Pettine's defensive mentality.