BakoSaint

The one sentence from Underhill does not really explain it. Previously Ram was due base salaries of $17m in 2024, $18m in 2025, $19m in 2026, had $10m prorated money from past bonuses due in each of those years, and $2.5m dead money due in 2027 void year. For 2025, $6.5m of his $17m base salary was going to guarantee this Saturday March 16.

So now we know his salary has dropped to a vet minimum, probably under $1.5m, but we don't know how much of that is a pay cut and how much was converted to bonuses. He previously had no guarantees (but would have had one for $6.5m on Saturday) and presumably the Saturday guarantee was accelerated to today. So his yearly cash for this year, regardless of what future caps it has been restructured to is somewhere between $6.5m-$17m. There is a 2025 escalator that lets him earn a lot back but how much? If he was previously set to earn $18m in 2025 does the escalator allow him to get back to $18m, or does it let him make up for all pay cuts he took and potentially take him $18m plus the possible $10.5m 2024 pay cut for a total of $28.5m in 2025? And is any of it guaranteed at any time and how to does it trigger? If Ram plays 17 games in 2024 but loses a step in performance, we don't want to guarantee him $28.5 million or anything close to that. On the other hand if it triggers on performance and availability and it just gets back up to $18m if he is fully back, that's reasonable.

Hopefully he took an actual pay cut and its a good deal. If the surgery goes well and he can move forward at a reasonable salary without giant guarantees that is good. If the injury bug returns in 2024 he can be a post-june-1 cut if there are no guarantees for 2025.