blackangold

Jonathan Vilma and Will Smith took a combined cut in pay of nearly $10 million in order to stay with the New Orleans Saints.

I just got a look at the official details of the contract restructuring by the two veterans, and these aren’t the typical instances where base salary is converted to signing bonus. These were flat-out cuts in pay.

Vilma had been scheduled to earn $4.8 million in base salary. After the restructuring, he’ll earn only $1 million in base pay. He also had his workout bonus increased from $100,000 to $200,000. Vilma originally had been scheduled to count $8.633 million against this year’s cap. His new cap figure is $3.833 million.

Smith’s cut was even deeper. He saw his base salary dropped from $9 million to $3 million. Smith’s cap figure initially was scheduled to be $13.9 million; his new cap figure is $8.502 million. The Saints did not alter Smith’s contract for 2014, when he’s scheduled to make $10.4 million in base salary and have a $13.9 million cap figure.

Again, straight pay cuts -- especially ones this large -- are rare. But Vilma and Smith were in rare circumstances. They went through a difficult 2012 with the bounty scandal and the Saints stood by them. Now, Vilma and Smith are returning that loyalty.

Jonathan Vilma, Will Smith took massive pay cuts to stay with Saints - ESPN