Chiefs

Full Breakdown Of Justin Houston’s New Six-Year, $101M Deal

July 17, 2015

Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk also posted the complete breakdown of the new six-year, $101 million deal signed by Chiefs OLB Justin Houston.

According to Florio, Houston’s contract includes a $20.5 million signing bonus with $8.5 million of this figure being deferred until April 1, 2016.

2015: $1 million base salary (fully guaranteed)
2016: $14.9 million base salary, $11 million fully guaranteed at signing, another $3.75 million fully guaranteed if Houston is on the team’s roster as of the third day of the 2016 league year. Houston also receives a $100,000 workout bonus.
2017: $16.35 million base salary, $6.75 million fully guaranteed at signing, another $9.5 million fully guaranteed if Houston is on the team’s roster as of the third day of the 2017 league year. Houston also receives a $150,000 workout bonus.
2018: $14.75 million non-guaranteed base salary, $250,000 workout bonus.
2019: $15.25 million non-guaranteed base salary, $250,000 workout bonus.
2020: $17 million non-guaranteed base salary, $500,000 workout bonus.

Houston will have cap figures of: $5.1 million (2015), $19.1 million (2016), $20.6 million (2017), $19.1 million (2018), $19.6 million (2019), and $17.5 million (2020).

According to Florio, the Chiefs created over $8 million in available cap space by locking Houston up to this new contract.

In terms of average salary, Houston has raised the bar quite a bit for linebackers with his $16,833,333 annual salary. The closest linebacker to Houston is Packers LB Clay Matthews at $13,200,000.

While that’s pretty impressive, Houston’s $52.5 million guaranteed is more than double the $23,490,253 million No. 2 overall pick Dante Fowler Jr got from the Jaguars a few months ago.

There are a number of future free agents who will be thankful that Houston set the bar this high such as Broncos OLB Von Miller, who could be headed for the franchise tag in 2016.