The limit on a vet minimum bonus contract is $80K.
He'd be a great bargain for us at that rate, since the cap hit would be $710K.
NFL Minimum Salaries for 2017 | The Daily Spot
Sorry. I wasn't clear.
I was only quoting the vet minimum number because that's the
lowest salary that the Pats can offer Harrison. I didn't intend to imply that they'd also be seeking the Veteran Minimum Benefit option cap credit. They've foregone that in the past more than a couple of times.
So, a $1.015M salary, plus a $250k signing bonus (or even up to $500k) is pretty close to what he was contracted to the Steelers for in 2017, and the Pats would only be out $250k-$500k if Harrison doesn't make the 53-man in September.
Or, the Pats could make it a $1.25M salary plus a $25ok signing bonus, or structure a contract in a number of different ways to make the total
nominal value come out to $1.5M - $1.75M, while minimizing the cost to the Pats in terms of guaranteed money that becomes dead money if he's released in cutdowns at the end of Camp.
And it's not as if Harrison wouldn't
know that he's basically signing up to participate over the summer for whatever the guaranteed $$ are.
I mean, it's certainly possible that another team could offer him a higher guaranteed amount. Then it's up to him to decide where he wants to spend his summer, and which team is more likely to keep him and give him playing time during the season - and/or, where he'd enjoy things more (which might not be Cleveland, for example).
