Shields signs: 4yr 39mil

[Frank Nova]

Great news. And "wow". Wasn't expecting him to get such a huge contract. However, I am more than happy about this.

[humanrefutation]

That's a lot more than was being reported. A LOT more. Not that I'm complaining. Only 12.5 is guaranteed. But wow.

[FAH1223]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/ShieldSam37/status/442455004210032640[/tweet]

[Profound23]

I hope this works out. I am shocked he got that much, especially from us.

[MickeyDavis]

Supposedly there was concern if he could handle the money. We'll see.

[Turk Nowitzki]

Initial reaction: Happy he's staying, the price tag is bit insane though.

Pressure's going to be on now that we're paying him like a top corner.

[Turk Nowitzki]

I have a feeling the $$$$ from that unexpected salary cap increase might have ended up in this deal as well. I could easily envision that scenario playing out in negotiations.

[FAH1223]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/TomSilverstein/status/442466432803016704[/tweet]

[PkrsBcksGphsMqt]

I always doubted we'd get him for cheap since Rosenhaus is his agent. Glad he's back.

[Sky High]

Always liked Shields. We'll see how it plays out. Hopefully he'll live up to the money

Sent from my XT1058 using RealGM Forums mobile app

[Turk Nowitzki]

Silverstein breaking down the numbers on Twitter, making things seem a little more palatable.

[LittleRooster]

A lot of money, though maybe not as much as it seems but I'm very happy to have him back that's for sure

[Godgers]

Sign me up for not happy with this deal.

[BUCKnation]

I don't mind it. I'm glad he is back.

One thing I know, the real money is in baseball (obviously) or basketball. OJ extra Mayo got $7M less total on a 4yr deal and he is useless.

[OzzyInTheLake]

Working off the information out there so far (i.e. 4yrs $39M, $12.5M signing bonus, $15M first year, $21m in first two years) my best estimate of what the contract looks like would be:

Year 1
- $12.5M signing bonus (Cap Hit of $3.125 every year of the contract)
- $2.5M base salary (brings us to the $15M first year payment)
- Cap hit of $5.625M (2.5M base + 3.125 signing bonus)

Year 2
- $6M base/bonuses salary (to bring us to the $21M in the first 2 years)
- Cap Hit of $9.125M ($6M base/bonuses + 3.125 signing bonus)

Years 3 and 4
- $18M in Salary/Bonuses owing to Shields remaining ($39M minus $21M already paid)
- Therefore base/bonuses salary averaging $9M per year (this could and is likely to be far less given I assume a lot of those bonuses are unlikely to be reached)
- Cap hit of ~$9M/year (minus bonuses deemed ‘not likely’) + $3.125 signing bonus = ~$12.125M (minus bonuses deemed ‘not likely’).

I would expect years 3 and 4 salary/bonuses to heavily tied to incentives/non-guaranteed as $9million/year plus the cap hit of 3.125 from the signing bonus seems like an enormous amount of cap space taken up just for Shields.

Also, the packers dead salary money is usually extremely low (comparatively), so $3.125M/year remaining of the deal is a lot of dead money to carry if Shields were to be cut before the deal ends ie. If Shields were cut after year 2, the pack would carry $6.25M in dead money from Shields alone in 2016 – I can’t recall the pack carrying that much dead money for one player in a year recently. Infact, the entire dead money on this past season's cap was $3.137M (http://overthecap.com/teamcap.php?Team= ... &Year=2013).

Therefore, I think it’s likely that Shields is here at least 3 years, and wouldn’t be surprised if he was here all 4. So even though the year 3 and 4 salaries are reportedly entirely (or almost) non-guaranteed, I am really viewing this as atleast a 3 year deal. The interesting part will be how much of the theoretical $18M he is ‘owed’ for years 3 and 4 he actually will earn.

[OzzyInTheLake]

In terms of my opinion on the contract.. I am glad we got one of the better pieces of our secondary back. And I am glad we did it in a way that preserves cap space this year - in that I feel this is a good indicator that we will bring in some bigger name Free Agents.

However, I feel the per year ave is quite high for a guy that isn't an 'elite' corner. I don't know whether the unexpected cap jump is going inflate this free agent market, but I would guess that a 'better value' free agent corner could be had later on in free agency.

Having said that, as long as this signing doesn't hinder our ability to re-sign key players in upcoming years, or sign big ticket free agents this year, I don't think over-paying $1-2M/year for a good player whom already knows our system is that big of a deal.

[Godgers]

Everyone likes Shields. Problem is he just got elite corner money and is not a elite corner.

My concern is this is classic TT. Over pay your own and be scared to sign players from other teams.

If TT goes out and signs a few solid starters on the defense then I don't have as big of a issue with this Shields deal.

If this starts the TT over pay train and next we over pay Kuhn, than Picket, than EDS and sign no FA starters on the defense I will be upset.

[Ill-yasova]

I'm also glad he's back and I agree it's a big investment. That said, look at his per year salary compared to the other guys in his price range. Seems pretty spot on actually.
http://overthecap.com/top-player-salaries.php?Position=CB

[Turk Nowitzki]

A bunch of teams having a ton of cap space means the money is going to be flying fast and furious in a few days. This contract will seem like a relative drop in the bucket imo.

[Newz]

Don't mind this deal at all with how it is reportedly structured. Shields is young and has been improving consistently. So we get him for the prime years of his career and he could, in theory, get even better given his tendency to improve, how new he was to the position coming into the league and his physical abilities.

That being said I am a bit scared because apparently there were questions about how he would handle the money.

He does make it so that now corner is not at all a concern for us and we can basically avoid it in the draft unless we see an absolute steal available. It would have been a tough pill to swallow if we lost arguably our second best defensive player (and maybe our best defensive player last year with Clay being hurt) while our defense is struggling... especially when he is just coming into his prime.

So here is to hoping he stays focused and keeps improving.