The real deal is for 4 years if you look at how the contract is structured. A lot of fans overreacted to the news of the deal without fully understanding it's true value. The only numbers they saw were $108 Million extnesion and $55 Million in guarantees. What they failed to understand was the $11.5M was already guaranteed under his current deal for the 2013 season, so in reality, the remaining amount is really what was "new money". The remaining fluff in the guarantees is a medical safeguard for the cowboys for the first three years. All in total the real value equates to just around $57M. Which by the way is less than Drew Brees ($61M and Joe Flacco $62M). The rest of the numbers are just funny money that the player will never actually see the full value of due to future contract restructures or the player getting cut.
Romo's deal is actually very favorable when compared to other QB deals currently and will pale in comparison when the deals for Aaron Rodgers, Matt Stafford and Matt Ryan come up in the next two years. Where it is going to be a challenge is in year 2-3 of the deal where his salary balloons into the mid $20M range per season, but that will pale again in comparison to the aforementioned QBs who will have larger deals and more guaranteed money. The real terms of the contract look like this:
Year Base Sign. Bonus Misc. Cap Charge
2013 $1.5 M $5 M $5.32 M $11.82 M
2014 $13.5 M $5 M $3.27 M $21.77 M
2015 $17 M $5 M $3.27 M $25.27 M
2016 $8.5 M $5 M $1.64 M $15.14 M
2017 $14 M $5 M N/A $19 M
2018 $19.5 M N/A N/A $19.5 M
2019 $20.5 M N/A N/A $20.5 M
In reality, the only problematic years are 2-3. The rest of the deal looks like a less than market deal for a top10-15 QB. He'll never see any of that money in reality, because they will approach him next year and have him restructure his base salary again. It's done every year on every team in order to extend the player until the point in which the player loses leverage over his team and can be cut without too great of a cap hit.
For all the Redskin fans out there - good luck with your QB situation. If he continues to have some measure of success, which I think he will, you will be faced with the same dilemma only worse - the market value for his services will far outweigh the price that the Cowboys will have paid. Oh yeah, you'll still be sitting there 5 years from now waiting in anticipation like the rest of the Cowboys fans for that long overdue Super Bowl ......
It's a proven fact over the course of history in the NFL, change is only temporary. It only takes one offseason to figure out how to stop a new wrinkle on the offensive side of the ball. Remember the run and shoot based offense from the Oilers under Warren Moon? How many Super Bowls did that win? Zero. How about the WIldcat? Didn't last long as a viable play call did it? A mobile QB is a great thing when they are under pressure but not as a primary offensive play call. Look at all the mobile QBs in the history of the NFL - that means the QBs who were runners and not passers like Vick, Cunningham, Elway, Young, etc. How many of them won a Super Bowl as a running QB? Zero. Now Elway and Young won SBs eventually, but only when they honed their passing and used the run as a last ditch effort.
If RGIII keeps it up, his career will be over before he even has a chance to sign a long term contract. He is gifted and an awesome athlete, but he needs to learn how to play smarter. Brady and Manning haven't lasted this long for their athletic prowess and they are classic prototypical pocket or mid-line passers. RGIII, Romo, Kaepernik, etc all should take note of this fact and hone their passing skills first, run when needed to extend a play or get that first down but slide and avoid the hit. You'll last a lot longer in this league.
