The full details of the four-year, $180 million contract extension for Aidan Hutchinson are out, and we’re here to break down everything you need to know about it.
A lot of times, people jump right to Spotrac or OverTheCap to see the full breakdown of the numbers, and they are very quick and detailed in reporting contract details. However, the Detroit Lions have been using what is called an “option bonus” often in their contract extensions, and those are not displayed well on either site. It leads some fans to (incorrectly) believe that there are “easy outs” in contracts when that is not true.
Take Hutchinson’s deal, for example. Both Spotrac and OverTheCap seem to display that the Lions could get out of Hutchinson’s deal by 2028 and only incur a $6 million dead cap hit. In 2029, it’s just $3 million with, WOW, nearly $51 million in cap savings! What a deal for Detroit!
Unfortunately, that’s not the reality of the contract. The reason it looks that way is because these sites don’t display the cap impact of option bonuses until they are officially exercised. So let’s break down how the contract is actually going to look, once these options are actioned.
Here’s an overview of what Hutchinson’s contract looks like with each year’s option bonus displayed (figures via ProFootballTalk’s breakdown of the contract):
Before I get into the nitty-gritty, let’s quickly explain what an option bonus is. Basically, it’s something that must be exercised in a specific year, and it pays out similarly to a salary. But the cap hit of an option bonus is spread out evenly for the remaining years of a deal—with a maximum of a five-year split. The benefit for the team is that it lowers the cap hit for the current year. The drawback is that the money becomes fully guaranteed the minute the option is exercised, and the cap hit cannot be removed (or moved) from future years. Players are okay with option bonuses, because it provides more long-term security with so many guarantees pushed into the future.
So in place of a large salary in 2026, 2027, and 2028, the Lions are giving option bonuses of $28.4 million, $28.3 million, and $28.2 million each year. And as soon as they’re each exercised, they’re adding over $5.6 million in cap hits to the next five years.
Then, when the contract is set to void in 2031, all remaining option bonus cap hits are accelerated to that year, leaving a hefty $45 million dead cap with Hutchinson not even under contract. Now, if the Lions opt to extend Hutchinson again, those option bonus cap hits can stay where they are displayed in future years (2031-34), preventing a massive hit in 2031.
But what if the Lions try to get out of the contract early? Let’s say they want to get out in 2029, before Hutchinson’s salary jumps to $29.55 million. Here’s what that would look like:
As you can see, with the 2026, 2027, and 2028 option bonuses already exercised, that adds nearly $54 million in dead cap from remaining guarantees still on the contract. Further complicating an early release in 2029 is the fact that the $29 million of Hutchinson’s 2029 salary becomes fully guaranteed on March 15… of 2028. So if Hutchinson makes the roster in 2028, it makes a 2029 release nearly impossible, unless the Lions want to incur nearly $83 million in dead cap. Remember, his cap hit if he’s just on the roster in 2029 is $53,988,4000.
The outlook is only slightly better if Detroit opts to move on before the final year of his deal:
In this case, there is no guaranteed salary to be concerned about, but the remaining guarantees from the 2026-29 option bonuses still created nearly $50 million in dead cap, saving essentially nothing from his scheduled $49,988,400 cap hit that year.
Putting it all together, here’s what the dead cap for each year really looks like, assuming the team exercises the previous option bonuses prior to the year of a hypothetical “release.”
It’s also worth noting that if the Lions were to trade Hutchinson, all of the option bonus prorations would stay with Detroit, making that an unappealing option, as well. Typically, only the salary travels to the acquiring team, unless the two teams can come to an additional agreement.
So the only time in which the Lions could get out of the contract relatively unscathed would be if they just cut him at the end of this season, before any of the option bonuses come in. Obviously, that’s not going to happen. So expect Hutchinson to likely play out the entirety of his contract—or at least until they offer him a new extension in 2029 or 2030.
As for Hutchinson’s cap hits each year, here’s where they rank compared to other players at his position:
2025: $14.4 million — 14th among EDGEs
2026: $10.1 million — 36th
2027: $16.0 million — 20th
2028: $21.7 million — 11th
2029: $54.0 million — 3rd
2030: $50 million — 2nd
As you can see, the Lions are getting a bargain for at least the first three or four years, which happens to match when the cap hits for Jared Goff, Penei Sewell, and Amon-Ra St. Brown go significantly up. This is obviously no coincidence, and it’ll be how the Lions will have to continue to manage their cap hits when their future extensions are made.
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