A breakdown of David Montgomery’s new contract and what it means for the next four years.
Over the weekend, the Detroit Lions handed running back David Montgomery a two-year extension worth a reported $18.25 million and $10.49 million guaranteed. As always, it’s important to take those initial details with a grain of salt, as the actual breakdown of mechanisms of each contract are most important.
OverTheCap’s Jason Fitzgerald offered the full details, and it involves two things: the added two years, plus a lowering of Montgomery’s 2024 salary (from $5.25 million to $2.27 million), which was likely turned into an immediate signing bonus and that cap hit spreads out over the remaining five years of the deal. As Fitzgerald points out, that actually lowers his 2024 cap hit by $1.7 million, but bumps his 2025 cap up by $1.25 million.
As for the added two years, they involve salaries of $5.49 million and $7.49 million and a signing bonus of $3.25 million.
Here’s what that all looks like, according to OverTheCap:
2024:
- $2,270,833 salary (down from $5,250,000)
- $5,053,431 cap hit
- $13,875,000 dead cap if cut
2025:
- $5,490,000 salary ($2 million guaranteed)
- $8,370,833 cap hit
- $9,233,334 dead cap if cut
2026 (new year):
- $5,490,000 salary
- $510,000 in per game roster bonuses
- $8,370,833 cap hit
- $4,862,501 dead cap if cut ($3,508,322 in cap savings)
2027 (new year):
- $7,490,000 salary
- $1 million roster bonus
- $510,000 in per game roster bonus
- $10,245,833 cap hit
- $2,491,688 dead cap if cut ($7,754,165 in cap savings)
2028 (void year)
- $1,245,835 in automatic dead cap
First of all, here’s where Montgomery’s contract ranks among running backs in cap hit for each year:
- 2024: 12th
- 2025: 9th
- 2026: 8th
- 2027: 4th
Overall, that seems relatively reasonable, and those rankings are only likely to go down as more running backs get new contracts.
The other aspect of this contract that is worth pointing out is the second year of the extension (for the 2027 season). With a $10.2 million cap hit and only about $2.5 million in guarantees left in the contract, there is a very easy out for Detroit should Montgomery’s effectiveness wane by then. Montgomery will be 30 years old that season, so if he hits that 30-year-old wall that a lot of skill position players do, Detroit can move on and clear $7.75 million in cap room. If he’s still balling out, then he’s still not hitting the books as much as Christian McCaffrey ($27.5M cap hit), Saquon Barkley ($19.3M) and Josh Jacobs ($16.5M) are that year.
Overall, this functionally looks like a one-year extension for Montgomery at about the pay he’s getting now, plus a second-year option in 2027 if he’s still playing like he is right now.
