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The truth about Matt Schaub's contract
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With all the Matt Schaub talk this week, I felt it necessary to clarify a critical detail that's being left out of almost every columnist opinion piece, blog entry, and talk radio blab session when the subject of the Texans quarterback comes up - which seems like every minute of every day since Sunday.
That critical detail relates to broad and general statements about "Matt Schaub's $48 million contract."
That statement, when combined with two horrible performances in a row by said quarterback, is enough to have fans marching up Kirby Drive demanding refunds on their tickets - or to give Sage some of that money.
At a minimum it results in caller after caller on the radio talk shows, or respondent after respondent to the blogs, to react with a common theme and that's "how come the Texans keep signing these guys to these multi-million dollar deals... blah blah blah..."
Okay, let's save the Ahman Green contract discussion for another day.
Whether the omission of such details by the media is intentional or simply due to lazy reporting isn't the purpose of this piece. The purpose is to present to you the facts about Matt Schaub's contract so you can engage in intelligent discussion - as opposed to overreacting to someone yelling fire in the movie theater.
Here's the deal.
The Texans didn't just "give" Matt Schaub $48 million.
- They gave him $4.5 million on or about May 15, 2007 as a signing bonus.
- They gave him $2.5 million on or about May 15, 2007 as a roster bonus.
- He earned a $50,000 workout bonus during summer camps in 2007.
- He earned a $950,000 base salary in 2007.
- He earned a $50,000 workout bonus during the summer camps in 2008.
- He is scheduled to earn $4.95 million in base salary in '08
- He is scheduled to earn $6.95 million in base salary in '09
Let's do some quick math. Can you say "3 years - $19.95 million?" I knew you could.
[...and yes, I'm well aware of the two draft choices that were given up in the trade for Schaub - and yes, those hurt]
But in terms of the contract, the Texans were smart when they constructed this deal because they have a cap friendly out-clause after next season.
All of this 6 year - $48 million dollar talk is based only on the full POTENTIAL value of Schaub's contract. The truth is that the Texans are "only" obligated to pay Schaub a total of $19.95 million through next season if they choose not to exercise the OPTION to extend Schaub's contract three more years from 2010-'12.
If they exercise the option, which presumably (and hopefully) is based on successful on-field performance and not politics, then yes, Schaub would receive another $10 million dollar option bonus at some point following the '09 season and would be on track to earn that full $48 million over 6 years.
But at this point, especially considering the flawed option given to another QB back in '06, I don't think there's a snowballs chance in hell that Schaub earns that option unless he up-sizes his performance and leads his team to something more than an 8-8 record.
I think he can work through this mess - if he can stay in one piece. While there's been plenty of ugly in his game so far in '08 there are also signs that he knows what the hell he's doing.
Really.
I hope Matt earns that option (on merit). That means he's doing well and the team is doing well. We all want him to succeed and I'd rather see the existing crew get their collective acts together as opposed to going back to square zero - again.
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