Dolfans and Dolfanettes
this is a "dream come true" contract....
Fiedler's contract is good for both sides....
If Fiedler plays out and reaps all the benefits he'll make his money before the contract is being renegotiated in 3 years.
Up until then Fiedler is still a fairly low cost option....
Not only is his base salary low over the next 3 years but his signing bonus of 4 million is not as bad as some thing.
At worst or best (depending on the point of view) Fiedler will be here for 2 years will make some 6 million dollars and will be released with a minimum cap hit.
After the 2003/2004 season only his signing bonus would be a cap hit or what would be remaining of it (somewhere around 2.2 million)...
The end of the 2003/2004 will be important because Miami has to make a decision on the roster bonus of (I believe 2 million).
Numbers:
2002/2003: 525,000 in salaries plus 800,000 in signing bonus
Total: ~1.3 million plus 1,200,000 roster bonus in March 2003
2003/2004*: 750,000 in salaries plus 1,000,000 in signing bonus
Total: 1,750,000 plus 2,000,000 roster bonus in March 2004
These are Fiedler's base numbers. If Fiedler performs well the contract will be renegotiated because his base salary will accelerate to 3,700,000 (2004/2005), 5,700,000 (2005/2006) and 6,500,000 (2006/2007).
Cutting Fiedler after year 1 (2002/2003) season does not make sense in any case because our cap hit (signing bonus) would then be 3,000,000.
Fiedler will be our QB for 2 years. If cut after 2 years our cap hit will only be 2.2 million dollars.
Advantage for Dolphins is: if Fiedler does not perform he is so affordable that you could even bench him for the 2003/2004 season. Most of his money is made in backloaded salaries, incentives (performance bonus) and signing bonus. Fiedler will be guranteed 6 million dollars but the Dolphins secured themselves by keeping the basic numbers low.
It is a cap friendly, terrific deal for both sides.
Well done by Fiedler, Levy, Spielman and Wannstedt.
If Fiedler bombs in the next two years he will only count 2.2 million against the cap if cut...giving that the salary cap by then will increase 5-6 million it is an excellent number.
If he gets cut after year 1. Dolphins would save an additional 1.2 million roster bonus and would get hit with roughly 3.3 million..still not bad.
Fiedler's contract is so cap friendly that you could even bench him in the 2003/2004 (year 2) and swallow only the roster bonus and the salary (750,000).
It is a dream contract because if he fails we have a very small price to pay....if he succeeds then we pay a lot more but it will be well worth it.
