Jamel Dean’s New Contract Details With Bucs

As Aaron Wilson is reporting the Bucs fully guaranteed $24.5 million of Dean’s contract upon signing the contract. Those guarantees come in the form of his 2023 base salary ($1.08 million), the majority of his 2024 salary ($9 million) of his $12 million base salary) and an $11.42 million roster bonus that is due to Dean on the fifth day of the 2023 league year.

That roster bonus is one the Bucs will pay out immediately but is prorated across the life of the season for salary cap purposes. If he is still on the Bucs roster by the third day of the 2024 league year the remaining $3 million of his 2024 salary will also become guaranteed.

Jamel Dean’s Salaries By Year

As mentioned before, Dean’s base salaries in 2023 and 2024 are $1.08 million and $12 million, respectively. In addition to those years, he is set to earn $12.5 million in 2025 and $13 million in 2026. Both of those salaries in the final two years are not guaranteed.

Additional Compensation For Jamel Dean

The Bucs also agreed to give Dean up to $500,000 per year in per game roster bonuses. These reward him for being on the field. These bonuses will count against each year’s salary cap hit in varying amounts based on how many games he played the year before.

In 2023 that $500,000 will only count $441,176 against the cap because he only played in 15 games in 2022. So, by league rules only 15 per game roster bonuses are considered “likely to be earned” and eligible to count against the 2023 salary cap. If Dean plays all 17 games this upcoming year the balance of that $500,000 ($58,824) will be charged to the 2024 salary cap and his 2024 per game roster bonuses will count fully against that year’s cap.

Jamel Dean’s Salary Cap Hits By Year

Prior to the details of Dean’s contract being made public I conjectured that his salary cap hit in 2023 would be around $7 million.

The team opted to keep Dean’s 2023 cap hit even lower, saving as much room as possible for other moves. After accounting for the prorated roster bonus, his base salary, and the “likely to be earned” per game roster bonuses, his 2023 salary cap hit checks in at just $4,376,176. In 2024 that salary cap hit jumps all the way up to $15,355,000 (although that number can change depending on how many games he plays in 2023). In 2025 his cap number is set to be $15,855,000 and in 2026 it peaks at $16,355,000.

Dead Money And Cap Savings

Only $24.5 million of Dean’s deal is fully guaranteed. Therefore, if things go south with Dean’s play or they need cap savings down the line they have some opportunities. Due to the nature of the guarantees the Bucs will not be able to save on the salary cap by cutting him until 2025. At that point the only guaranteed part of his salary cap hits would be the 2025/2026 prorations of his 2023 roster bonus which is $5.7 million.

With his cap hit that year being $15.855 million the team could save $10.145 million in salary cap if they chose to move on from Dean that year. If they wait until 2026 those savings go up to $13.5 million.

However, given the fact that the NFL salary cap continues to rise each year almost without fail, the Bucs will have righted their recent salary cap issues, such as the massive dead cap hit they had to take with the retirement of Tom Brady, and Dean only being 30 years old in the final year of his deal, the likelihood that he plays out his entire contract is quite high.

The full details of Dean’s contract can be found at OverTheCap.com.