The San Francisco 49ers pulled off a trade this past week to acquire pass rusher Dee Ford from the Kansas City Chiefs. The deal was complete when Ford signed a new five-year, $87.5 million contract with the team.
Now, some details on the contract have emerged, courtesy of Tom Pelissero of NFL Network. Once again, the deal appears to be very team-friendly. It is essentially year-to-year starting with $20.5 million for 2019.
Contract base value: $85 million
Max value: $87.5 million
2019: $20.5 million with $19.75 million guaranteed next week
2019 earnings made up of $4.75 million base salary, $8 million signing bonus, and $7.75 million roster bonus
2020: $14.5 million
2021: $16 million
2022: $17 million
2023: $17 million
Details on #49ers OLB Dee Ford's 5-year contract, which can turn into a 1-year, $20.5 million pact:
$19.75M fully guaranteed by next week.
Remaining $25.25M guarantee is for injury only, with $13.65M "rolling" to full guarantee April 1, 2020.
Base value $85M. Max $87.5M.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) March 16, 2019
Ford would've been due ~$15.4M on franchise tag, so he gets a roughly $5M raise in 2019. If it doesn't work out, they cut Ford after 2019 and carry $6.4M in dead money. If it does, they have a cost-controlled rusher for $14.5M in 2020, $16M in 2021, $17M in 2022, $17M in 2023.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) March 16, 2019
The structure to the Ford deal is like Kaepernick's was, with April 1 roster bonuses giving the team time to decide on whether or not to go forward.
And the team basically paid $3 million over the tag to get 4 years of team options back. Niners killed it.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) March 16, 2019
| Year | Base Salary | Cap Hit | Yearly Cash |
| 2019 | $4.75 million | $14.6 million | $20.5 million |
| 2020 | $13.65 million | $16.1 million | $14.5 million |
| 2021 | $15.15 million | $17.6 million | $16 million |
| 2022 | $16.15 million | $18.6 million | $17 million |
| 2023 | $16.15 million | $18.6 million | $17 million |