We wrote Friday about the future of Raiders linebacker Kamerion Wimbley, noting that Oakland will have a difficult time deciding whether to pay Wimbley $11 million in 2012.
We didn’t know about one complicating factor: The Raiders have to pay Wimbley $6.5 million whether they keep him or not, according to Adam Caplan. (As Jerry McDonald of the Oakland Tribune points out, most of Wimbley’s reported “guaranteed” money was bogus.)
More than half of Wimbley’s salary is guaranteed for this season, even if Oakland cuts him. So the team could save $4.5 million by letting Wimbley go by March 17 or pay $11 million to keep him. That helps to explain why Wimbley feels no desire to restructure his deal; he has all the leverage.
Add up the numbers and cutting Wimbley will be even more difficult to swallow for Oakland now. It doesn’t make a lot of sense if they are going to pay him big money anyway. They may as well get something for it.