In making the move from a 28-year-old tight end with a distant injury history to a 32-year-old tight end with a more recent injury history, the dollars favored the move for the older player.
Pat Yasinskas of ESPN.com reports that Dallas Clark will receive a $2.7 million base salary, $1 million of which is guaranteed.
That’s a lot less than the total payout Winslow would have received, via a $3.3 million base salary and (per a source with knowledge of the contract) a per-game roster bonus worth up to $550,000, a $500,000 workout bonus, and incentives worth up to $1 million.
The difference is that, with Winslow, none of the money was guaranteed; the Bucs could have cut him before Week One and avoided everything but the workout bonus. Clark gets his $1 million, even if the Buccaneers later decide that it was a mistake.
It’s still not clear why the Bucs felt compelled to get rid of Winslow, but there’s an intriguing theory that we’ll share later tonight. (That’s not a deliberate tease, but if it gets you to come back later tonight then so be it.)
Until then, here’s a portion of PFT Live in which I try to figure out why the Bucs made the move.