Nearly three months after he was picked by the Redskins, quarterback Robert Griffin III has struck a deal with the team. Several of you have asked for more details. And so here they are.
As previously explained, it’s a four-year, fully-guaranteed contract with no offset language. The contract has a value of $21,119,098, including a $13,799,344 signing bonus.
Per a source with knowledge of the deal, the base salaries are $390,000 in 2012, $1.34 million in 2013, $2.30 million in 2014, and $3.26 million in 2015.
The contract also includes, per the Collective Bargaining Agreement, an option for a fifth year. For the first 10 players taken in the draft, the team can retain the player for a fifth year at the transition tag number for his position. For Griffin, that means the average of the 10 highest-paid quarterbacks in 2015.
More importantly, the Redskins can reward Griffin with a new deal after his third NFL season. And that’s one of the reasons Griffin, as we heard it earlier this year, preferred the Redskins to the Colts. Indy has a history of making its franchise quarterbacks complete their contracts before giving them new ones; Peyton Manning had to do it not once but twice.
In D.C., owner Daniel Snyder has been so desperate to get a franchise quarterback that Snyder gladly will open the vault for Griffin, if Griffin becomes a genuine franchise quarterback.