Tackle Eugene Monroe arrived in Baltimore during the 2013 season, via trade with the Jaguars. A free agent this week, Monroe had no real Plan B for 2014.
“There was really no second,” Monroe recently told Erik Kuselias of NBCSN’s Pro Football Talk. “You know, because I did desire to be here. I was never at a point where I was strongly considering being anywhere else.”
Helping Monroe stay put is a contract that pays him $19 million in fully guaranteed money, via an $11 million signing bonus, a fully-guaranteed base salary of $1 million in 2014, a fully-guaranteed base salary of $5.5 million in 2015, and $1.5 million in fully-guaranteed base salary for 2016. (His full base salary in 2016 will be $6.5 million.)
The five-year, $37.5 million contract also has base values of $6.75 million in 2017 and 2018. He may have been able to generate a little more elsewhere, but it’s clear he didn’t want to leave.
