Now that Joey Porter is out of legal hot water, he can focus on football again.
Based on his contract numbers detailed today by Darren Urban of the Cardinals’ website, Porter will have to play at a very high level to remain with the team for long.
Porter is scheduled to make $5.75 million base salaries in 2011 and 2012. He’s scheduled to earn $1.25 million in base salary this year, although that doesn’t include bonus money. His total reported three-year deal was $17.5 million, so he’s making $6 million including bonuses this season, at most.
We said when Porter signed that that it looked like a panicked move for Arizona, but the structure of the contract would say how panicked.
This doesn’t seem so bad. Porter is going to be paid well this year, but it’s not an outrageous sum if seen as a one-year contract. Porter going to have to play much better than he did in 2009 (or 2007) to avoid hitting the market again next offseason.