The strange saga of Martavis Bryant coming and going and coming back to Oakland includes another strange detail: The Raiders have decided to sign Bryant to make the same pay he was going to make before they cut him.
Bryant will make $112,176 a week for the Raiders this season, according to Tom Pelissero of NFL Network. That’s the same base pay as the $1.907 million salary he was slated to make before the Raiders cut him, on the contract Bryant originally signed as a rookie with the Steelers. Bryant won’t get paid for Week One, because he wasn’t on the roster, but he’ll get paid the same going forward as he would have if he had stayed on the team.
That’s a little surprising because there were no reports of any other teams having any interest in Bryant. If Bryant had no other options, why wouldn’t the Raiders squeeze him into accepting a league-minimum salary, which would have saved the team more than $1 million?
There have been reports that Bryant is facing a potential NFL suspension under the substance-abuse policy. Such a suspension would be unpaid. But as long as Bryant is playing, he’ll be making the salary he was going to make if he had never been cut.