Per Over The Cap:
| Season | Base Salary | Prorated Signing Bonus | Regular Roster Bonus | Per Game Roster Bonus | New Running Cash Due | Cap Number | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | $1,971,000 | $1,225,168 | $3,196,168 | ||||
| 2025 | $5,635,000 | $1,200,000 | $4,000,000 | $510,000 | $10,145,000 | $11,345,000 | |
| 2026 | $11,490,000 | $1,200,000 | $510,000 | $12,000,000 | $13,200,000 | ||
| 2027 | $12,990,000 | $1,200,000 | $510,000 | $13,500,000 | $14,700,000 | ||
| 2028 | $12,990,000 | $1,200,000 | $510,000 | $13,500,000 | $14,700,000 |
This is a four year, $54 million contract with $15 million in new money fully guaranteed at signing. Initially, it was reported as $60 million with $33 million guaranteed, but Mike Klis reports some details that makes that original report containing “up to” numbers and containing old money from his PPE escalated 2024 salary from his rookie contract.
First, Cooper’s likely guaranteed new money will be $26.49 million. His 2026 base salary of $11.49 million is guaranteed for injury only that will vest to full on the 5th day of the 2025 league year. That means that something utterly disastrous not related to injury would have to occur with Cooper within the rest of the 2024 season, which is highly unlikely.
Cooper also has the same vesting guarantee within his 2027 salary, but it’s limited to only $3 million, and it vests in 2027 instead of the season before. This should be far less assumed to be safe money for Cooper. Add $29.49 million in new money possible guarantees to his old money salary of $3.116 million, and that comes close to the initial reports at $32.6 million.
The discrepancy between the initially reported APY of $15 million, and the actual APY of $13.5 million can be explained by Cooper receiving $6 million in escalators. Per Klis, here is their schedule, in each season from 2026 to 2028:
- Cooper needs a minimum of 11 sacks in the previous season to escalate that season’s salary. If achieved, the escalator is $250,000.
- With 12 sacks, the escalator is $750,000.
- With 13 or more sacks, the escalator is $1.25 million.
- If the 13+ sacks metric is met, and either:
- the Broncos make the playoffs, or;
- they achieve a top ten scoring defense;
With $2 million maximum available per three seasons each, the total escalator potential is $6 million. All of these escalators are initially classified as Not Likely To Be Earned that will not count against the Broncos’ salary cap, and cannot change until the 2025 season has concluded for the Broncos.
Analysis
There’s no way around this one: this is an excellently valued contract for the Broncos. $13.5 million APY occupies a previous gap roughly between the second and third tiers of edge rushers, just below players like Uchenna Nwosu and Haason Reddick at $15M APY, and just above other $13M+ APY players like DeMarcus Lawrence and a trio of Saints edge rushers. Given the high value of the position, my guess is that Cooper could have received more in free agency, yet was satisfied by the offer to stay in Denver.
This contract also gives the Broncos much flexibility at the position. They already flexed some on the same day they extended Cooper by deeming themselves able to trade Cooper’s fellow 2021 rookie class edge rusher from Ohio State in Baron Browning to the Cardinals for a 6th round pick. Nik Bonitto will be next up for a contract after this season, and the reasonable price of Cooper’s extension leaves them plenty of a budget to lock down their starting edge rushers for the long term. And add to this current rookie Jonah Elliss, as well as Drew Sanders eventually returning from injury, and the Broncos have made one of the most important positions in football very deep for multiple seasons.
As a concluding aside on Cooper’s escalators, while sacks have long been the metric of utmost glory for edge rushers and other defenders, I wish that players would negotiate more for tackles for loss instead when incentives and escalators come up. Tackling a running back in the backfield, or a quarterback who just left the passing pose to run, delivers the same excellent result of negative yardage against the opposing offense as a sack does, and should be seen as equal in positive result for the defense.