Per Over The Cap:
| Season | Base Salary | Prorated Signing Bonus | Prorated Option Bonus | Per Game Roster Bonus | New Running Cash Due | Cap Number | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | $15,750,000 | $4,800,000 | $250,000 | $4,000,000 | $20,800,000 | ||
| 2025 | $1,255,000 | $800,000 | $2,996,000 | $765,000 | $21,000,000 | $5,816,000 | |
| 2026 | $1,300,000 | $800,000 | $6,383,000 | $765,000 | $40,000,000 | $9,248,000 | |
| 2027 | $20,735,000 | $800,000 | $6,383,000 | $765,000 | $61,500,000 | $28,683,000 | |
| 2028 | $19,735,000 | $800,000 | $6,383,000 | $765,000 | $82,000,000 | $27,683,000 | |
| 2029 | Void | $6,383,000 | $9,770,000 | ||||
| 2030 | Void | $3,387,000 | |||||
| 2031 | Void | ||||||
| 2032 | Void | ||||||
| 2033 | Void |
italics – fully guaranteed at signing
underline – guarantees likely to vest
As initially reported, this is a four year, $82 million contract. The upside of $4 million more comes from $1 million worth each in escalators from 2025 to 2028 if he is named an All-Pro in each preceding season from 2024 to 2027. Bolles receives a modest $4 million signing bonus, but also receives full guarantees at signing on his base salary and on a $14.98 million option bonus. Bolles will also see his 2026 base salary and another option bonus of $16.935 million due vest to a full guarantee on the 5th day of the next league year. Thus, while only $23.7 million is only guaranteed in salary, the practical guaranteed new money on this contract should be seen as $40 million. Both option bonuses are due September 1 of their respective seasons. There are modest per game roster bonuses each season, equating to $45,000 per game active.
Analysis
Around this time last season, I had projected a two year, $40 million extension for Bolles, with only half of that guaranteed. I was extremely close in projecting an overall APY for Bolles, and dead on correct for his two year cash flow at $40 million. I underestimated how much Bolles would get guaranteed–all of the $40 million instead of half–but given his high level of play this season I’m very comfortable with granting him those guarantees, and would have done the same with that knowledge that we did not have last season.
The Broncos chose to make this contract longer than I would have–trading off possible compensatory pick credit for his departure in exchange for two more seasons of contract control. Given that Bolles will have accrued 10 seasons after 2026, any comp pick would be capped at the 5th round, thus I think that is a very reasonable tradeoff.
Overall, I believe this contract is a very fair one to both Bolles and the Broncos, and he is being compensated commensurate to his stalwart worth for the team.
There are also some fascinating contract structures regarding the option bonuses and void years. The void years are pretty straightforward: should the Broncos choose to keep Bolles for 2027 or 2028, they can also choose to restructure Bolles’s base salaries as much as they desire, and automatically receive maximum proration ability over five seasons without having to renegotiate with Bolles. The 2033 void year here is unusual though, as there would be no ability to use it for proration without extending Bolles’s contract to 2029, which would necessitate a renegotiation anyway.
But one unique twist is that Bolles’s option bonuses being due on September 1. As was demonstrated when the Broncos cut Russell Wilson, if proration of an option bonus is not exercised, that moves the money to base salary. This also gives the Broncos flexibility in the opposite direction if they so choose: if they would rather assign all the cap dollars to those bonuses to the current season, they could do so. However, since this would delay by a few months when Bolles would earn his money, and that this is designed to clearly prorate cap dollars, I would find this scenario very unlikely, and it is assumed here, as should be, that the option bonuses will be prorated.
UPDATE: upon further review, the exercise dates for Bolles’s 2025 option bonuses are even more flexible than upon first glance. I say “bonuses” in the plural, because there are three separate option bonuses during this season, and when the proration decisions must be made. $6 million must be decided between the 1st and 5th days of the new league year, another $2.98 million between the 10th and 6th days before the start of the regular season, and the final $6 million between the 5th and 2nd days. This is a creative mechanism added by George Paton and company to provide multiple landmarks for the Broncos to allocate cap dollars as they see appropriate. Similarly, in 2026 there are two option bonuses as well, the first consisting of $5.935 million, and the second at $11 million.
In any case, it’s increasing clear that Howie Roseman of the Eagles is winning the minds of the NFL when it comes to option bonuses and void years: they are becoming increasingly common on veteran contracts, and I have been convinced that in most cases that it is the correct thing to do.
Future roster decisions
This contract extension locks in Bolles as the Broncos’ left tackle for the next two seasons. For 2025, he’ll be locked in alongside Mike McGlinchey at right tackle, whose salary that season vested to full this season. After 2025, the Broncos could make a decision between McGlinchey and Alex Palczewski, whose rookie contract will expire but be subject to a possible restricted free agent tender. In either case, however, the Broncos should be assumed to have both tackle positions sewn up for at least two seasons, and perhaps more. This means to me that the team will highly likely not place a premium on tackles in the 2025 rookie class, and depending on how 2025 proceeds, that low priority could last longer if the talent just isn’t there whenever they’re on the clock in the draft.
That’s a stark and good contrast from when Bolles entered the league in 2017, when it felt like fait accompli that the Broncos would draft him. Seeing Bolles’s long success in the NFL should also be a data point in favor of investing high priority in the tackle position with lower concern for age. It’s a position that is not only of high relative value, but also one in which the players at that position tend to have longer careers in the NFL than at other positions. The Broncos certainly had their travails at right tackle that McGlinchey, Palczewski, and Matt Peart have finally solved, but they also made an excellent choice with their first round pick in 2017 when they were on the clock, despite Bolles being an older rookie than usual at the time.