[Schneed10]

Thank you. The original post is updated. The Redskins gave Richardson a $10.0M signing bonus and kept his base salary low in the first year. So the $10.0M bonus counts $2M per year on the cap, plus his $1.5M base salary and a $500K roster bonus, it adds up to a cap hit of only $4.0M.

Schaffer and Allen have structured this in such a way that it intentionally keeps the cap hit low in this first year, which to me is a strong signal that they intend to add more players over the course of the next several weeks and really maximize the cap space they have, which now sits at $19.8M (estimated).

Richardson's cap hit goes up in future years, it will be 7.5M in 2019, 8M in 2020, and 10M in the years thereafter. But it is structured in such a way that the Redskins can cut him in 2020 and clear cap space if they so choose. This is essentially a 2 year commitment - albeit one that I think will go longer than just two years.

I read this as a master stroke by Shaffer, and a signal that the Skins are nowhere close to done in free agency, though they will be patient and let the market come to them.

Once I see the structure of Zach's contract we'll learn even more.