The years a
the back end would have no guarantees.
The long contact term allows them to make the total number look gigantic (people will call it 120 deal so loons good for the player. and also give room for several re-works if needed.
But yes, the bottom line is the guarantees.
If you look at Tyron Smith's contract, the Cowboys guaranteed a tad over $22M.
That would be the 2014 and 2015 salaries and include the $10M signing bonus. After this season, the Cowboys would incur dead money in the amount of $6M if they wanted to cut him.
However, cutting Tyron Smith is not even in their plans unless he were to get hurt and he would be forced out of football all together.
What the Cowboys did is allow themselves to use the contract to provide more cap space in the first few years. If the Cowboys want to use $10M of his $11M base salary to free up cap space they can easily make the move and spread that $10M into the signing bonus of the remaining years of the contract. They can do the same thing the following year as well, and the next year, and all the way to the end of the contract if they like. (obviously it balloons the dead money each time but at some point it won't be worth the money to keep doing it)
The best part of the deal for the player is that they get that money upfront, and it is
guaranteed money. So what looked like $22M guaranteed initially keeps rising by the amount they decided to use to free up cap space each time they want to.
Bryant's agents should be aware of that fact, as Dallas is one of the teams in the NFL that "restructures" contracts like clockwork. Eugene Parker almost had a similar deal in place in late October but for whatever reason Bryant fired him and went with Condon and Roc Nation.
