Quote:
Originally Posted by dalemurphy
Keith,
In a conversation at texanstalk.com, it became clear that TJ will actually be a FA after this season. He signed an initial 5 year deal in 2005 and hasn't been re-upped. Apparently, the Chronicle story about his deal simply listed his base salaries wrong- starting them in 2007 instead of 2005.
I'm not 100% on this, but you may want to look into it. If he is a FA after this year, it certainly opens up the possibility of him not making this year's roster.
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If you have links on any of this, send them my way or post them here. I honestly do not keep up regularly at tt.com, so I have no idea what's been discussed there.
That all said, here is what I know....
When Travis signed, it was widely reported as a 5-year contract. With his rookie year being 2005, that would logically mean that 2009 would be the final year of his deal. Technically, not true. Travis actually signed a 7-year contract with the final two years being voidable.
Travis' rookie contract has given me fits since the beginning, but I received some solid info on it a little over a year ago. What I had not known though, until your post, is that apparently those final two years (2010 and 2011) have been voided. In fact, the NFLPA still lists 2010 and 2011 as active for Travis... so either they are late in updating (not a first if so) or Travis has not had those last two 'dummy' seasons officially voided.
If they were voided, that could certainly explain why there was a sudden decrease in available cap room that I noted in an earlier post. Looks like it might account for about $1.4 million of it at least if that money needed to be accelerated.
The reason the Texans signed Travis to a 7-yr deal that was reported as a 5-yr deal was so that the team could prorate his option bonuses (yes, he had two of them with no true signing bonus) over those last couple years (2010 and 2011), thereby saving themselves some cap space up until this year. In case anyone is interested about voidable contracts,
click here.
So hopefully that explains ItB.com's understanding of Travis' contract situation a little more. I imagine Travis would want the final two years voided because it might seem appealing to hit the potentially uncapped year as a free agent, especially if he turns it on this year. I am guessing he expects to earn much more than his contracted base salaries of $1,352,500 in 2010 and $1,675,000 in 2011.