Alex Smith's contract details with Kansas City Chiefs are out

Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports has some numbers on Alex Smith's contract with the Kansas City Chiefs. Smith was working in the final year of his contract set to pay him $7.5 million in 2014.

Let's take a look at the changes.

The money

Signing bonus: $18 million

2014: $1 million 
2015: $11.9 million
2016: $14.1 million
2017: $10.2 million (+ $2 million roster bonus)
2018: $14.5 million (+ $2 million roster bonus)

The guaranteed money

The $18 million signing bonus and $1 million 2014 salary is fully guaranteed.

If he is on the roster on the third day of the 2015 league year (next March - very likely), his 2015 and 2016 salaries totaling $26 million become fully guaranteed, according to La Canfora's report.

Those figures total the reported $45 million guaranteed and his three-year pay-out. You hear people talk about the three year pay-out because NFL contracts aren't real contracts and teams will just cut players with few penalties in the back end of contracts.

The cap hit

Let's preface this with I am not a salary cap expert so I'm just going off the numbers reported here.

Smith's previous cap number was $8 million. If the signing bonus pro-rates over the life of the deal ($3.6 million per year) and you add in his 2014 salary ($1 million) that comes out to a $4.6 million cap hit this year, which actually saves the Chiefs money against the cap. Funny how contracts work, huh?

How long are the Chiefs tied to Smith?

The way I read this, Smith is solidly tied to the Chiefs three more years through the 2016 season. It's very likely he's going to be on the roster next March, which would trigger guarantees in 2015 and 2016. Smith turned 30 last May.

It's interesting that his base salary drops in that fourth year. If he's playing well, that looks like a reasonable figure to pay.

Note: Here is another good breakdown of the contract.