I'm kind of excited about this next phase. I didn't want to pay Geno $45m/year under any circumstances.
Well, for the Hawks, they know what Geno is. Like Minny with Cousins, paying him $35 mill per they only got to a certain level. At that point, paying him another $10 mill per didn't make sense as he was getting older.
LV, has been going Jimmy and Minschew for the past 2 seasons.
Figure Geno is going to get a deal that pays him like $80-90 mill in guaranteed money over 2 years. Likely a 4/5 year deal to stretch out the SB bonus.
Something like a $25-$30 mill SB, and a lower base for 2025 to get him in at like $25 mill cap charge. Since, they'd be eating like $20 mill in dead cap for Jimmy/Gardner (if they take all of Minschew's dead cap in 2025 of $7.6 mill). Then in 2026, his base goes to like $35-$40 mill thus, their QB cap hit remains in around the $45 mill mark. After that, likely to be a $15 mill dead cap left on his contract.
Honestly, for LV, the cost of a late 3rd probably worth it. Guess, they figured, they can get out of the Geno contract faster than they could get out of a Darnold contract, which is likely to be guaranteed for 3 years (or have year 3 vest before year 2 begins).