Asomugha signed a three-year deal that is worth a minimum of $45 million and could reach $50 million, a league source said.

It’s a complex contract that the NFL had to sift through and approve, and it has. The deal works like this:

The first two years, worth $28.5 million, are fully guaranteed. In the third year of the contract, if Oakland wants to keep Asomugha, it must pay him the average of the top five highest-paid cornerbacks in the game or $16.875 million — whichever is greater. If the Raiders fail to pick up the option, Asomugha will become a free agent, with Oakland not having the ability to tag him again.

Leave it to Al Davis to orchestra a weird deal like this. That’s a lot of dough for one player and the Raiders are already in cap hell, but that’s not to say Asomugha isn’t worth it. He’s one of the only corners left (Champ Bailey being the other) that is a true shutdown corner who can play man-to-man. Quarterbacks don’t throw his way because he is simply that good and can blanket an entire half of the field.

The good news for Oakland is that the deal is done. Either way, they were going to have to spend big to retain him because he was the top corner on the market. But now Davis is going to have to make some roster moves in order to gain cap flexibility so the Raiders can try and address other areas. And being thrifty isn’t one of Al’s strong suits, so we’ll see what kind of moves he makes once the free agency period officially kicks off at the end of the month.