Avg approx 6 per year in a front loaded contract? Not a bad deal IMO.
You need to define "front loaded"...it has front loaded cash, but the cap hit may be back loaded. We'll need more details to get a clearer picture.
For 2013 he's getting his $1.3 mil salary from the last year of his old contract plus the new $8.3 million in signing bonus by most reports. That's $9.6 mil in cash in 2013.
But the prorated cap hit in 2013 for the singing bonus is only $1.66 mil. So Burnett's 2013 cap hit is only about $3 mil.
Reports also indicate he'll be paid $15 mil in the first 2 years. That would seem to imply his salary in 2014 will be $5.4 mil. That salary + $1.66 mil cap hit for prorated singing bonus = about a $7 mil cap hit is 2014.
The rest in unclear.
For what Burnett has produced so far, this deal is very generous in my opinion. It projects Burnett having more upside while assuming he'll work to that upside while having a sudden $10 mil in his pocket.