IMPORTANT CONTRACT TERMS
Base salary
Formally known as "Paragraph 5" salary due to its place in a standard NFL Player Contract, it is the compensation a player receives during the regular season. The collective bargaining agreement set league minimums for base salaries. A player's "game check" is 1/18th of his base salary in a 17-game season. When a player is suspended for a game, he forfeits 1/18th of his base salary.
In 2020 and in the Final League Year (2030), players will be paid 100 percent of their base salary in weekly or bi-weekly amounts. This changes from 2021-2029 when players will be paid 50 percent of their salary over the course of a period that is double the number of weeks the player is eligible to be paid for (i.e. 18-week regular season would be paid over a 36-week period).
Signing Bonus
Money earned by a player for signing his contract. Typically paid out within the first 12-18 months. Prorated against the salary cap for the life of the contract (five-season maximum).
Roster Bonus
Compensation earned by remaining on a team's roster on a certain date. Roster bonuses count in full against the salary cap in the season in which they are earned, unless fully guaranteed at signing. They are used to avoid signing-bonus proration, which pushes dead money into the future.
Per-Game Roster Bonus
A roster bonus awarded on a per-game basis for being on the team's gameday (47 or 48-man) roster ("Active List") or its active (53-man) roster ("Active/Inactive List"), which varies by contract. For example, in a 17-game season, a player with a $1.7 million per-game roster bonus for being on the gameday roster would earn $100,000 for each game he is active. Any previous contract clauses for 46- and 53-man per-game roster bonuses will be amended to reflect the new roster sizes.
Note: Under the new CBA, teams are permitted to have 48 players active on gameday if said team has eight active offensive linemen. If the team has fewer than eight players whose primary position is center, guard or offensive tackle, it can only have 47 gameday actives. Teams can still not exceed a 53-man Active/Inactive List unless it is promoting one or two practice-squad players using the "Standard Elevation Addendum," in which case the team can expand its roster to 54 or 55 (only using said practice-squad players).
Option Bonus
Gives a team (or, at times, a player) the ability to exercise the current or future years of the contract by paying a bonus. Prorated over the life of the contract (like a signing bonus, up to a max of five seasons).
Workout Bonus
Compensation for attending an agreed-upon percentage of the offseason workouts. No workout bonus can require participation in beyond 84.375 percent of the team's scheduled workouts (i.e. a player can miss five of 32 scheduled workouts and still receive his bonus.
Reporting Bonus
Earned by reporting to team activities by a specified date.
Incentives (LTBE/NLTBE)
Incentives in a player contract are limited to the list provided in Exhibits A-C in Article 13 Section 6 of the NFL's collective bargaining agreement (page 116-119).
Player incentives are considered "likely to be earned" (LTBE) or "not likely to be earned" (NLTBE) based on the player or team's prior-year performance.
For example, if a player has a $500,000 incentive for accumulating 1,000+ rush yards in the upcoming season and he had 1,000+ rush yards the previous season, the incentive is considered LTBE. If he did not record 1,000+ rush yards in the previous season, the incentive is considered NLTBE.
Except in certain circumstances, LTBE incentives count against the team's salary cap in the current season, and NLTBE incentives do not count against a team's current year's cap. Except in rare cases, unearned LTBE incentives are credited to the following season's salary cap, while earned NLTBE incentives are charged against the following season's salary cap.
Salary escalators
A salary escalator is similar to an incentive in that it is triggered by attaining certain performance thresholds. However, the extra money is not always guaranteed to be received.
An earned escalator translates into a raise in a future year(s) of the contract. If the escalator applies to a non-guaranteed season and the player is released prior to it, he would not receive the benefit of his escalator. Contracts can also contain de-escalators that lower a player's salary for failing to reach performance measures.
Dead money
Refers to salary a team has already paid or has committed to paying (i.e., a signing bonus, fully guaranteed base salaries, earned bonuses) but has not been charged against the salary cap.
In business terms, it is essentially a "sunk cost." Any money a team pays a player must be accounted for against the salary cap. If there is dead money in a player's contract and he is released or retires, that charge will accelerate onto the team's salary cap for the current year.
There is one avenue to lower this cap hit in a current League Year: the June 1 designation. Teams can spread the cap hit over two seasons by releasing or trading a player after June 1—any signing bonus prorations for future seasons are charged to the following seasons' salary cap. Teams are allowed to release two players prior to June 1 (but on or after the first day of the League Year) while still using this designation and getting the same cap treatment. However, the cap savings created by a June 1 designation do not take effect until after June 1.
Veteran Salary Benefit
Formerly known as the minimum salary benefit, the veteran salary benefit allows teams to offer a "Qualifying Contract" to any player with at least four credited seasons at a reduced salary cap hit. Under this provision, a qualifying contract is a one-year deal worth the minimum base salary applicable to a player with his number of credited seasons, plus $167,500 in additional compensation (i.e., signing bonus, roster bonus, incentive). These contracts are charged against the salary cap at the rate of a player with two credited seasons that league year.
Four-Year Qualifying Contract
Another type of veteran salary benefit, it can be offered to a player with at least four credited seasons whose contract with a team has expired after being on said team for four or more consecutive, uninterrupted league years prior to his contract expiring. Such a player must have been on the team's 90-man active/inactive list for said seasons (and every regular-season and postseason game). Teams can sign a maximum of two eligible players to this type of salary benefit.
A qualifying contract under this benefit is a one-year deal with a base salary of up to $1.55 million more than the minimum base salary for said player. However, if a team does sign two players to a qualifying contract, it can only give a combined $1.55 million in additional base salary between the two deals. Under such agreements, only the applicable minimum base salary (not the $1.45 million benefit) is charged against the salary cap.
Waivers
When a player contract is terminated, he is either free to negotiate and with a team at any time or subject to waivers. When released, a contract for a player with fewer than four credited seasons is subject to waivers at all times. The waiver system allows teams to place a claim on a player contract before that player becomes a free agent. The team with the highest priority will be awarded the player. A contract for a player with four or more credited seasons is not subject to waivers when released from the day after the Super Bowl through the trade deadline. After this date and outside of this period, the contract must be placed on waivers and can be claimed by another team.