Bears cornerback Tim Jennings bet on himself and won when he signed a two-year contract with the team last year.
The Chicago Tribune reports that Jennings’ contract contained a clause that bumped his 2013 salary up by $1 million if he met certain incentives in 2012. Jennings achieved those benchmarks and now his 2013 salary is $4.25 million. The contract Jennings signed also included some de-escalators that could have reduced his base salary for 2013 by as much as $1.6 million.
In other words, Jennings agreed to a two-year deal that would pay him a lot in the second year if he played well in the first, and wouldn’t pay him much in the second year if he didn’t play well in the first.
For Jennings, who led the league with nine interceptions, that turned out to be a wise move. And for the Bears, a $4.25 million salary is more than they were expecting to pay Jennings in 2013 -- but a salary they’ll gladly pay if he plays as well this year as he did last year.