No, Martellus Bennett’s contract isn’t worth $18.45 million over three years. It’s a standard three-year, $21 million, based on how contracts are typically valued and digested.
Per a source with knowledge of the deal, Bennett got a $6.3 million signing bonus. He’ll also receive a $900,000 base salary for 2017, a $3.6 million base salary for 2018, and a $5.65 million base salary for 2019. The deal also has a $2 million roster bonus due on the first day of the 2018 league year, along with $600,000 per year in per-game roster bonuses and $250,000 in annual workout bonuses.
That works out to $21 million over three years. It’s also worth $8.05 million in 2017 with an early decision due in 2018 as to whether the Packers will continue for another year.
The $21 million base value includes the per-game roster bonuses, a convention that has emerged in recent years despite the reality that a player who isn’t on the 46-man game-day roster doesn’t qualify for his weekly bonus. So it’s a bit of a fiction, but it’s used so commonly at this point that there’s no reason to begin stripping those numbers out now.
Or in other words, when in #scooptown. . . .