Looking At Potential Bucs Bonuses

The Bucs do not have many players with performance bonus or escalators tied to their contracts. Those bonuses and escalators are not included in rookie deals and are rarely offered on one-year deals for veterans and typically never on veterans signed to be backups.

But for those vet starters on multi-year pacts you can see from time-to-time extra incentives built into their contracts to give them the opportunity to earns some more money. From a team perspective, those bonuses and escalators are often worded in a way that they do not have to be accounted for on the salary cap in the year they are earned. These are called “not likely to be earned” bonuses. They are classified as such if the player did not achieve the trigger for the bonus the year prior. If he reaches the milestone the team would be charged for the bonus on the following year’s salary cap.

For example, if a quarterback has a $100,000 bonus for throwing 30 touchdowns, the bonus would be considered NLTBE if he had thrown less than 30 touchdowns in the year prior. If he had thrown 30 or more touchdowns the year before the bonus would be considered “likely to be earned” and the team would have to account for it in their salary cap calculations. If he failed to reach the milestone the team would receive a credit for the bonus on the following year’s salary cap.

According to Over The Cap, four Bucs players have performance bonuses or escalators in their current contracts. Here they are by player.

Quarterback Baker Mayfield

Baker Mayfield’s performance bonuses are the most robust of the group. There are nine different bonus triggers that add up to $5 million that he can qualify for.

• $500,000 if he finishes top-10 in the NFL or top-5 in the NFC in passer rating (minimum of 224 pass attempts)
• $500,000 if he finishes top-10 in the NFL or top-5 in the NFC in touchdowns and either he or the team improve in this area or he wins a player honor
• $500,000 if he finishes top-10 in the NFL or top-5 in the NFC in passing yards and either he or the team improve in this area or he wins a player honor
• $500,000 if he finishes top-10 in the NFL or top-5 in the NFC in completion percentage (minimum of 224 pass attempts)
• $500,000 if he finishes top-10 in the NFL or top-5 in the NFC in yards per pass (minimum of 224 pass attempts)
• $750,000 if there is a team improvement in average net rushing + Wild Card Win (75% playtime)
• $750,000 for a Divisional Round (75%) playtime
• $500,000 for a Conference Championship Round win (75%) playtime
• $500,000 for a Super Bowl win (75%) playtime

Before we look at each bonus, I want to note that the touchdown and yards incentives are specifically worded to keep them as NLTBE. Last year Mayfield finished ninth in the NFL in passing yards with 4,044 and seventh in touchdowns with 28. And while Mayfield was a Pro Bowler in 2023, he was not an original selection. He was added after other players opted out of the honor games.

By wording those specific incentives as requiring either the team or Mayfield himself as having to improve or, most likely be voted to the Pro Bowl or as an All-Pro on the initial selection process, they are ensuring that he technically did not qualify for the incentive last year.

With two games remaining in the season Mayfield currently ranks sixth in the NFL in passer rating (103.5), third in touchdowns (34), fourth in passing yards (3,920), third in completion percentage (70.9%) and 9th in yards per attempt (7.7). The Bucs have also improved their rushing average from 88.8 yards per game to 143.7.

Mayfield looks to be a shoo-in for the passer rating bonus. He has already eclipsed his touchdown total from last year and most likely has the touchdown bonus sewn up as well. If he continues his yards per game average of 261.3, he is on pace to throw for 4,443 yards this season and should earn the yardage bonus.

The completion bonus looks all but in the bag to top it off. The two statistical incentives that are most in the air are his yards per attempt bonus, where he is currently just inside the top 10 in the NFL and outside of the top 5 in the NFC and the rushing improvement incentive which is tied to a wild card win. Still, assuming he holds on to the yards per attempt incentive he is set to cash in an additional $2.5 million on top of the $30 million the Bucs already paid him this year. That’s not a bad (belated) Christmas bonus!

The best part for Baker is that the rest of his bonus opportunities are still alive as well depending on the Bucs’ success in the playoffs, should they make the postseason.

Because all of these bonuses are NLTBE the Bucs will have to account for all of the bonuses that Mayfield earns on 2025’s salary cap. That means assistant general manager Mike Greenberg will be setting aside $2.5-5 million of the team’s projected $25 million in available space for Baker’s bonuses from this year.

Greenberg and Mayfield are no stranger to this set up as his 2023 contract had several NLTBE bonuses built in, many of which Mayfield was able to attain.

WR Mike Evans

Mike Evans has four bonus opportunities this year totaling a possible $4 million in additional earnings for the prolific wide receiver.

• $666,666 if he finishes top 10 in receiving yards
• $6666,666 if he finishes top 10 in receiving touchdowns
• $666,668 if he finishes top 10 in receptions
• $2 million broken up into $500,000 pieces based on the number of playoff wins the team has

Both the receiving yards and touchdown bonuses are considered LTBE because Evans finished 9th in receiving yards and tied for 1st in touchdowns last year. While Evans has missed 4.5 games this year due to a hamstring injury, he is still in play for one of these incentives.

Evans is currently ranked 31st in the NFL in receiving yards with 818. He is 211 yards behind the current 10th place player Terry McLaurin. It is unlikely he climbs that far up the ranks in just two games, but it isn’t fully out of the realm of possibility. His 57 receptions are 32 behind 10th place Travis Kelce. That does seem a bit out of reach.

But you may or may not know that despite the missed time, Evans is tied for fifth in the NFL in touchdown catches with nine. This one looks like it will pay out for the future Hall of Famer. And Evans, like Mayfield, still has $2 million in opportunities available to him based on the Bucs’ playoff fortunes.

And because Evans is not likely to hit the receiving yards bonus the Bucs may get a $666,666 credit on their salary cap in 2025.

S Jordan Whitehead

Jordan Whitehead has no bonuses for 2024, but did have five performance escalators totaling $1.5 million built into his two-year contract. Escalators work as salary increases in the following year from where they are earned. In effect, he had the opportunity this year to increase his 2025 salary and roster bonus from $4.5 million to $6 million.

• $250,000 for three interceptions
• $250,000 for three interceptions and the Bucs making the playoffs
• $250,000 for three sacks
• $250,000 for three sacks and the Bucs making the playoffs
• $500,000 for making the Pro Bowl as either a starter or a backup

Whitehead’s season has not gone as planned. He has not recorded a sack or an interception this year and is currently on injured reserve. His practice window to return was opened just this week so he has an outside chance of getting into a regular season game or two, but those escalators still seem out of reach. Buuuut he did record three interceptions in a game once with the Jets.

NT Vita Vea

Vita Vea has a single escalator built into his contract. If he earns it he will receive a bump in his 2025 salary.

• $500,000 if he earns a Pro Bowl selection.

Among interior defensive linemen, Vea currently ranks ninth in sacks in the NFL and fifth in the NFC with six. He is also eighth in the NFC in quarterback pressures with 41. There is some stiff competition for top honors among defensive tackles in the NFC and Vea will have to get the nod over such stars as Leonard Williams, Dexter Lawrence, Kobie Turner, Jalen Carter and Alim McNeill, who is currently on injured reserve.

But it isn’t out of the realm of possibility for Vea to get a couple of sacks in the final two games to help his Pro Bowl bid and receive an elevated paycheck in 2025. As of this writing he currently has the most votes at the defensive tackle position for the NFC.

Bucs Paying For Performance

The Bucs use these incentives to allow players to improve their financial outcomes with high-end performance. They also use it as a different type of trigger to pay players in one year while pushing cap hits into future years where they have more financial flexibility.

You can see that in how the team worded some of Baker Mayfield’s incentives for this year to ensure that no matter how well he played, they wouldn’t have to account for the bonus on this year’s cap, where they still had some large dead cap hits to pay down. Tampa Bay also used these mechanism’s last year when they had an extremely limited cap position to ensure that lifelong Buc Lavonte David was able to earn $7.325 million despite signing for just a $4.5 million base.

With extensions looming in 2025 for right tackle Luke Goedeke, tight end Cade Otton, and potentially cornerback Zyon McCollum along with a potential re-signing of wide receiver Chris Godwin, it is not out of the question to see more of these in the future for the Bucs.

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