How are NFL players paid?

Base salary can be non-guaranteed or guaranteed depending on various clauses and conditions. There are three types of guaranteed money that teams can use when drawing up a contract: injury, skill, and cap. Injury guarantees are the best-known form of guaranteed money.

This is activated when a player is cut from the team but is unable to play football or pass a physical exam. The player is entitled to the money in their contract that is protected against injury.

Skill guarantees and cap guarantees tend to go hand-in-hand. A skill guarantee protects a player from being cut in the event the team feels the player's skills don't meet the team's needs. A cap guarantee protects the player from being released so that the team can get cap space to sign a free agent or re-sign another player.

Combining all three, injury, skill, and cap guarantees form a full guarantee. Full guarantees are used in almost every NFL contract, and the player is entitled to the money from full guarantees when they sign the contract.

Players receive a signing bonus upon signing their contract with a team and it is fully guaranteed. The player usually receives payment in the first year after signing with a team. The team can pay the player the whole amount at once or spread the payments out over the length of the contract to reserve cap space.

This is known as a "prorated bonus," and a team can spread the payment out over a maximum of five years. However, if the team cuts the player, it must pay the full amount outstanding, reducing its cap space.

Players may also receive roster and/or workout bonuses. A roster bonus is paid out to a player for being on the roster at a certain date or being on the active roster during the year. The most common form is to specify that the player will be on the roster on a certain date.

This protects the player from being released before that specific date unless the team is willing to pay out. The other form is paid out to the player if they are on the active roster as opposed to the 53-man roster, also known as a "per-game roster." The player is paid 1/16th of the bonus for each week they are on the active roster.

A workout bonus is money that is agreed upon for attending a stipulated percentage of off-season workouts paid at a flat rate. Players with four or more cumulative seasons get five guaranteed absences without being penalized.

Another potential income stream for an NFL player is incentives. Teams also pay players incentives to hit certain goals set in the contract, like passing or receiving yards. These incentives come in two forms, Likely To Be Earned (LTBE) and Not Likely To Be Earned (NLTBE).

These incentives are based on what the player did in the previous season. For example, if a player received the incentive for, say, rushing one thousand yards and he has the same threshold in the upcoming season, it is considered LTBE. This would count toward the team's cap in the season it was set, whereas NLTBE incentives count against next season's cap.