There’s something nice about performance-based pay. A player performs well, he earns more money. Plus, he has the incentive to perform well. Green Bay Packers linebacker Ahmad Brooks has a lot of incentive.
The Packers signed Brooks to a one-year contract in early September that was reportedly worth $5 million. It’s actually pretty incentive heavy and COULD be worth up to $5 million.
Brooks has a base salary of $1 million. He got a signing bonus of $1.75 million and a roster bonus of $750,000. That puts his total current compensation at $3.5 million.
The incentives all lie within sack totals.
In order to reach the $5 million mark, Brooks will need to record 11.5 sacks this year.
There are two important things to note about that number. First, Brooks has only played six snaps this season because of a concussion he suffered in week 1. Second, Brooks has never recorded more than the 8.5 sacks he had in 2013. The past three seasons, he’s had six, 6.5 and six.
In other words, the potential full value of the contract wasn’t likely to be attained to begin with. Plus, considering Brooks has essentially missed the first two games, his earning potential has taken a big hit.
The good news for the Packers is Brooks returned to practice this week and looks on track to play in week 3.
The good news for Brooks is he can still get paid by hitting other sack milestones. Those milestones and payouts are as such.
- 6.5 sacks: $250,000
- 7.5 sacks: $500,000
- 8.5 sacks: $750,000
- 9.5 sacks: $1 million
- 10.5 sacks: $1.25 million
Of course, we’d love to see the guy get paid $5 million this year. However, based upon recent history, the $250,000 payout seems most likely.
They really put some thought on that sack driven incentives. If it were 1.25 M all at once if he were to hit 10.5 sacks, if by midseason he is not on track to reach it he might as well quit. With this compensation scheme, even if 11 is too far away, he can still be motivated to reach 6. Or if already there, to move one step up on that scale. And then another one. Bottom line, this compensation scheme will very likely keep him motivated to get to the next step during the whole season.
Lol. Nick Perry had hand surgery. That injury was kept quiet.
This type of performance based “bonus” should be in every contract.