I think he's pretty much guaranteed to make at least 5.9 mil of the potential 7 mil on his contract this year as long as he makes the team.
He's been underpaid for his value pretty much his whole time with the Packers yet has been more than we ever could have asked for in toughness, team leadership, and production. We have 28 mil in cap space, retroactively reward him!
"musccy" wrote:
There is no potential for 7 million this year.
Let me break it down.
He has a 200k off-season work-out bonus. By attending a certain percentage of OTA's etc. he earns this money.
His base salary for 2009 is 3.9 million. He obviously must make the team. His LTBE is in the form of being active on the 45 man team each week, on a pro-rata basis... This is the remaining 2 million of his contract. In other words, he has to make the 53 for his 3.9 million, and will be paid 125k for each week he is on the active 45.
As stated, none of it is guaranteed. He must attend that percentage of workouts to get the 200k. He must make the final 53 to get his base. He must make the active 45 each week to get the 125k per week.
7 million is next year. His base pay goes up by 100k. His workout bonus is the same as this year, 200k. His per game 45 man roster bonus increases to 175k per game...making his contract POTENTIALLY worth 7.0 million.
As an aside, we are taking a 1,366,667.00 cap hit for 2009 in pro-rata signing bonus from when he signed the extension to get to these numbers as enumerated. The confusion seems to be that some authors include this money that was already paid out into this and next years salaries for Driver. That 1.366 mil is gone--already paid out.
My bet is he fears next year, and wants to see if he can get a guarantee now, when he is pretty sure he is going to have value for THIS year...
His concern is obviously valid.