The Buffalo Bills signed wide receiver Andre Holmes this week and if his salary figure are any indication, you can pencil him in opposite Sammy Watkins in the starting lineup, at least for now. Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle shares the details.
Holmes signed a $5.15 million contract with a $1.65 signing bonus part of $2.45 million guaranteed. It’s for three seasons. He will make salaries of $800,000, $ 1 million, and $1.25 million over those three years with $150,000 roster bonuses in 2018 and 2019. There is an additional $50,000 in each season likely to be earned somewhere according to the total contract figures.
He can earn an additional $250,000 by reaching certain playing time incentives as well as escalators that could bump up his 2018 salary by $200,000 and 2019 salary by $400,000. Those escalators and incentives aren’t calculated into the cap until they are achieved.
Here is a different look at the base salary without the escalators:
2017
Signing bonus: $1.65 million
Salary: $800,000 guaranteed
Cap hit: $1.35 million
2018
Roster bonus: $150,000
Salary: $1 million
Cap hit: $1.7 million
2019
Roster bonus: $150,000
Salary: $1.25 million
Cap hit $1.95 million
Holmes is by far the second-highest paid receiver on the team (though we don’t have Brandon Tate’s numbers yet). Corey Brown and Walt Powell are the closest and make less than $700,000 in 2017, or just about half of Holmes’ number. Even so, Holmes will slot in as the 78th-highest paid wide receiver in the NFL as of right now.