The Buffalo Bills and free agent cornerback Vontae Davis agreed to a contract on Monday night. On Tuesday, word began to leak out about contract details, with NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport first reporting.
Davis will make $5 million in salary in 2018 and did not receive a signing bonus because Buffalo is strapped for cap space at the moment considering they rolled over their available money to 2018. Instead, Davis is guaranteed $3.5 million of that salary so he will receive the money no matter what.
Additionally, $3 million is available in playing time incentives. It’s unclear what those incentives are at this time, but ESPN’s Mike Rodak noted those are “playing time incentives”. Other incentives that could be included are money for being selected to the Pro Bowl or All-Pro teams and additional money if the Bills make the playoffs.
We’ll fill in the blanks when we learn more but we do know that Davis’ cap hit is likely to be $5 million this season as those incentives are almost certainly Not Likely To Be Earned and will therefore not be added to the team’s salary cap until the 2019 season and only if he attains them.
The average value of $5 million/season places Davis as the 28th-highest paid cornerback for now but bigger deals are almost certainly coming down the pike.
This leaves Buffalo with roughly $16 million in available cap space if you factor in the current crop of draft picks.