2022 NFL Free Agency: Isaiah McKenzie contract details

When the Buffalo Bills signed free-agent wide receiver Isaiah McKenzie to a two-year deal worth up to $8 million, people started to send me messages because I had projected a much smaller contract for McKenzie. The Bills filed the contract on Monday and the numbers are much lower than initially reported and much closer to my projection.

His deal is worth $4.4 million over two seasons and only $1.25 million is guaranteed. That’s not even the entire first year with zero into the second year. It’s a very reasonable number.

McKenzie gets $600,000 in a signing bonus and $650,000 of his $1.35 million base salary is guaranteed.

It looks like he gets a $125,000 per-game roster bonus at $7353 per game plus a $100,000 workout bonus in each season.

According to Jay Skurski of The Buffalo News, McKenzie has incentives built in both season of up to $1.8 million for catches, receiving yards, punt return average, kickoff return average and touchdowns. We don’t know the thresholds right now, but they are Not Likely To Be Earned at this point.

Here are the full breakdowns:

2022
Pro-rated signing bonus: $300,000
Workout bonus: $100,000
Base salary: $1.35 million ($650k guaranteed)
Per-game roster bonus: $125,000 ($110,295 LTBE)

Cap hit: $1.86 million
Dead cap if cut: $1.25 million

2023
Pro-rated signing bonus: $300,000
Roster bonus: $250,000
Workout bonus: $100,000
Base salary: $1.75 million
Per-game roster bonus: $125,000

Cap hit: $2.525 million
Dead cap if cut: $300,000
Cap savings if cut: $2.225 million

Next read

• All-22 Review: Cole Beasley’s 2021 season
• All-22 Review: Isaiah McKenzie’s 2021 season
• Salary cap consequences of releasing Cole Beasley
• Contract projection for Isaiah McKenzie
• In-house replacement options for McKenzie/Beasley
• Free agents available at slot receiver
• NFL Draft options at slot receiver
• Opinion: Bills should use multiple tools to improve slot WR position this offseason