After giving up $750,000 in fully-guaranteed pay to get a release from his contract with the Rams, dropping his guaranteed pay in L.A. to $1 million, quarterback Nick Foles needed to get $1.75 million for 2016 in order to break even.
Adam Schefter of ESPN suggested in a report last week that Foles has indeed hit the break-even point, with $1.75 million due to be paid to Foles in 2016. But there are several problems with that contention.
First, not a single penny of the contract is guaranteed. This means that the Chiefs, who are still carrying five quarterbacks, can cut Foles before Week One and owe him nothing.
Second, Foles has a base salary of $1.25 million. He gets another $200,000 if he’s on the 53-man roster as of Week One. This means that if, for example, he lands on injured reserve before Week One, Foles gets $1.25 million for 2016 and suffers a net loss of $500,000.
Third, even if he’s on the 53-man roster as of Week One, Foles will still be $300,000 short of what he would have earned if the Rams had kept him or cut him without a voluntary reduction in his $1.75 million guaranteed salary. To earn that amount, Foles must be on the active, 46-man roster for all 16 games of the 2016 season.
So if he’s not the primary backup to Alex Smith, and if the Chiefs don’t dress three quarterbacks for only one game this year, Foles won’t break even.
The deal includes another $2 million in so-called “not likely to be earned” incentives, but the triggers still aren’t known. Regardless, the base deal signed by Foles falls short of the guaranteed money he would have earned in Los Angeles, contrary to last week’s report suggesting that he managed to replace the salary he surrendered to escape from L.A.
