Packers’ contract with Devin Funchess worth $2.5 million plus extra $3.75M in incentives

Earlier this week, the Green Bay Packers landed their veteran receiver on the free agent market. Devin Funchess appears headed to Green Bay barring an unexpected turn of events, as the big former Panthers and Colts receiver will try to work his way back into a starting role.

Funchess’ 2019 season was all but lost due to a broken collarbone, however, as he played in just one game for the Colts while on a one-year, $10 million contract. As a result of that injury, he will be bringing in a much smaller payday in 2020, though a stellar season could end up paying out a significant return.

All told, the Packers’ contract with Funchess will be worth a base total of $2.5 million. While not a massive deal, this is hardly a veteran minimum contract, either. Still, the deal has a ton of money tied up in incentives; Funchess could actually earn more in incentives than he would get in the main provisions of the deal if he has a tremendous season.

Here’s the breakdown, as reported by Tom Pelissero of NFL Network:

• Base salary: $1.2 million
• Signing bonus: $1 million
• Workout bonus: $50,000
• Per-game active roster bonuses: $250,000 total / $15,625 per game
• Incentives: $3.75 million

Because Funchess only played in one game a year ago, 15 of those active roster bonuses are deemed not likely to be earned, and therefore do not count against the salary cap for the time being. Likewise, the incentives are not counted, bringing Funchess’ total cap value to just $2,265,625.

This contract value likely will not hurt the Packers’ compensatory pick calculation much, if at all. The base compensation here for Funchess is roughly equivalent to the $2.4 million that departing Packers linebacker B.J. Goodson received from the Cleveland Browns, so the two players should cancel each other out. That will leave the Packers slated to get three extra picks in 2021: a fourth-rounder for Blake Martinez, a fifth-rounder for Bryan Bulaga, and a sixth-rounder for Kyler Fackrell.

(Note that while Martinez and Bulaga each signed three-year, $30 million deals and normally would both be projected as fourth-rounders, a provision exists specifying that free agents with at least 10 years of experience are eligible for a maximum compensatory pick in round five.)