The Cardinals gave Will Hernandez a one-year deal worth $2.17 million with a salary split uncommon for veteran players.
It took a couple of weeks for the details to come out, but the value of the one-year contract offensive lineman Will Hernandez signed with the Arizona Cardinals on Aug. 7 is now known.
The contract is worth $2.17 million and includes $790,000 guaranteed. That figure is for a $150,000 signing bonus and $640,000 of his $1.255 million base salary.
That $1.255 million is the minimum for a player with seven credited seasons.
The deal includes one unique aspect — a split salary that is paid when a player is on a reserve list because of injury. Split salaries are usually only a part of contracts for young players.
His deal includes this split because he is recovering from a torn ACL suffered in Week 5 last season, and he is currently on active/physically unable to perform (PUP). If he’s placed on reserve/PUP next Tuesday, he will have to miss at least four games.
It’s no coincidence that the split salary in this case is $640,000, which is the guaranteed salary in the contract. For any games he is on PUP, that will be his salary. If and when he is activated, the salary will increase to a prorated $1.255 million.
Also part of the contract are $45,000 in per-game active bonuses for a maximum of $765,000 for the season. Obviously, if he is placed on reserve next week, he will lose out on those bonuses until he’s activated and then is active on game days. Even if he comes off PUP next week, it’s unlikely he would be immediately active, so he would still lose out on those bonuses for games he is not on the active roster.
Hernandez’ salary cap figure this year is $1.63 million. Only $225,000 of the per-game bonuses count against the cap because that’s the equivalent of the five games for which he was active last season.
If he ends up being active for more than five games, those bonuses would count against the 2026 cap.
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