{"id":842671,"date":"2026-03-30T10:48:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T10:48:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/842671\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T10:48:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T10:48:18","slug":"contract-incentives-for-patriots-free-agency-signing-kevin-byard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/842671\/","title":{"rendered":"Contract incentives for Patriots free agency signing Kevin Byard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The New England Patriots signed one of the top safeties available in this year\u2019s free agency, bringing first-team All-Pro Kevin Byard aboard on a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patspulpit.com\/new-england-patriots-free-agency-rumors-signings-updates-transactions\/124372\/kevin-byard-contract-details-analysis-salary-cap\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">one-year contract<\/a>. While the pact\u2019s base value is $7 million, Byard actually will count $9 million against the Patriots\u2019 cap in 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The reason for that is quite simple. Besides the base, which consists of his $2.67 million salary as well as signing ($3.5M), roster ($680k) and workout bonuses ($150k), the pact also includes $2 million in playing time incentives. And given that Byard played 99.8% of defensive regular season snaps as a member of the Bears in 2025, all of them are considered likely to be earned (LTBE).<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">In full, a <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BenVolin\/status\/2036063366444204426\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">report<\/a> by Ben Volin of the Boston Globe shows that the incentives are structure a follows.<\/p>\n<p>S Kevin Byard: Contract incentives<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Maximum incentives: $2,000,000<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">2026: Up to $2,000,000<br \/>$500,000: 80% defensive snaps<br \/>$500,000: 85% defensive snaps<br \/>$500,000: 90% defensive snaps<br \/>$500,000: 95% defensive snaps<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Based on his track record, Byard living up to the LTBE classification of his incentives seems like a fairly safe bet. Only once in his career \u2014 during his 2016 rookie campaign with the Titans \u2014 did he fail to reach 80% of defensive snaps. In fact, he has played more than 96% of snaps in nine straight seasons and has not missed a single game since entering the league.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Byard remaining on that track at age 33 would therefore not be surprising, and in turn significantly boost the value of his deal. The Patriots, of course, would feel good about that as well: despite the increased salary cap number, having Byard available throughout the season is the ideal outcome of his one-year contract.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Should that happen and he reaches all four of his incentive escalators, nothing would change for New England from a salary cap perspective. Byard\u2019s cap number, as mentioned above, already includes the full incentive volume. Should he fail to reach the proper levels, though, the team will get the appropriate credit of up to $2 million on its 2027 cap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New England Patriots signed one of the top safeties available in this year\u2019s free agency, bringing first-team&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":842672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7,1167,249,52640,57412,13788,2326,2094,6,208],"class_list":["post-842671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-england-patriots","tag-football","tag-new-england","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-new-england-patriots-analysis","tag-new-england-patriots-free-agency","tag-new-england-patriots-salary-cap","tag-newengland","tag-newenglandpatriots","tag-nfl","tag-patriots"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116317736854171149","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=842671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/842672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}