The collective bargaining agreement between the NFL and the NFL Players Association includes a provision that helps high-performing players with low-dollar rookie contracts earn a significant bonus in their fourth season. The proven Performance Escalator allows players who reach certain hit count thresholds to get a unique and significant increase in their base pay for their fourth NFL seasons.
The goal of the program is to reward players who carve out an important role as young players, a role that often surpasses humble draft status. However, it is not difficult to imagine cases where this could backfire on the player; the increase is not guaranteed and makes these players a higher salary ceiling liability.
The reason it’s not hard to imagine is that the Green Bay Packers face such a scenario in 2020. Jamaal Williams has met all of the instant count thresholds for the PPE program, which has earned him a increase from $ 735,000 to $ 2.133 million this year. . Williams, while being a helpful player, is hardly a star; although he has exceeded 400 yards rushing and 35 percent of the team’s offensive clicks in each of its first three seasons, Williams remains a replacement behind Aaron Jones and is primarily an actor.
Go into second-round rookie pick AJ Dillon, and it’s clear that Williams will fight for the number two position. This week ESPN’s Rob Demovsky rated Williams as the most prominent veteran of the team’s bubble this summer, noting both his new contract and his role as reasons for this assessment.
In one respect, Williams improved in 2019. With a slightly lighter workload – Jones played all 16 games for the first time in players’ careers – Williams improved his carry average from midfield 3 years at 4.3. However, a review of the advanced figures shows that this number was entirely due to an increase in its yards before contact, which suggests that it was the beneficiary of better blocking of the tracks of the Packers’ offensive line rather than of an improvement in his own race. His precipitated DVOA also plunged to its lowest level in his career.
Meanwhile, Williams’ reception efficiency improved significantly, as he placed 8th among runners late in receiving DVOA and improved his catch rate to almost 90%. However, his receiving yards dropped to just 6.5 in 2019, and the DVOA boost was strongly influenced by his five touchdowns, an excellent performance in a category that is notoriously unreliable statistics.
In the end, Williams is probably worth his money if he keeps the second position behind Jones. If Dillon turns out to be a critical artist early on and takes this main backup job from him, however, Brian Gutekunst may decide to move on and free up about $ 2 million to use for another contract extension. player – think of Kenny Clark and David Bakhtiari – is worth the risk of backtracking # 3.
