GREEN BAY, Wis. -- The Green Bay Packers are big on per-game roster bonuses. They're just not usually as big as what they are in Nick Perry's new contract.
But given his injury history -- he has missed 18 of a possible 64 games in his four NFL seasons -- it was wise for general manager Ted Thompson to force the outside linebacker to earn some of his money by being healthy.
A full $1 million of Perry's one-year, $5 million contract is tied to how many games he's on the 46-man, game-day roster. Perry will receive $62,500 for each game active. The Packers had only one player, Letroy Guion, with a higher per-game roster bonus last season. That was done to protect the Packers against Guion's three-game suspension for violating the NFL's substance-abuse policy.
Perry played in 14 of the 16-regular season games last season and all but one game in 2014. However, in his first two seasons, the 2012 first-round pick played in just 17 of a possible 32 games.
When healthy, Perry has been effective. He has 12.5 career sacks in 46 regular-season games plus another 6.0 in the playoffs.
Here's a breakdown of Perry's deal:
Cash value: $5 million
Signing bonus: $1.5 million
Workout bonus: $200,000
Roster bonus: Up to $1 million ($62,500 per game active)
Base salary: $2.3 million
Incentives: Up to $250,000 based on playing time (considered not likely to be earned for salary-cap purposes).
