The Pittsburgh Steelers didn't waste any time when they went out and signed quarterback Mitchell Trubisky on the first day of free agency's tampering period. They identified early on that Trubisky was their potential target, and they were able to lure him away from signing with the New York Giants who were also courting the veteran.
"My goal throughout free agency was find a way to get back on the field and going into a situation where I could win a starting job and use my talents on the field," Trubisky said at the time.
The Steelers reportedly gave Trubisky a 2-year contract worth a base value of $14.285 million. But the contract has the potential to pay out $27 million through incentives.
According to Albert Breer of NFL Network, Trubisky can and likely will earn the majority of those incentives if he's the starting quarterback for the entire season.
Steelers quarterback Mitchell Trubisky poses with his wife after signing his contract with Steelers.
If Trubisky is able to play at minimum 60% of the Steelers offensive snaps in 2022, he will begin to earn incentives that will total around $4 million dollars. It's not certain if he needs to play 100% of the snaps to pocket all of that extra money, but it's likely the top goal is around 90% of the snaps. In 2023, he will have the same opportunity to earn the extra $4 million.
Another chance to add to his money is if he makes the Pro Bowl. Should Trubisky make the Pro Bowl, he will earn $250,000 each season. It's likely that being added as an alternate won't pay him that money. He needs to be one of the first three quarterbacks chosen for the AFC. That's a tough task with the elite class of quarterbacks in the AFC.
It's important to note that Breer says the playing time incentives are listed as NLTBE which stands for 'Not Likely To Be Earned'. Let me explain what exactly that means. There are two different types of incentives: NLTBE and LTBE (Likely To Be Earned) and those are based off of the players previous year. If Trubisky was coming off of a season in which he started every game for the Steelers and the Steelers gave him a new contract with the same type of incentives, they would be considered LTBE because he would've easily earned them the season before. But even though it's thought that Trubisky will be the Steelers starting quarterback, the status of the incentives is based off last season which saw Trubisky play under 20 snaps.
The important part is that except in certain circumstances, LTBE incentives count against the team’s salary cap in the current season, and NLTBE incentives do not count against a team’s current year’s cap. Except in rare cases, unearned LTBE incentives are credited to the following season’s salary cap, while earned NLTBE incentives are charged against the following season’s salary cap.
All of the money Trubisky earns this season in incentives will roll over to the 2023 salary cap.
It's also important to note that if the Steelers get poor play from Trubisky, or something better comes along after 2022, they can release Trubisky without suffering much consequence. Trubisky has a base salary of $1.035 million in 2022, and $8 million in 2023 with cap charges of $3.6 million in 2022, and $10.625 million in 2023.
