Jaguars' key starter just got a huge pay bump for the 2023 season
A huge pay day for the Jaguars starter.
The Jacksonville Jaguars center Luke Fortner earned a well-deserved payday Friday for exceeding his expected playing time as a 2022 third-round pick.
Fortner earned $819,686 in performance-based pay, which was the third most of all 25 players who earned performance-based pay bumps.
Fortner earned a base salary of just $705 thousand last season. Fortner played 100% of offensive snaps in his rookie year.
He wasn't the only Jaguars player to get a pay bump though, as Andre Cisco did as well. Cisco earned a $763,775 pay bump by way of performance-based play. He earned a base salary of $898,023 last season. Cisco was drafted in 2021 in the third round and played 97% of snaps.
From the league:
“Under the Performance-Based Pay program, a fund is created and used as a supplemental form of player compensation based on a comparison of playing time to salary. Players become eligible to receive a bonus distribution in any regular season in which they play at least one official down. In general, players with higher playtime percentages and lower salaries benefit most from the pool.
“Performance-Based Pay is computed by using a player index (“Index”). To produce the Index, a player’s “PBP Playtime” (defined as the player’s regular season total plays played on offense, defense, and special teams, divided by the number of plays of the player with the most total combined plays on that team) is divided by his “PBP Compensation” (defined as a regular season full salary, a prorated portion of a signing bonus, earned incentives). Each player’s Index is then compared to those of the other players on his team to determine the amount of his Performance-Based Pay. If a player’s base salary is less than the Minimum Salary of a player with seven or more Credited Seasons, then the player’s base salary will be imputed to be equal to the Minimum Salary of a player with seven or more Credited Seasons (i.e., $1.120M for the 2022 season). By imputing a minimum salary of $1.120 million, a slightly higher percentage of the pool is directed to high-performing veteran players whose salaries exceed $1.120 million, but are not among the highest in the league, as contemplated by the formula. This imputation of salary is solely for the purpose of calculating distributions from the pool and does not affect the actual salary paid to the player under his contract.”
For Cisco, he will be getting a payday again soon, as after his third season, he is available to sign a contract extension.
Fortner wasn't great in his 100% of offensive snaps. He struggled at times, but he was a rookie, and he was durable. Cisco was great. In fact, last season he kind of put his name out there as a safety to watch going forward.
