We have the contract details for Bills safety Taylor Rapp.
With Micah Hyde a free agent and Jordan Poyer recently released, the Buffalo Bills were getting thin at safety. They brought back one this week, inking soon-to-be free agent Taylor Rapp to a three-year pact. As akways, there was outrage over the numbers, but the “up to” in the reporting turned out to be doing a bunch of heavy lifting in the incentive-laden contract.
We have the numbers, so let’s dive in.
Rapp received a $2 million signing bonus and his $1.675 million salary in 2024 is fully guaranteed. He’s going to be on the roster in the fall.
In the second and third years, he has a $250,000 roster bonus due near the start of the league year. His base salary goes to $2.3 million and $2.575 million in 2025 and 2026. Each season has per-game roster bonuses that can total $425,000 at $25,000 per game. A good chunk of the base salary for 2025 fully guarantees at the start of the 2025 league year.
There are also playing time incentives built into each year of the deal for another $1.3 million per season, but it’s unclear what those incentives actually are.
The base deal’s average of $3.54 million places Rapp 30th in the NFL at the safety position (although several recently released safeties will top him once they ink deal), so it’s low-end starter money with incentives that can make it mid-level.
It’s a significant raise for Rapp, who played on a one-year, $1.77 million contract in 2023. It’s probably not an accident that his new average annual salary is exactly twice as much as that.
Here is the breakdown:
2024
Signing bonus proration: $666,666
Workout bonus: $100,000
Per-game active bonus: $25,000 per game up to $425,000 ($400,000 LTBE)
Base salary: $1.675 million (guaranteed)
Playing time incentives: Up to $1.3 million
Yearly cash: $4.2 million
Cap hit: $2,841,666
2025
Signing bonus proration: $666,666
Roster bonus: $250,000
Workout bonus: $100,000
Per-game active bonus: $25,000 per game up to $425,000
Base salary: $2.3 million
Playing time incentives: Up to $1.3 million
Yearly cash: $3.075 million
Cap hit: $3,741,666
Dead cap if cut: $1.33 million if cut by start of league year
Cap savings if cut: $2,408,332 if cut by start of league year
2026
Signing bonus proration: $666,666
Roster bonus: $250,000
Workout bonus: $100,000
Per-game active bonus: $25,000 per game up to $425,000
Base salary: $2.575 million
Playing time incentives: Up to $1.3 million
Yearly cash: $3.35 million
Cap hit: $4,016,667
Dead cap if cut: $666,667
Cap savings if cut: $3.35 million