Jason McCourty represents a versatile part of the Patriots’ secondary, having added safety work to his usual cornerback preparation responsibilities during the preseason. He made another change just before the start of the regular season as well.
The Patriots and McCourty agreed to a restructured deal that will see the veteran defender’s base salary drop but his 2018 cap number increase. McCourty will trim his 2018 base from $2.375MM to $1.6MM in exchange for up to $1MM in playing-time incentives and $400K in per-game roster bonuses, Mike Reiss of ESPN.com reports (on Twitter).
McCourty’s playing-time incentives are broken up into $200K increments. Seeing 40 percent of New England’s defensive snaps will net the 10th-year veteran $200K, while playing in half of the Pats’ snaps will net McCourty an additional $200K. Sixty percent, 70 percent and 80 percent represent the ensuing benchmarks, with 80 percent meaning McCourty — who played six snaps in Week 1 — would collect $1MM total of this incentive package.
A $150K increase to McCourty’s roster bonus also comes as part of this adjustment, Ben Volin of the Boston Globe tweets. McCourty’s cap number will because of this restructure, with Volin noting (via Twitter) the 31-year-old defensive back’s number now represents $3.382MM after previously residing at $2.975MM on the Patriots’ cap sheet.
New England lost second-round pick Duke Dawson to an injury that relegated him to IR, opening possible snaps for McCourty. But he’s a backup for the time being, despite having started 104 career games and being a full-time first-stringer from 2011-17.