Uche Nwaneri Earns Salary Bump

Jacksonville Jaguars guard Uche Nwaneri trigged a "not likely to be earned" incentive in his contract during the 2011 season. With the incentive reached, Nwaneri's contract will increase from $849,000 to a cool $2.775 million.

Nwaneri signed a five-year contract extension before the start of the 2010 regular season that was worth a reported $24 million. The 30 percent rule governing extensios in the uncapped 2010 season limited how much the base salaries could increase in that deal, so he went from earning a $598,000 base salary in 2010 to $711,000 in 2011.

During that time, however, Nwaneri triggered a "not likely to be earned" incentive that increased his base salary for 2012 from $849,000 to $2.775 million. Future base salaries of $987,000 (2013), $1.125 million (2014) and $1.263 million (2015) are now at $3.775 million in each of those seasons.

Nwaneri had one bad game in 2011, in which he was called for holding multiple times, but outside of that had an excellent season and looks to be a longterm staple at the guard position for the Jaguars. Not only did Nwaneri play himself into a raise, but so did left tackle Eugene Monroe. Monroe triggered an escalation in his contract bumping his 2012 and 2013 salaries by $500,000 ($2.182 million in 2012 and $2.6225 million in 2013).

These two offensive lineman should be a staple on the Jaguars offensive line for the long haul and will be tasked with continuing the team's dominant rushing attack while trying to improve protection for quarterback Blaine Gabbert going forward.