How does the salary cap work if a player has incentives?

[TuscanyTile2]

For example, Bridgewater's contract can go up to $15M.  Does that mean he counts $15M against the cap even if he doesn't meet the incentives?  I'm guessing yes because, if not, a team could potentially go over the cap.  But if a player doesn't hit the incentives then we wasted cap space, no?  

[extmenace]

Found this:

 

Incentives are written into some contracts to pay a player for reaching certain performance criteria. Incentives come in two varieties – Likely To Be Earned (LTBE) and Not Likely To Be Earned (NLTBE) – each of which has different Salary Cap implications.

Likely To Be Earned Incentives (LTBE) are incentives based on performance levels that were reached in the prior season. LTBEs count against the Salary Cap in the year they are scheduled.

For example, if a RB ran for 1,200 yards last year and he has an incentive that will pay him $100,000 if he runs for 1,000 yards this year, the incentive would be a LTBE Incentive and would count against the Salary Cap this year.

On the other hand, if the RB ran for 1,000 yards last year and he has an incentive that will pay him $100,000 if he runs for 1,200 yards this year, then incentive would be Not Likely To Be Earned (NLTBE) and would not count against this year’s Salary Cap.

If the player does not earn a LTBE Incentive, then the amount of the incentive ($100K in our example) will be credited against the following year’s Salary Cap and the team would have $100K in additional Cap space in the following year.

The opposite happens with NLTBE Incentives. If those are earned, they are charged to the following year’s Salary Cap. In our example, that would mean that the team would have $100K less in Cap space the following year.

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I'd imagine in Teddy bridgewaters case, if this is indeed correct, most of his incentives he earned in 18' would be pushed into the following season. 

[Ohio State NY Jets fan]

I think incentives roll to the follow year - depending on when they are "earned"

[Warfish]

extmenace nailed it.

[TuscanyTile2]

@extmenace Thanks for that!  I guess what it proves then is that the NFL doesn't have a hard cap.  If LTBE incentives are not met then a team gets additional cap space.

It's also funny to think that Christian Hackenberg could have a "play 1 snap and earn $100,000" incentive that would be "NLTBE"

[JoJoTownsell1]

Some Bridgewater did virtually zero last year I'm not sure any of the incentives will count against our cap this year. 

If he reaches those incentives, I'm sure the jets won't mind them counting towards next years cap.

Since Bridgewater didn't play last year, the rule may be a little different and may be the reason the Jets were so quick to name mccown the starter. if mccown is the starter those incentives are likely less likely to be reached.

[extmenace]

Just now, JoJoTownsell1 said:

Some Bridgewater did virtually zero last year I'm not sure any of the incentives will count against our cap this year. 

If he reaches those incentives, I'm sure the jets won't mind them counting towards next years cap.

Since Bridgewater didn't play last year, the rule may be a little different and may be the reason the Jets were so quick to name mccown the starter. if mccown is the starter those incentives are likely less likely to be reached.

That is an interesting take on why they'd announce mccown the starter so early. Actually makes sense.

[RutgersJetFan]

All these companies Jerry, they just write everything off.