Seahawks fans who were excited about the prospect of adding Teven Jenkins may not like how much, or perhaps how little, it cost Cleveland to add Jenkins to their roster.
In the days and weeks leading up to the start of the new NFL year, the Seattle Seahawks created a significant amount of cap space by moving on from several veterans on expensive contracts.
First came the release fans of Dre’Mont Jones, Roy Robertson-Harris, Rayshawn Jenkins and George Fant. That was followed the next day by the release of Tyler Lockett, and then in the subsequent days with the front office reaching agreement to trade quarterback Geno Smith to the Las Vegas Raiders and wide receiver DK Metcalf to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Many were certain that the front office would deploy that cap space to address the biggest deficiency of the team, the interior of the offensive line, in free agency once the legal tampering period started. However, the available free agent linemen signed elsewhere one by one, with Drew Dalman going to the Chicago Bears, Will Fries signing with the Minnesota Vikings and so on and so on.
That then led to a parade of second tier offensive linemen making their way through the VMAC, though even after making an official free agent visit, none of Dillon Radunz, Teven Jenkins or Patrick Lucas opted to sign with Seattle.
And now that the terms of the contract signed by Teven Jenkins with the Cleveland Browns have been made public, many Seahawks fans may not understand why the front office did opt to sign Jenkins.
The contract details for new #Browns OL Tevin Jenkins.#Dawgpound pic.twitter.com/mYI4gkxpfN
— Browns.Live (@NowBrowns) March 26, 2025
Jenkins contract breaks down as follows:
- Base salary: $1.17M
- Signing bonus: $1.5M
- Per game roster bonuses: $340k ($20k per game)
- Workout bonus: $40k
- Playing time incentive: $500k for each of 50%, 70% and 80% of snaps played
During the 2024 seasons Jenkins was on the field for 64.96% of offensive snaps for the Bears in the 14 games he played, making $280k of the per game roster bonuses and $500k of the playing time incentives likely to be earned. The last $1M of playing time incentives will be not likely to be earned, and would only be recognized by the Browns if Jenkins actually exceeds 70% and 80% of the offensive snaps played. Cleveland also added four void years into the contract, allowing them to push $1.2M of the cap hit onto the 2026 salary cap.
Putting everything together, Jenkins should carry a cap hit of $2.29M for the Browns, with a $1.2M dead money charge next season, for a total cost of $3.49M, though that number could go up for down depending on how many snaps Jenkins actually plays in 2025.