As long as helping players reach their incentives helps the Seahawks defeat the Rams in Week 17, the team is set to help players earn a little extra holiday cash.
Tuesday the world said goodbye to 2024, and on Sunday the Seattle Seahawks will take to the field at SoFi Stadium against the Los Angeles Rams to close out their inaugural season under new head coach Mike Macdonald.
There are a handful of Seahawks who have the opportunity to hit incentives with their on field performance, or who have the ability to set team records, and while speaking to the press Wednesday, Macdonald noted the team will look to help those players reach those incentives, within reason.
Mike Macdonald mentioned financial motivations and milestones for some players in final game. Says he wants to help players to hit those numbers within the lens of what’s best for the team.
— Dugar, Michael-Shawn (@MikeDugar) January 1, 2025
Of course, winning takes priority and is more important than players earning a little extra, but it sounds like as long as the players are able to work towards their incentives while helping the team, the team will try to help the players earn a little holiday bonus.
Some of the players who have incentives that can be reached include Geno Smith, Laken Tomlinson and Jarran Reed, among others. Smith’s incentives have been widely discussed, and the Week 18 showdown could put up to $6M additional on the roster bonus he is due in March. Meanwhile, Reed’s incentives are unlikely to be reached, as he needs 3.5 sacks against the Rams to earn $185k or 6.5 sacks to earn $370k, but Seahawks fans likely wouldn’t complain if Reed somehow, some way managed to reach those incentives.
Then there’s Tomlinson, who has incentives that are tied to playing time and a team performance incentive, but exactly what that team incentive is has yet to be publicly disclosed. If the team hits the threshold, Tomlinson will likely earn an additional $2.04M for his 2024 play, assuming he plays more than a couple drives worth of snaps against the Rams. In order to earn the full $2.04M he needs to finish the season having played 95% of offensive snaps for the Hawks, and given that he’s played 99.71% of snaps so far this season, he likely only needs to play a dozen or so snaps against the Rams to ensure he finishes above 95%.
Also chasing a franchise record is second year wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, whose 96 catches sit just four behind the team record of 100 set by Tyler Lockett in 2020. Should JSN be able to emulate any of what he did against the Rams in Week 9, setting this team record should be easy work for the 22 year old wide receiver.
And now it’s up to the players to show what they can do in the season finale in order to hit these incentives and set franchise marks.