Sam Darnold incentives revealed for new contract with Seahawks

Ari Meirov at the 33rd team shares details of Sam Darnold's new three-year contract with Seattle.

Dec 22, 2024; Seattle, Washington, USA; Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold (14) passes against the Seattle Seahawks during the first quarter at Lumen Field. | Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images

The headline when Sam Darnold agreed to terms with the Seattle Seahawks was that he was signing a three-year deal worth up to $100.5 million. However, the early contract numbers that are reported can be notoriously unreliable, or at least represent an incomplete picture of the deal. There's been no small amount of confusion regarding Darnold's - including whether or not the Seahawks can get out from under after just one year if it doesn't go well.

One thing we do have for certain are the specific incentives on Darnold's new deal with Seattle. Ari Meirov at the 33rd team shared them recently on Twitter:

- 100.0+ passer rating (224 attempts minimum): $500,000

- 28+ touchdown passes: $500,000

- 4,000+ total passing yards: $500,000

- 67.5+ completion rate (224 passes minimum): $500,0000

- 70% snaps + top 10 yardage offense: $500,000

- Make playoffs ($500,000)

- Win divisional round + play 70% of snaps: $1,000,000

- Win NFC championship + 70% snaps: $1,500,000

- Win Super Bowl + 70% snaps: $2,500,000

For reference, in his breakout season last year with the Minnesota Vikings Darnold finished at a 66.2% completion rate, 4,319 passingyards, 35 touchdown passes, 14 wins, a 102.5 passer rating and he played 99% of their snaps but did not get any playoff wins as Minnesota was bounced from the Wild Card round by the red-hot Los Angeles Rams.

Darnold did not perform particularly well in that matchup, but it was his first career playoff game, which tends to not go well even for great quarterbacks. No matter how Darnold plays, getting past that Wild Card round will likely require the Seahawks to upgrade their offensive line in a big way.

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