Sam Darnold is relatively underpaid based on his performance for the Seattle Seahawks this offseason compared to other quarterbacks of his ilk in the NFL. His guaranteed salary was just $5.5 million, and his cap hit was $13.4 million. But don't feel too bad for the QB.
He can make a lot of money by reaching incentives, and he has a chance to reach two of them in Week 17 against the Carolina Panthers. Mind you, he would have to have a very good game, but not an impossible one.
Among Darnold's 2025 incentives are having at least 28 passing touchdowns and at least 4,000 passing yards. Each pays $500,000 if Darnold reaches those numbers. To get there against Carolina, Darnold would need to toss four TD passes and 297 yards. That latter number could certainly be doable, though the quarterback has only thrown for that much twice this year.
Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold is two steps away from $1 million
He has thrown fur touchdown passes twice, though, so oddly, that might be more realistic than the 297 yards. Even if Darnold passes for four touchdowns and has just 50 yards passing, surely Seahawks fans would take that, as long as the team wins.
Sam Darnold will need a good game to stay on track for two other incentives, and each of those pays $500,000, too. One is to finish the season with a 100 passer rating. Through Week 16, the quarterback's rating is 100.6.
The other is to have a completion percentage of 67.5 or better. He is currently completing 67.2 percent of his passes. Of course, the last two incentives will have to wait until Week 18 is over, but reaching the other two would earn Darnold a cool million dollars.
An outside chance exists where Darnold wouldn't have to play the final game of the season. The Seattle Seahawks would have to beat the Panthers in Carolina, the San Francisco 49ers and Chicago Bears would have to tie, and the Los Angeles Rams would have to stunningly lose to the Atlanta Falcons.
Neither of those is probably going to happen, but the Seahawks still control their fate as far as being the top seed in the NFC. The team simply needs to win out. That means beating the Panthers (with Darnold hopefully having a great game) and then the 49ers in Week 18. The playoffs would then have to go through Seattle.