Green Bay Packers outside linebacker Preston Smith delivered a game-turning play and earned a half-million bucks in the process.
Smith’s strip-sack of Chicago Bears rookie quarterback Justin Fields in the third quarter on Sunday night not only set up the Packers for a quick touchdown, but the quarterback takedown represented his sixth sack of the season, and the number six is pretty valuable to veteran edge rusher in 2021.
When Smith and the Packers restructured his contract this past offseason, the two sides put in incentives for reaching certain numbers of sacks. The first bonus arrived for Smith at sack No. 6. It’s worth $500,000.
He tallied another sack later in the game, giving him seven on the season. If he gets to eight sacks, he’ll collect another $750,000.
The full list of the incentives, worth $4.4 million in total:
– $500,000 for six sacks
– $750,000 for eight sacks
– $750,000 for 10 sacks
– $1,200,000 for 12 sacks
– $1,200,000 for 14 sacks
Smith has four more games to record seven more sacks and collect all the bonuses. His career-high in sacks is 12.0, set in 2019 with the Packers.
Getting to 10 or more sacks doesn’t seem out of the equation if he continues playing this well. Over the last four games, Smith has tallied five sacks and 29 total pressures, per Pro Football Focus.
His bounce-back season has been impressive. After delivering only 29 pressures, four sacks and 11 quarterback hits over 16 games last season, Smith has 47 pressures, seven sacks and 13 quarterback hits in 12 games.
The Packers will have a decision to make on Smith following the 2021 season. His cap hit balloons to $19,750,000 in 2022, the final year of his deal in Green Bay.
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