After agreeing to come out of retirement and signing a one-year contract with the New England Patriots, tight end Benjamin Watson will have to sit out for four games, as the tight end revealed that he would be suspended thanks to medication he was taking prior to coming back into the NFL.
Despite having to miss four games, Watson may still be able to hit some incentives in his contract.
Calculating some of the financial aspects of the suspension, Pro Football Talk has found that Watson may still be able to earn his $650,000 in incentives. According to their league sources, Watson will get $250,000 if he participates in 35% of the team’s offensive snaps, and another $400,000 if he makes it to 45% of the offensive snaps.
Obviously, missing a quarter of the season will make hitting those numbers difficult, but not impossible.
For Watson to reach both of those numbers, he’ll have to be on the field for around 66% of the offensive snaps in the remaining 12 games that he will be able to play in. To reach just 35% of the snaps, he’ll only have to play for roughly half of the snaps in the remaining games of the year.
Thanks to how the Patriots utilize tight ends, this might not actually be too difficult, as Watson was likely brought in to the team to fill the role of an additional blocker.
With the Patriots using tight ends as an extension of the offensive line, it wouldn’t be impossible to see Watson on the field for some time, and hit those marks.
Despite the possibility of earning those incentives, Watson will still lose an estimated $416,117 in salary and per-game roster bonuses for the year. He’ll also lose $141,176 of his $600,000 signing bonus, which is unfortunate for the tight end.
Thankfully for him, he’ll have the ability to earn some back throughout the year.
Follow Us
Subscribe