Not bad for a night’s work
There’s always an asterisk with NFL contracts but Marcus Mariota’s play against the Chargers could result in a big payday.
The Raiders were forced to turn to Mariota when Derek Carr injured his groin on the second Las Vegas series of the game. It was Mariota’s first action of the season and his first opportunity to earn some of the bonuses included in his incentive-laden contract.
According to ESPN’s Field Yates, Mariota is poised to earn $200,000 whenever he plays more than 60% of the Raiders’ snaps in a game. That number increases to $325,000 if Vegas wins the game. (This is on top of a fully guaranteed 2020 salary of $7.5 million.) Additionally, playing at least 60% of the snaps in any single game bumps Mariota’s 2021 salary up by $625,000.
Mariota ended up playing 86% of the snaps, so he could have earned $950,000 if the Raiders had won. The Chargers came out on top, though, despite their best efforts to give the game away, so Mariota earned $825,000 in bonuses.
There’s a catch, though. It’s possible that Mariota doesn’t see the additional $625,000 that was tacked on to his 2021 salary. His pay for next season isn’t guaranteed and the Raiders can save more than $10 million on their salary cap if Mariota isn’t with the team. That’s a lot of money to pay a backup quarterback but Mariota showed on Thursday that he’s the best backup in the NFL, so the team could decide it’s worth it to have him behind Carr, in which case Mariota keeps the $625,000.
There’s another way Mariota could keep that money, too. His performance against the Chargers definitely could have convinced other teams that he’s capable of being a perfectly reliable starter. If the Raiders trade him, they don’t even have to eat any dead money on their cap. Could a team with a hole at quarterback deal for him? Maybe a team that drafts a QB next spring will want to bring Mariota in to play the Ryan Fitzpatrick role.
Mariota probably isn’t done cashing in this year, either. Jon Gruden said after the game that Carr’s groin injury is “significant.” That lines up Mariota to start at least one more game and earn at least another $200,000. Not a bad deal.
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Around the sports world
Houston coach Kelvin Sampson says his entire roster has been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the summer. … Henrik Lundqvist won’t be able to play for the Capitals this season after being diagnosed with a heart condition. … Vanessa Bryant is accusing her mother of trying to extort her with a $5 million lawsuit. … Jarvis Landry says Marcus Peters is a “coward” for spitting on him. … Aloha Stadium, home of Hawaii football and the former home of the Pro Bowl, has been deemed unsafe for crowds and is expected to be condemned.
Getting laughed at is the most humiliating reaction to trying to start a fight
Flawless throw from Mariota here
If you look closely at Waller in the clip above, you can see him signal “34” with his fingers in honor of his former Ravens teammate Lorenzo Taliaferro, who died suddenly this week
Hunter Renfrow missed the rest of the game with a concussion after this
Justin Herbert screamed “I was in” after scoring the game-winning touchdown
Whoopsie
A player in a Texas state championship game let his teammate score what’s believed to be his first varsity touchdown
Here’s really like a mini Tiger
Too bad. This would have been a big game.
Get well soon!
Excellent use of the video boards
Not sports
Parts of upstate New York got as much as 41 inches of snow and the photos are ridiculous. .. Twitter is going to start verifying accounts again after a three-year hiatus. … Jeremy Bulloch, who played Boba Fett in the original Star Wars movies, died at age 75. … Cyberpunk 2077 is such a disaster on PS4 that Sony is offering refunds and removing it from its online store.
This is how broken Cyberpunk is
Here’s what all that snow looks like outside your door
A good song
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