Field Gulls
Just a week remains until the 2024 NFL Draft takes center stage for three days, and for fans of teams across the league that means looking to the future with hope and optimism. However, even as the youthful additions of the draft are just over the horizon, teams continue to evaluate things internally, including players recovering from 2023 injuries and offseason surgeries, as well as getting first looks at free agent signings.
For the Seattle Seahawks, this includes the former Pro Bowl guard the team announced on Monday it had signed, Laken Tomlinson. And while the Hawks are getting their first look at Tomlinson in person as a member of the team, fans are now able to get their first look at the details of the contract he signed.
As Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times notes in his post, the $1.21M base salary of Tomlinson’s contract is a far cry from the original “up to $4M” reporting of the deal. However, Brady Henderson of ESPN has details on the incentives portion of the contract that could push it up to $4M.
Interestingly, Tomlinson played every offensive snap for the Jets in 2023, meaning that his playing time incentives would be classified as likely to be earned and hit the cap in 2024 if they are purely based on playing time. That makes it likely that there is some sort of qualifier attached to those incentives that is causing them to be categorized as not likely to be earned and keeping them off the 2024 cap. This would not be a difficult task, as it could be something as simple as basing the incentives on playing time and the Seattle offense averaging 16 or more points per game.
In any case, the Seahawks have a veteran interior offensive lineman under contract with minimal guarantees, and the freedom to draft as they see fit when the Seahawks come on the clock.
