NFL Contract Notes: Fatukasi, Jackson, Diggs

A month ago, we saw the Texans re-sign defensive tackle Foley Fatukasi to keep him in Houston for the second straight season. After watching the Jaguars terminate his three-year, $30MM deal a year early, Houston added him to the roster last year for only $5.13MM on a one-year contract.

In his second year with the team, Fatukasi has taken a discount to remain a Texan. In 2025, he’ll play on a reduced one-year, $3MM contract, according to Aaron Wilson of KPRC 2. Wilson adds that the deal includes $1.5MM in guarantees comprised of a $1MM signing bonus and $500K of his base salary (worth $1.5MM in 2025). Fatukaski will represent a $2.82MM hit to Houston’s salary cap. He’ll also have the opportunity to earn an additional $500K over the course of the deal with $29,411 per game active roster bonuses.

Here are a few other interesting contract notes from around the AFC:

• For the second straight offseason, Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson has been absent from team activities in Baltimore. Mike Florio of NBC Sports notes that the absence will reduce Jackson’s 2025 compensation $750K from $43.5MM to $42.75MM. The reduction is a result of Jackson not fulfilling a clause to participate in 27 of 32 team workouts. Obviously, over the course of a five-year, $260MM deal, one would hardly notice a $1.5MM drop over two years, but he may not be without it for long. As rumors begin to form focusing on a new extension to keep Jackson in line with the constantly inflating market, the $1.5MM bonuses would be an easy throw-in somewhere within the likely $60+MM per year deal.
• Jackson isn’t alone losing out on money this offseason. Cowboys cornerback Trevon Diggs and Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs each decided to surrender their bonuses in order to work out together in Miami this summer, per Ben Volin of The Boston Globe. Dallas will avoid paying Diggs $500K due to the absence. Volin posits that New England likely didn’t expect to see Diggs in workouts this summer, noting that, if they had wanted to see him there, they could have offered him more than the $200K he’s now missing out on. Following a bit of controversy in Miami, he’s now present in New England and should be at mandatory minicamp this week.