Every member of the ‘Legion of Zoom’ will return for another season in 2020 as Terez Paylor of Yahoo! Sports reports that the Kansas City Chiefs and wide receiver Sammy Watkins have agreed on a one-year deal worth $9 million.
The deal comes as a major surprise to many fans and pundits alike, who’ve speculated Watkins would eventually be on his way out of Kansas City due to his $21 million cap hit for the 2020 season.
After restructuring, however, Watkins’ new deal now carries a $16 million cap hit which frees up $5 million in desperately needed cap space.
According to Mike Garafalo of NFL Network, the details of Watkins’ new contract includes a $7 million base salary, $1 million signing bonus, and $62,500 pre-game roster bonus.
Watkins played in 14 games in 2019 which means 14 games worth of pre-game roster bonus will be considered likely-to-be-earned (LTBE) in 2020. Which, according to John Dixon of Arrowhead Pride, will make his cap hit be slightly less than what Paylor reported at the crack of dawn on Friday morning; $15.875 million.
Garafalo also reports that Watkins’ restructured deal includes a ‘no trade’ clause. Meaning the team will not be able to trade him during the upcoming season in order to save money against the 2021 salary cap.
The clause also gives Watkins the opportunity to earn more money in incentives if he reaches any of the following benchmarks during the 2020 season:
- 75% of regular-season playing time (or seven touchdowns): $1 million
- 8 touchdowns and team makes playoffs: $750,000
- 65 catches and playoffs: $750,000
- 800 yards receiving and playoffs: $750,000
- Team wins AFC Championship (with 50% snaps in the game): $1.25 million
- 65 catches and AFC Championship: $1.25 million
- 800 yards and AFC Championship: $1.25 million
It’s worth noting that Watkins failed to reach any of these benchmarks in 2019 which is why they’re considered not-likely-to-be-earned (NLTBE). However, if he does reach any of these milestones, the incentives will count towards the 2021 salary cap.
The return of Sammy Watkins, now means the reigning Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs have 10 of their 11 offensive starters back for the 2020 season.
