March 16, 2026, 4:20 p.m. PT
Two Seattle Seahawks starters in linebacker Drake Thomas and offensive guard Anthony Bradford received performance-based pay bonuses on Monday.
Mike Dugar posted these screenshots of the NFL’s press release at 10:37 a.m. PST.
Although the pay bonuses are called “performance-based”, they’re actually based on how much you perform, not how well you perform. The complex formula (laid out in the second photo of Dugar’s tweet above) divides playing time by snap count over total salary in a given year. Since Thomas and Bradford appeared far more than their salaries reflected last season, they qualified for a bonus. Only 23 other players around the league qualified alongside them. Thomas received $1.022 million while Bradford received $1.098 million.
Thomas took over as a starter after just three weeks last season and rarely came off the field, playing 871 total snaps. Bradford started every single game and totaled 1,223 snaps. When compared with their respective salaries of $1.038 million and $1.239 million, they were paid much less per snap than any other players on the Seahawks.
Guards were a popular position on the list, accounting for 7 of the 25 players. Since they don’t get rotated or receive big contracts, this should be expected. There were only two other linebackers, but Thomas was an outlier in more ways than one last season.
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These bonuses were based on their 2025 seasons, so they don’t affect the player’s salaries or the team’s salary cap.