The roar of the Seahawks’ Super Bowl parade may still be ringing in the ears of those who were there.
But illustrating that the business of the NFL never stops, Friday marks a key contractual date for seven Seahawks veteran players, including quarterback Sam Darnold and receiver Cooper Kupp.
All seven have clauses in their contracts in which salary or bonuses for the 2026 season become guaranteed.
Darnold has two guarantees due Friday — a $15 million roster bonus and $2.5 million of his $12.3 million base salary for 2026.
Kupp will see $9 million of his $12.99 million base salary for 2026 become fully guaranteed.
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Here are the other Seahawks who have clauses in contracts that become guaranteed Friday, as detailed by OvertheCap.com:
Right tackle Abraham Lucas, $6.596 million 2026 base salary.
Punter Michael Dickson, $2.7 million 2026 base salary.
Defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence, $5 million of $8.15 million base salary for 2026.
Defensive tackle Jarran Reed, $2 million of $5.49 million base salary for 2026.
Linebacker Ernest Jones IV, $5 million of $7.9 million base salary for 2026.
As Friday passes and the money becomes guaranteed, it all but assures those players will be on the roster for the 2026 season.
The vesting dates are consistent with a long-term organizational philosophy by the Seahawks of not guaranteeing salary in contracts beyond the first season.
They do that in part to skirt NFL funding rules, which requires all future guaranteed money owed to players of more than $15 million be placed in escrow. The Seahawks prefer what’s called a “pay-as-you-go” philosophy.
The Seahawks have hung firm to that philosophy for years, including with every big star of the Legion of Boom era such as Russell Wilson and Bobby Wagner (not guaranteeing salary beyond year one was a particular sticking point in the last two deals they made with Wilson, who briefly broached the idea of wanting a fully guaranteed deal in 2019).
The Seahawks’ compromise is for the dates of the guarantees for the second years of deals to arrive early — typically, as is the case this year, on the fifth day after the Super Bowl.
That gives the players some comfort in at least getting the money quickly in the next year and knowing that if the team is going to release them, it will happen in plenty of time before the start of the NFL free-agent negotiating period, which this year begins on March 9.
Showing how avidly the Seahawks use this structure, there are only 11 other players around the league who have similar guarantees due this month, according to OvertheCap.com.
Of the seven players listed above, the only one who appears to have some question about his future in the eyes of some observers is Kupp.
Kupp turns 33 on June 15 and is coming off a season in which he recorded the lowest per-game averages of his career — 2.9 receptions compared to a career average of 5.7; 37.1 yards compared to a 69.7 career mark; and two touchdowns compared to a career average of eight.
Kupp’s contract numbers increase markedly.
Kupp signed a three-year deal last March worth up to $45 million after he was released by the Rams that included $17.5 million fully guaranteed, consisting of a signing bonus of $12 million and 2025 salary of $5.5 million.
He accounted for just a $9.47 million cap hit in 2025, or 3.3% of the team’s total cap, according to OTC.com.
Those numbers balloon to a salary of $12.99 million in 2026 with a $17.47 million cap hit accounting for 5.5% of the team’s total cap.
The Seahawks could simply work out a new deal with Kupp to lower his cap hit, as the team did last year with rush end Uchenna Nwosu.
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Those numbers have led to some speculation that the Seahawks could have a decision to make with Kupp. Friday could give some indication.
As for Darnold, the structure of his contract — which was a three-year deal worth up to $100.5 million — drew a lot of attention when it was signed last March because there is no guaranteed money beyond year one.
Some national outlets, without the context of how the Seahawks normally do contracts, examined that closely because it meant the Seahawks could cut Darnold after the 2025 season and owe him no more money.
Darnold’s contract called for him to get $37.5 million in 2025 consisting of a signing bonus of $32 million and a base salary of $5.5 million.
Darnold made a reported $4 million in incentives this season. That included $1 million for Sunday’s Super Bowl win and $2.5 million overall for the postseason (he also got $500,000 for getting to the playoffs, winning a division round game and winning the NFC title).
Darnold hit three incentives for performance during the regular season for $500,000 each. The $4 million total in incentives pushed his total earnings for the season to $41.5 million, via Spotrac.com.
Darnold played this year on a cap hit of just $13.4 million. But that increases to $37.9 million in 2026 and $44.9 million in 2027. Darnold’s cap hit for the 2025 season ranked 20th of all QBs, via Spotrac.com, but rises to 13th the next two seasons.
On a per-year average, Darnold remains a bargain, especially given his accomplishments in 2025.
His per-year average of $33.5 million ranks 18th among quarterbacks for the 2026 season, via Spotrac.com.
That has led some to wonder if the Seahawks would consider redoing Darnold’s contract this offseason.
Jonathan Jones, an NFL Insider for CBS Sports, wrote over the weekend on X that: “League sources believe Darnold could be in line for an extension this offseason with a win, just one year after signing his 3-year, $100.5M contract with Seattle.”
That would break from another Seahawks precedent of not handing out extensions to players who have more than a year remaining on their contracts, something the team has never wavered from, maybe most notably during Kam Chancellor’s holdout in 2015.
What we know for sure is that Darnold will get a bit richer by the end of Friday.
Bob Condotta: bcondotta@seattletimes.com. Bob Condotta is a sports reporter at The Seattle Times who primarily covers the Seahawks but also dabbles in other sports. He has worked at The Times since 2002, reporting on University of Washington Husky football and basketball for his first 10 years at the paper before switching to the Seahawks in 2013.