As always, the real story when it comes to NFL contracts is the details.
And at least some of the fine points in Sam Darnold’s Seahawks contract began to be revealed on Sunday.
The contract Darnold signed with the Seahawks on Thursday — which he initially agreed to on Monday — was advertised as three years and worth up to $100.5 million.
But as first reported by Pro Football Talk Sunday, Darnold’s contract contains fully guaranteed money for only the 2025 season, meaning that if things really go awry, Seattle could cut him following this season and be back in the market for a quarterback a year from now.
As PFT reported, Darnold will get a guaranteed $37.5 million in 2025 in some combination of salary and signing bonus (PFT’s report did not include a breakdown of salary and signing bonus).
He is then due $27.5 million in 2026, also in some combination of salary and signing bonus.
Of that amount, $17.5 million is guaranteed in case of injury now and becomes fully guaranteed if he is still on the roster the week after Super Bowl LX.
There is no other guaranteed money in the contract.
That effectively gives the Seahawks from the end of the 2025 season to the week after the Super Bowl to release Darnold if they want and having paid him just $37.5 million.
With no guaranteed money in 2027, Seattle could also easily release Darnold after the 2026 season, having paid him $65 million, or $32.5 million per season.
Geno Smith was due to make $44.5 million in 2025 but was traded to the Raiders for a third-round pick after negotiations with Seattle on an extension broke down quickly.
A source said Seattle offered Smith a contract of at least $40 million a season.
Smith has yet to sign an extension with the Raiders, but the two sides are said to be working on one.
PFT reported that Darnold’s deal also “includes $2 million per year for individual performance, $2.5 million per year for postseason performance, and $500,000 per year for team performance.’’
It’s unclear the details of those incentives and how reachable they are, but they give Darnold the ability to earn $5 million more per season.
The upshot is that Darnold is on basically a year-to-year contract with Seattle.
That puts Darnold in still something of a “prove-it’’ mode as he comes to Seattle.
It also means that basically any option regarding quarterbacks is open for Seattle going forward, including taking one in the upcoming draft.
The Seahawks have 10 picks overall, including five of the first 92 — 18, 50, 52, 82 and 92.
Miami’s Cam Ward may go No. 1 overall to Tennessee, or to a team trading to get him.
But there has been speculation Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders could fall out of the top 10, possibly in a position where the Seahawks could move up to get him if desired.
Maybe even more realistic is Seattle targeting QBs who may be available in the late first or second and third rounds such as Ole Miss’ Jaxon Dart, Ohio State’s Will Howard, Alabama’s Jalen Milroe or Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel.
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One detail of Darnold’s contract had yet to be revealed as of Sunday afternoon — the salary cap charges.
As noted, the initial PFT report did not include a breakdown of signing bonus and salary, only overall compensation.
A signing bonus allows for that portion of the total compensation to be spread out over the three years of the contract for salary cap purposes, meaning while Darnold could make $37.5 million in 2025, his cap hit would be lower.
It’s not until the signing bonus is known that the cap charges can be calculated.
Seattle was still listed Sunday as having roughly $60.8 million in cap space.
However, the contracts for Darnold, Cooper Kupp and DeMarcus Lawrence are among those that have yet to be processed, meaning Seattle’s actual cap space is much lower.
In the immediate aftermath of the PFT report, some wondered why Seattle would want what is essentially a year-to-year proposition at quarterback and why the 27-year-old Darnold would have agreed to it.
But from the start, most observers figured that this was really a two-year deal with Darnold having to earn the third year.
That still most realistically seems the case.
As PFT noted, players with a contract structure such as Darnold’s are rarely released in the period between the end of the season and a guarantee vesting the following the month.
Seattle also has long had a precedent of not offering fully guaranteed money beyond the first season.
Even Russell Wilson’s four-year, $140 million deal with Seattle in 2019 did not include any guaranteed money beyond the first season, though it also included a $65 million signing bonus.
But as noted, the structure does allow Seattle the option to move on quickly if it desires.
As for Darnold, the contract may speak to what was an evolving but unclear QB market and only a few teams (notably the Giants and Steelers) that really seemed in the mood to spend big for one — and both the Giants and Steelers also appearing to still wait on a decision from Aaron Rodgers.
Darnold will also be getting what is by far the biggest one-year payday of his career in 2025, in the wake of his revival in Minnesota last season.
Darnold played last season on a one-year, $10 million deal with the Vikings.
But he made just $4.5 million as a backup with the 49ers in 2023, and averaged $11.8 million in two years with Carolina in 2021-22 and $8.57 million in his first three years in the NFL with the Jets from 2018-20.
Via OveretheCap.com, Darnold has career earnings so far of just over $63 million, averaging just over $9 million per season.
He can now almost match that total — $55 million — from now until the week after the Super Bowl in 2026.
Bob Condotta: bcondotta@seattletimes.com. Bob Condotta covers the Seahawks for the Seattle Times. He provides daily coverage of the team throughout the year.