On Monday, ESPN’s Pat McAfee reported that Green Bay Packers swing tackle Darian Kinnard signed a one-year deal worth $3.75 million. This should have set your alarm bells off, not because it was McAfee, generally a talk show host, reporting it, but because the Packers had the option to tender Kinnard on a $3.5 million, one-year deal as a restricted free agent.
My thought at the time, which I wrote, was that this was the maximum that the deal could be worth, but that the minimum (and expected) rate was going to come under the $3.5 million figure, otherwise Green Bay would have just logically slapped the right of first refusal tender on Kinnard for a lower price.
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NFL reporter Aaron Wilson is now claiming that this is the case.
Kinnard will make a $1.31 million salary in 2026 and a $1 million signing bonus, along with up to $340,000 ($20,000 per game) in per-game active roster bonuses, a $100,000 workout bonus (for showing up to “voluntary” practices this spring and summer) and $1 million more in playtime incentives. So it’s really a $2.75 million deal before incentives, which makes sense since the Packers elected to go this route instead of the tender.
So far, we don’t know the details on the playtime incentives. Those will likely be released at some point this week.