Kansas City Chiefs defensive end Carlos Dunlap
Kansas City Chiefs defensive end Carlos Dunlap has been well worth the $3 million guaranteed to him in his one-year deal with the Chiefs. But he could earn an even bigger payday with the AFC West champions during the final two weeks of the regular season.
Although only $3 million was guaranteed to Dunlap, who has 100 career sacks in his 13-year NFL career, he could earn an additional $6 million through incentives, making his contract worth up to $8 million, per OverTheCap.
ESPN’s Michael Rothstein recently detailed the incentives Dunlap is close to reaching, which will help him earn some, but not all of the additional $6 million in his contract.
“He is close to cashing in. If he plays at least 50% of the snaps — he’s at 48.21% — he’ll make $1 million,” Rothstein wrote on December 30.
“Dunlap has four sacks, and he needs two more to make another $1 million on top of the play-time percentage. He’s unlikely to reach nine or 11 sacks, which would have kicked in even more money. Another stipulation dealt with team improvement, but the Chiefs will cover that by allowing fewer net yards than last year.”
KC’s Schedule Favors Dunlap Reaching Payout
Getting the bonus from a play-time incentive is the easiest incentive to reach for Dunlap, although it’s still no guarantee. It’s also possible that he gets 2 sacks over the final two games of the regular season. But he only 4 sacks in 15 games played this season, so they’ve been hard to come across in Dunlap’s case, although it’s not because of a lack of overall productivity, which his PFF numbers show.
Luckily for Dunlap, the Chiefs have a home game in Week 17 against the Denver Broncos, who have given up the most sacks in the NFL this season (57), per StatMuse. Kansas City then closes out the regular season against the Las Vegas Raiders, who have only given up 29 sacks this season (7th best in NFL) but will face Raiders backup quarterback Jarrett Stidham for that matchup.
Andy Reid Talks’ Chiefs’ Batted Passes
The Chiefs, although overall very middle-of-the-road on defense as an entire unit, lead the league in one defensive category: batted passes.
Kansas City’s defense has had 6 players record a total of 19 batted passes this season, which ranks 1st in the NFL. The individual leader on the team is Dunlap, who has 7 batted passes this season, per Stathead. Second on the team is rookie first-round pick George Karlaftis with 6.
Speaking to the media on December 28, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid was asked about how much focus the team puts into batting down passes.
“Yeah, (Defensive Line Coach) Joe (Cullen) covers that. If you’re not able to quite get to the guy, to the quarterback, get your hands up, at least one (hand) and try to bat the ball down and so that’s part of his repertoire of things that he does in there with them,” Reid said during his press conference.
“It’s been very successful, and I know before George (Karlaftis) kind of went on this sack thing that he’s going, he had a few batted balls in there which were big for us and Carlos (Dunlap) likewise.”