The salary cap impact of Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s Pro Bowl selection

It’s the holidays, and fans of the Seattle Seahawks are celebrating not just the thrilling Week 16 victory over the division rival Los Angeles Rams, they are also enjoying the selection of a half dozen members of the team to the Pro Bowl Games.

There will almost certainly be additional members of the roster who are invited to participate in the Pro Bowl in the coming weeks as other players across the league opt out due to injury or are unable to participate as their team makes the Super Bowl. For the time being, though, the six Seahawks who earned Pro Bowl nods this year are:

Obviously, making the Pro Bowl is largely a popularity contest, but players certainly take pride in what they do and enjoy the honor that comes with making the Pro Bowl. However, getting selected to the Pro Bowl also has real impacts on player contracts thanks to the collective bargaining agreement.

Specifically, for players selected in the third through seventh rounds of the NFL Draft, making the Pro Bowl means automatically qualifying for the Proven Performance Escalator, which means a raise in the final year of their rookie contract. Meanwhile, for those players who were talented and fortunate enough to have been first round picks, making the Pro Bowl during their first three seasons in the NFL has an impact on the salary that is attached to the fifth year option in their contract.

First round picks who make the Pro Bowl on the initial ballot once during their first three seasons in the league see the salary for the first year option increase to be equal to the amount of the transition tag, while those who make the Pro Bowl in at least two of their first three seasons have their salary increased to that of the franchise tag.

Thus, with Smith-Njigba making the Pro Bowl on the initial ballot, his 2027 base salary one the Seahawks exercise the fifth year option will be somewhere in the neighborhood of a fully guaranteed $24.361M, depending on exactly where the salary cap winds up. Regardless of the exact dollar amount at which the option settles, the reality is that between the current state of the wide receiver market and JSN’s production, $24.361M is an absolute bargain.

Now, for those wondering why the fifth year option amount is not the $28.046M of the franchise tag, as this is JSN’s second trip to the Pro Bowl after he made it in 2024, that’s a simple answer. In 2024 JSN did not make it to the Pro Bowl on the initial ballot, and it is only players who make it in on the initial ballot see their fifth year option amounts increase, thus his fifth year option salary is determined by the transition tag and not the franchise tag.

And for those fans curious why Devon Witherspoon’s Pro Bowl selection did not earn him a raise, that is also a simple answer. The fifth year option salary amount is only impacted by the first two initial ballot Pro Bowl selections for a player, and the 2025 election of Witherspoon is the third time in three seasons he has made the Pro Bowl on the initial ballot. In short, his salary is already maxed out, and as Nick Korte of OverTheCap.com noted on social media, Witherspoon was the only 2023 first round pick who has made the Pro Bowl on the initial ballot in each of the first three seasons.

Of course, as a fan of the Denver Broncos, Korte is all too familiar with the fact that Witherspoon was taken with the second of the two first round picks the Broncos sent to Seattle in exchange for Russell Wilson, a trade that just keeps on giving.