Dan Bailey Has Salary Matched With Four Made Field Goals
Does anybody want to talk about crazy contract incentives? Because I kind of want to talk about crazy contract incentives. Former Oklahoma State kicker Dan Bailey had his yearly salary matched after he went 4-of-4 on field goals against the Bears this past weekend.
Vikings’ kicker Dan Bailey, who has made 92 percent of his field goals this season (23/25), earns a $1 million incentive if he stays about the 90 percent threshold. If he’s between 87.5-90 percent, it falls to $750,000; if he’s b/w 84-87.5 percent, it’s $500,000. Big day today.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) December 29, 2019
Bailey, who has a one-year, $1 million contract with Minnesota this season, finished the season making 93.1 percent of his field goals, a number that he hit by making all four of his attempts this past Sunday.
As you can see from the tweet above from Adam Schefter, each kick was worth $250,000. As if trying to score points and not lose a game in front of 60,000+ scream fans every week wasn't nerve-wrecking enough, add a cool quarter of a million dollars to the mix.
He was also responsible for scoring 13 of Minnesota's 19 points this week, and was responsible for four of their 10 points last week.
It was one heck of a season for Bailey as he finished his second season in Minnesota with his highest field goal percentage since the 2015 season.
Following the 2015 season, his percentage dropped to 84.4 percent the next season and 75 percent the following year, resulting in Dallas letting him go.
Minnesota picked him up and in his first year, matched that 75 percent make rate, which wasn't great.
But talk about one heck of a turnaround. With the 93.1 percent this season, Bailey moved to sixth all-time in career field goal percentage at 87.313 just behind New England's Stephen Gostkowski.
The Vikings are set to travel to New Orleans to take on the Saints in the first round of the NFL playoffs this weekend. They've got the noon game on FOX.
