Packers guard missed out on an extra $2 million in salary by two snaps

Green Bay Packers guard Sean Rhyan played 1,144 snaps during his first three years in the league. Had he played 1,146 snaps, he’d be more than $2 million richer.

Rhyan narrowly missed out on qualifying for the league’s Proven Performance Escalator, which would have bumped his 2025 base salary from around $1.36 million to close to $3.41 million, according to ESPN.

Rhyan didn’t qualify because, per league snap counts, he played 1,144 out of 3,272 possible offensive snaps in his career, which comes out to 34.952% of the plays. The minimum snap share, whether over the three-year period at the beginning of a player’s rookie contract or in terms of the three-year average during those seasons, is 35%. Had Rhyan been at 1,146 of 3,272 offensive snaps, his share would have risen to 35.003%, qualifying him for the pay raise.

Rhyan’s agent told ESPN that they believed Rhyan qualified because the snap counts out Pro-Football-Reference have him playing 1,146 snaps, but the NFL and NFLPA do not use those snap counts when determining who qualifies for the escalator. Unfortunately, Rhyan cannot receive the additional $2 million under the rules of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, even if the Packers want to give it to him. 

Here’s an explanation of the Proven Performance Escalator system, via Over the Cap:

Article 7, Section 4 of the 2020 Collective Bargaining Agreement governs the PPE, establishing three levels of qualification:

• The Level One PPE is earned if a player participates in a certain percentage of a team’s offensive or defensive snaps in two of his first three seasons, or averages that percentage of offensive or defensive snaps over his entire first three years. For 2nd round picks, the average is 60%, and (as was the same in the 2011 CBA) for 3rd-7th round picks it is 35%.
• The Level Two PPE is earned if a player participates in at least 55% of a team’s offensive or defensive snaps in all of his first three seasons.
• The Level Three PPE is earned if a player is selected to a Pro Bowl on the original ballot (not as an alternate) in any of his first three seasons.

Players eligible for the PPE will see their fourth year base salary escalate, based upon the restricted free agent (RFA) tenders for that season, as follows:

• The Level One PPE will raise the base salary to the amount of the Original Draft Round RFA tender.
• The Level Two PPE will raise the base salary to the amount of the above tender, plus $250,000.
• The Level Three PPE will raise the base salary to the amount of the 2nd round RFA tender.