NFL Week 18 Incentives: Contracts, Stats and Records

It is truly a sad day when I have to write about the last weekend of the regular season in the NFL, as it has flown by, and football will be out of our lives sooner rather than later. For some of us, such as Bears fans like myself, that is a blessing because it ends our suffering. As a football fan, it just sucks. Still, we have one weekend left to make wagers on every team, and there are plenty of reasons to do so.

One thing that everyone looks for in Week 18 is what players will have incentives to have big performances before the season comes to an end. Most of these have to do with their contract, where they will get more money if they accomplish certain feats before the end of the year. A lot of people love to bet on these players to do those things, as they know what needs to be done, and their teammates do as well.

Let's go game by game and review what incentives there are for players this weekend!

Editor’s Note: incentives listed below were compiled on reports from team reporters, this X article from BetQL Network’s Jared Smith and this trends article from Action Network’s Evan Abrams.

Cleveland Browns at Baltimore Ravens

Ravens RB Derrick Henry: He needs 217 yards rushing to become the oldest player in NFL history to rush for 2,000+ in a single season. He’s 283 rushing yards shy of the Ravens single-season record, set by Jamal Lewis in 2003. He also needs just one rushing TD to break the Ravens record, also set by Lewis in 2003. He needs three more rushing TDs to pass Jim Brown for 6th all-time.

Ravens RB Justice Hill: He needs 117 receiving yards to collect an additional $250k, and eight receptions for another $250k.

Cincinnati Bengals at Pittsburgh Steelers

Bengals WR Ja’Marr Chase: He’s after the Triple-Crown. He’s leading Lions WR Amon-Ra St. Brown by eight receptions, leading Vikings WR Justin Jefferson by 133 receiving yards, and leading Commanders WR Terry McLaurin by four TDs. He also needs one receiving TD to tie and two TDs to break the Bengals all-time record for most in a single season, set by Carl Pickens in 1995.

Washington Commanders at Dallas Cowboys

Commanders RB Austin Ekeler: He needs 145 rushing yards for a $125k bonus, and 154 receiving yards for another $125k bonus.

Commanders TE Zach Ertz: He needs nine receptions for a $250k bonus, and 90 receiving yards for an additional $250k bonus.

Commanders DE Dante Fowler: He needs 1.5 more sacks to get a $375k bonus.

Commanders LB Frankie Luvu: He needs two more sacks for a $325k bonus.

Chicago Bears at Green Bay Packers

Bears QB Caleb Williams: He’s currently nine sacks away from becoming the most-sacked QB in a single NFL season, a record held by former Texans QB David Carr, who was sacked 76 times in 2002.

Houston Texans at Tennessee Titans

Titans RB Tony Pollard: He needs 83 rushing yards for a $250k bonus, and two rushing TDs for an additional $200k bonus.

Texans DE Danielle Hunter: He needs 0.5 sack to hit 100 for his career. He’s also just two sacks behind the league lead of 14, held by Browns DE Myles Garrett and Bengals DE Trey Hendrickson.

Buffalo Bills at New England Patriots

Bills QB Josh Allen: He’s trying to lock in the MVP award, which would also grant him a $1.5M bonus. He’s a rushing TD away from tying Thurman Thomas for 45th all-time, as well.

Bills DE Von Miller: He needs one sack for a $1.5M bonus.

Bills RB James Cook: He needs one rushing TD to tie O.J. Simpson for most in a single season in Bills history. He will also be looking to secure the NFL rushing TD crown, as he leads Rams RB Kyren Williams, Ravens RB Derrick Henry, and Eagles QB Jalen Hurts by a single TD.

New York Giants at Philadelphia Eagles

Eagles RB Saquan Barkley: He’s 100 rushing yards away from the single-season NFL rushing record, set by Rams RB Eric Dickerson with 2,105 yards in 1984. He’s currently in line for a $500k bonus for leading the league in scrimmage yards, leading Ravens RB Derrick Henry by 330 yards. He needs four rushing TDs to break the Eagles single-season record, set by LeSean McCoy in 2011. He needs five to break the Eagles total TD record, also set by McCoy in 2011.

Eagles DE Josh Sweat: He needs two more sacks for a $1M bonus. He needs three more sacks for an additional $500k and four more sacks for another $500k bonus, totaling $2M in incentives.

Giants WR Malik Nabers: He needs six more total targets to break the NFL rookie record, set by Terry Glenn in 1996. He currently leads the entire league in total targets, one more than Ja’Marr Chase, and no rookie has ever led the league in total targets since 1992 when the stat was first recorded. He needs two receptions to break the rookie WR record. He’s four receptions behind fellow rookie TE Brock Bowers, who owns the NFL rookie record for receptions in a single season by any position.

New Orleans Saints at Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Buccaneers QB Baker Mayfield: He’ll really want to secure a playoff spot in this game. For each playoff win, he’ll receive a $500k bonus. In addition to that, Mayfield currently is ranked at least top-10 in the NFL or top-5 in the NFC in passer rating, passing TDs, passing yards, completion percentage, and yards per attempt. He’ll get a $500k bonus for each one of those he manages to accomplish. He has 15 INTs this season, which is one behind Falcons QB Kirk Cousins for the NFL-lead.

Buccaneers WR Mike Evans: He gets a $666k bonus for finishing top-10 in receiving TDs, and he’s currently tied for third. He gets an additional $666k for finishing top-10 in receiving yards and receptions, to which he is 26th and 35th, respectively. He’ll get a $500k bonus for each playoff win, as long as he plays 60%+ of offensive snaps, to which he has played 56.8% as of now. He needs five receptions and 85 receiving yards for a $3M bonus, in addition to keeping his streak alive of having 1,000 receiving yards in every season of his career.

Saints WR Marquez Valdes-Scantling: He needs nine receptions for a $250k bonus, 172 receiving yards for another $250k bonus, one TD for another $250k bonus, and three TDs for another $250k bonus.

Saints RB Alvin Kamara: He needs 50 rushing yards to reach 1,000 for the season.

Kansas City Chiefs at Denver Broncos

Broncos WR Courtland Sutton: He needs 82 receiving yards for a $500k bonus.

Los Angeles Chargers at Las Vegas Raiders

Raiders TE Brock Bowers: He’s four receptions ahead of fellow rookie Malik Nabers for the NFL all-time rookie record, and will look to keep it. He’s nine receptions away from breaking the all-time TE record set by Eagles TE Zach Ertz in 2018.

Chargers RB JK Dobbins: He needs 58 rushing yards for a $150k bonus, 208 rushing yards for another $150k bonus, and 358 rushing yards for another $150k.

Raiders WR Jakobi Meyers: He needs 96 receiving yards to reach 1,000 on the season.

Seattle Seahawks at Los Angeles Rams

Seahawks QB Geno Smith: He needs 186 passing yards for a $2M bonus, and needs to finish with at least a 69.75% completion percentage for another $2M bonus, which he currently has with a 70.2% completion percentage. He can also break his own Seahawks record for passing yards in a season, which he set in 2022 with 4,282 yards. He has 15 INTs, one shy of Kirk Cousins for most in the NFL.

Seahawks WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba: He needs four receptions to tie Tyler Lockett’s Seahawks record of 100 receptions set in 2020. He needs 182 receiving yards to tie DK Metcalf’s Seahawks record of 1,303 yards also set in 2020.

Rams QB Matthew Stafford: He’s 191 passing yards shy of 60k for his career.

Seahawks WR DK Metcalf: He needs 61 receiving yards for 1,000 on the season.

Miami Dolphins at New York Jets

Dolphins DE Calais Campbell: He needs one sack for a $300k bonus, two sacks for an additional $100k, and three sacks for another $325k.

Dolphins WR Tyreek Hill: He needs 61 receiving yards to reach 1,000 for the season.

Minnesota Vikings at Detroit Lions

Lions DE Za'darius Smith: He needs two more sacks for a $250k bonus, and four more sacks for another $500k bonus.

Lions S Kerby Joseph: He needs one INT to tie Lem Barney for most in Lions history since 1960. He’s the NFL leader in INTs by two right now.

Vikings QB Sam Darnold: He needs four passing TDs to tie Daunte Culpepper for the Vikings record of 39, which he set in 2004.

Lions QB Jared Goff: He needs five passing TDs to tie Matthew Stafford for the Lions record of 41, which he set in 2011.

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