Niners' Jimmy Garoppolo will get bonus if Patriots win another Super Bowl

If San Francisco 49ers’ brass are as enamored with quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo as the team’s fans are, he’s set to cash in on a contract from the club.

But Garoppolo stands to make some pretty good coin from the team he no longer plays for too.

As explained by former agent and current CBSSports.com writer Joel Corry, Garoppolo will get a $163,000 bonus if the New England Patriots repeat as Super Bowl champions.

Unlike the regular season, during the postseason, every player on the roster is paid the same amount, with the money coming from a league pool instead of individual teams:

Wild-card round: Division-winning teams: $28,000. Wild card teams: $26,000.
Divisional playoffs: $28,000
Conference championship game: $51,000
Super Bowl: Winning team: $112,000; losing team: $56,000

For players whose team earned a first-round bye, they’re essentially working for free this week as they practice and hold meetings while they wait to see who they’ll face in the Divisional round.

In a surprise move, the Patriots traded Garoppolo to San Francisco on the eve of the trade deadline; New England received a second-round pick in return, which seems low now, after Garoppolo led the 49ers to wins in all five of the starts he made for the team.

But Corry outlines that because Garoppolo spent the minimum eight games on the Patriots’ roster and isn’t under contract with another AFC team, he is eligible to get the same postseason bonus money his former teammates will make.

In case you’re doing the math and wondering why Garoppolo won’t get $191,000 – the amount current members of the Patriots (or Steelers, Eagles or Vikings) will receive if they win Super Bowl LII – it’s because of a small loophole: players no longer on the roster only qualify for conference championship and Super Bowl bonuses.

So if the Patriots lose in the Divisional round, Garoppolo doesn’t get any money.

Another current San Francisco and former New England player, defensive lineman Cassius Marsh, who spent nine games with the Patriots, qualifies for the same bonus.

Buffalo receiver Kelvin Benjamin stands to make money from two teams: the Bills, who will face Jacksonville in the wild-card round this weekend, and the Carolina Panthers, who traded him to Buffalo after he’d played eight games there this season. The Panthers also play this weekend, against the New Orleans Saints.