Saints Defensive End Alex Okafor Was a Sack Short Of a $400K Bonus So The Saints Rested Him During Week 17 And Paid Him The Money Anyways

Honestly this is a pretty cool move by the Saints here, and it’s a smart one too. You want to know how you help convince incoming free agents to sign with you? Show you are player first and care about them like this. Okafar was a sack short of his $400k bonus, but was also recovering from an ankle injury as the Saints got ready for a meaningless week 17 game. Now you might think $400k doesn’t mean a whole lot to an NFL player, but Okafor hasn’t exactly cashed in yet during his career. Sure he has way more money than you or I, but $400,000 definitely makes a big difference to him.

Okafor tore his achilles late last year and is recovering right now from a bone bruise and ankle sprain. Resting him was definitely the move when you parlay that into the Saints bye week coming up. Paying him his bonus even though he didn’t hit it is also the right move. The same shit happened with the Yankees last year when CC Sabathia was ejected from his final regular season start for standing up for his catcher. He finished two innings shy of his bonus mark that would have awarded him $500,000. The Yankees gave him his bonus at the end of the year anyways. I feel like this is a move the Patriots would never do and they’ll just tell you to do your job and accept the lowest amount of money because you come there to win. The Saints are doing it right while being unstoppable. Long gone are the days of paying their players to end Brett Favre’s life. Now they’re putting that money to good use!