Packers guard Sean Rhyan missed out on a hefty pay raise in the most brutal way possible.
Two snaps. If Rhyan had played just two more snaps at any point through his first three seasons in Green Bay, he would have raised his salary by a whopping $2 million.
Under his rookie deal signed in 2022, Rhyan’s 2025 base salary is set to be $1,363,571. This number would’ve nearly tripled to $3.406 million with that extra pair of snaps.
In Article 7, Section 4 of the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement, it states that any player taken in Rounds 3-7 of the NFL draft who “participated in a minimum of 35% of his Club’s offensive or defensive plays in any two of his first three regular season or participated in a ‘cumulative average’ of at least 35% of his Club’s offensive or defensive plays over his first three regular seasons” would qualify for the raise.
In Rhyan’s case, he was selected in the third round by the Packers in 2022 and wound up playing 1,144 of a possible 3,272 offensive snaps — 34.952% of Green Bay’s offensive snaps through his three regular seasons with the team.
In his rookie season, he played just one snap — but it was on special teams which is not considered in the counting for the incentive. The Packers had 1,094 offensive plays on the season.
He also missed six games and lost $235,000 as a rookie due to suspension for violating the NFL’s policy on performance-enhancing substances.
Rhyan got a bit more action in his sophomore season in 2023, when he played 183 snaps out of a possible 1,096 plays in a backup guard role.
By year three, Rhyan had worked his way onto the starting offensive line, as he played 961 of a possible 1,082 offensive snaps.
Adding salt to the wound, Rhyan’s agent, Cameron Foster, told ESPN he believed his client had reached the 35% mark because of snap counts found online from Pro Football Reference.
Unfortunately for Rhyan, the NFL doesn’t use PFR’s numbers or any other site’s.
Rhyan did, however, receive an additional near-$700,000 through the NFL’s performance-based pay program, which rewards players who play sizable roles on teams while not necessarily having the base salaries to back it up.
