In the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game against the Denver Broncos, Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Derek Carr faced a first-and-10 at his own 35-yard line. Carr rolled out and was pushed out of bounds near the line of scrimmage by Broncos outside linebacker Jeremiah Attaochu.
It wasn’t a big play and many fans in Denver probably don’t remember it the day after a 32-31 loss in Week 17. It was an important play for Attaochu, though he might not have realized it at the time.
NFL stat keepers recorded the play as a sack for Attaochu, which marked his fifth sack of the season. That triggered a bonus in Attaochu’s contract.
Attaochu’s agent included a five-sack incentive bonus of $250,000 in his client’s contract with the Broncos, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. That’s a pretty big incentive for a player on a $1 million base salary.
Attaochu finished the 2020 season with 31 tackles and five quarterback takedowns, his highest total since a six-sack campaign in 2016. When Von Miller went down with an ankle injury before the season started, Attaochu and Malik Reed were given larger roles at outside linebacker.
“They’ve stepped up for us a lot,” inside linebacker Alexander Johnson said of Reed and Attaochu on Dec. 27. “Honestly, we already knew what they could do from just last year and the previous games they’d played. I feel like they’ve stepped up for us as a defense.”
Attaochu has totaled 130 tackles and 20.5 sacks in 74 career games.
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