The 49ers signed Alex Smith to an affordable one-year contract before the year with some incentives that weren’t necessarily “likely to be earned.” But the team is happy he earned them.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports that Smith will get a $1 million bonus for leading the 49ers to the playoffs. The terms of the bonus: Smith had to play 70% of the snaps during the year and play in a playoff game.
Smith also got a $1.5 million bonus earlier this year for playing in over 80% of the team’s snaps during the season, considerably bumping up his $4 million base salary.
It’s easy to forget how Jim Harbaugh was derided for re-signing Smith. Many analysts assumed Colin Kaepernick would wind up becoming the starter by the second half of the season.
Harbaugh said this week that Smith’s desire to make it work in San Francisco after so much failure intrigued him.
“That character of wanting to come back and do it here in San Francisco, which is pretty rare - probably somewhere between rare and extinct,” Harbaugh said via CSNBayArea.com.
That decision led to the first playoff game for the 49ers since the 2002 season, and the first playoff game for many 49ers veterans.
A playoff win or two would earn Smith even more money; he’s a free agent after the season.