Some Jets and Giants have extra incentive to play well in season finale
The Jets' Kene Nwangwu runs the ball in the fourth quarter against the New England Patriots at MetLife Stadium on Dec. 28, 2025. Credit: Jim McIsaac
There are obvious reasons for Kene Nwangwu to always want to return the kickoffs he fields for touchdowns. On Sunday he’ll have half a million more of them.
It’s Week 18 in the NFL, and for most teams it’s a kind of limbo between the end of the regular-season schedule and either the offseason or postseason. That’s especially true this year, with so many of the participants in the playoffs already set.
But it’s also Incentive Season for the players whose paychecks can be padded by statistical accomplishments, and Jets special teams stud Nwangwu is one of a few players on the team going into an otherwise meaningless road game against the Bills with cash within reach.
If Nwangwu can bring one of the kickoffs back to the end zone, it will give him two on the season and trigger a $500,000 bonus.
“It’s huge. It’s huge,” he told Newsday of the possibility. “You can’t force touchdowns, but I think the mindset with us on kickoff return is we feel like we can score on every single rep. If I just follow my rules, follow my guys, make their blocks come to life, you never know, that might happen.”
There is a chance to make even more, too. If he is named to either the Pro Bowl or an All-Pro team, Nwangwu will get an extra $500,000 on top of that. The voting for both already is completed, so whatever happens on Sunday probably won’t impact his honors . . . but it can’t hurt!
Another Jets special-teamer also is looking to make an impact not only on the game but his wallet. Kicker Nick Folk needs two field goals to give him 30 on the season and trigger a $500,000 incentive. His 28 this season already have brought him $375,000 (he actually made that with his 27th field goal a few weeks ago), and if he pops a pair this time out, he’ll grab the whole bag.
“We try to put in stuff that is semi-reasonable for both sides, for us and the team,” Folk said of structuring incentives. He also said he likes tying incentives to field goals made because it is “a little more team-focused” than individual. It requires the entire offense to put him in position to even take the field . . . although settling for too many field goals certainly can be detrimental.
“I think I am in a unique position where if I am doing my part, then the team is doing well,” he said.
Lots of NFL contracts include incentives based on all kinds of accomplishments.
Between quarterbacks Tyrod Taylor of the Jets and Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston of the Giants, they had the potential to earn an extra $13.5 million between them — although that total would never have been reached because it would have necessitated Wilson and Winston both reaching playing time bars that would be impossible for two men at the same position.
Wilson alone had $7 million on the table based on everything from completion percentage to snap counts to a postseason appearance. Not that it matters. None of the three will make an extra buck beyond their base salaries this season.
Others on the two teams already have, though. Giants linebacker Brian Burns got a $1.8 million escalator that will be added to his 2026 base salary. He needed to either record 12.5 sacks or make the Pro Bowl to activate that one; he did both.
Other Giants winners include starting guard Greg Van Roten who is due to earn $500,000 for playing in at least 50% of the team’s offensive snaps; going into Sunday’s game against the Cowboys, he hadn’t missed a single one. He would have made an extra $250,000 if he had played 80% of the snaps and the Giants had made the playoffs. Oh, well.
Defensive lineman Roy Robertson-Harris also is pretty safe counting on his $250,000 bonus for playing in 45% of the defensive snaps; he comes into Week 18 having played 55.4%.
The big winners in the incentives game already, though, are a pair of Jets offensive linemen. Guard John Simpson is due $3 million for playing 90% of the offensive snaps; he is at 96.8%. Center Josh Myers gets $1 million for 90%. Like Van Roten, he hasn’t missed a play this season. Both probably could take Sunday off if they wanted to and still take in a combined four big ones.
Others, though, still have some work to do.
“It’s tough to get two,” Nwangwu said of his barometer, a mark he reached as a rookie for the Vikings in 2021 but not since. In Week 10 this season, he had a 99-yarder against the Browns.
“If you get one,'' he said, "now teams start to kick away from you, so it’s tough.”
It’s a dependent opportunity in that it requires the other team to score so they kick the ball off to the Jets more often. When the Patriots ran up the score a bit last week, it meant Nwangwu got four chances at returns. The Jets gave up a lot of points in the five games before that, too, but in that span, Nwangwu had only four total returns. The dynamic kickoffs with two returners deep allow opposing teams to essentially choose to whom they kick the ball.
If Folk does get the two (or more) field goals he needs, it’ll be more like a tip than a bonus for him. The $125,000 boost he’d get from the incentive he’s already reached is about 5% of what he’s making this year. For Nwangwu, though, an extra $500,000 would be about a third of what he made otherwise in the 2025 season.
Oddly enough, Nwangwu’s main job on Sunday might not be returning kickoffs. With running back depth low and Breece Hall’s status up in the air because of a knee injury (he is listed as questionable), Nwangwu might wind up starting at the position. If that’s the case, the Jets could decide to not utilize him on special teams and he wouldn’t have a shot at his extra income.
Nwangwu has had only six carries since arriving with the Jets late last season, all of them coming last week after Hall and Isaiah Davis left with injuries; Davis will be out Sunday with a concussion. “If it happens, it happens,” he said of his potential role change. “For me, it’s not offensive stats over incentives or the other way around. I just like winning.”
So there it is: Extra reason number five-hundred-thousand-and-1.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
