How Tennessee Titans WR DeAndre Hopkins earned $500,000 in contract incentives vs. Jaguars

There's nothing wrong with a nice $500,000 pay day — even if it could've been $750,000.

Wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins caught seven passes for 46 yards and a touchdown in the Tennessee Titans' 28-20 Week 18 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday, ending his season with 75 catches, 1,057 yards and seven touchdowns.

There were bonuses written into his contract guaranteeing him $250,000 for three separate benchmarks this season: 75 catches; 1,050 yards; and eight touchdowns. Hopkins hit two of those in the last game of the season to take home an extra half-million dollars in incentives.

"I didn’t want to really be out there thinking about it and doing more than I need to do," Hopkins said after the game. "I’ve been playing this game a long time. You just let it come to you."

His teammates seemed to have those incentives a little more front of mind than Hopkins says he did. He said players and coaches on the sideline were updating him about where he was at throughout the game. Quarterback Ryan Tannehill, playing in his final game with the Titans before becoming a free agent in March, says he would've done whatever it took to ensure Hopkins reached as many of the incentives as he could, even when the game was practically over.

"I thought we were actually a couple yards short," Tannehill said postgame. "And I told him ‘Hey, I’m going to get you this ball. I don’t care what they call. I’m going to get you this ball.’ They said he ended up getting it. I’m thankful I didn’t have to go rogue there and call a pass play at the end. I was like, ‘Hey, I’ve got nothing to lose here. I’m out anyway. What are they going to do?’ "

DeAndre Hopkins stats

In his first year with the Titans, Hopkins became the first to surpass 1,000 receiving yards in a season since A.J. Brown did it in 2020. He's just the seventh player in the franchise's history to have a 1,000-yard season since the Titans moved to Tennessee in 1997, joining Brown (twice), Delanie Walker, Kendall Wright, Nate Washington, Drew Bennett and Derrick Mason (four times).

He's only the fifth player to reach 75 catches in a Titans uniform, and the first wide receiver since Wright did so in 2013.

Hopkins has one more year remaining on his contract with the Titans, a two-year deal he signed in July.

Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @nicksuss.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: DeAndre Hopkins earned $500K in contract incentives in Titans-Jaguars game