Despite the team’s contrasting playoff verdicts, both the Green Bay Packers and Washington Commanders saw players on their squads subjected to fines from unnecessary roughness penalties during Wild Card weekend.
A pair of Packers – defensive tackle TJ Slaton and edge rusher Lukas Van Ness – both incurred $11,255 fines for shoving Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley late in the fourth quarter in their side’s 22-10 loss.
Slaton and Van Ness will have to mourn their fines in the offseason, but at least Commanders defensive end Dorrance Armstrong’s $11,255 fine will get washed away by his team reaching the NFC Championship Game. The Commanders’ defender was tagged after his facemask penalty on Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Rachaad White in the Wild Card round.
Green Bay Packers
With 4:53 left in the fourth quarter, the Packers defensive line engulfed Barkley for no gain – a stop could have given Green Bay a chance to chip into Philadelphia’s league.
Instead, both players shoved the All-Pro running back into the ground, earning a 15-yard penalty and giving the Eagles a first down.
Slaton, a fifth-round pick in 2021, finished the season with 15 tackles and 1 sack. He had three tackles and one TFL on Sunday. Van Ness, a 2023 first-round pick, didn’t kick on in 2024 the way Green Bay hoped for. He had 33 tackles and three sacks as the Packers finished 11-6.
TJ Slaton making sure he doesn’t miss his flight to Cancun in the morning. pic.twitter.com/yDf16mMbDU
— Eagles Fan Central (@PhilaFanCentral) January 13, 2025
NFL players don’t receive conventional game checks for playoff games. Players on losing teams make $49,500, meaning the two Packers defenders were taxed one-quarter of their earnings.
Eagles linebacker Oren Burks also incurred a $11,255 fine in the contest – his hit on Packers returner Keisean Nixon on the game’s opening kickoff was deemed excessive.
Washington Commanders
Armstrong’s facemask penalty cost the Commanders 15 yards last week but it didn’t stop his side from narrowly defeating the Buccaneers 23-20 on a game-winning field-goal.
Armstrong, a 2018 fourth-round pick by the Dallas Cowboys, has been a man on the mission these playoffs: he’s already recorded half of his regular-season sack tally (2.5) through two games.
His two sacks on Saturday helped power the Commanders to a shock 45-31 upset over the top-seeded Detroit Lions on the road to propel Washington to their first NFC Championship game in over 30 years.
