NFL teams benefit greatly when their players drafted outside for the first couple of rounds or so perform right way. Impact production for cheap, relatively speaking, allows contending squads to compete for Super Bowls for an extended amount of time.
Young players who demonstratively outperform their rookie deals also receive some assistance from the league prior to negotiating their second contracts. The NFL’s Performance-Based Pay program is a collectively bargained benefit that compensates players in accordance to how much they play relative to their draft slot, which determines a player’s rookie deal value.
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy, the final pick of the 2022 NFL Draft, is one of the bigger beneficiaries since he is an NFL starting quarterback making relative peanuts in comparison to his peers. He took in $985,000 in 2024, but with the league’s program, he will receive another sum of $857,842 — nearly the same figure as his 2024 salary. The great news for teams is these bonuses do not affect their players’ cap hits.
Another notable winner from this program was 2024 first-team All-Pro Detroit Lions safety Kerby Joseph, who led the NFL with nine interceptions this past season. The 2022 third-round pick took home $1,163,628 million from his rookie deal in 2024, and he will receive another $996,253 from the program.
New York Jets linebacker Jamien Sherwood was the biggest winner from the program in 2025: the 2021 fifth-rounder, who took home $1,055 million in salary in 2024, received a bigger sum from the program ($1,092,206 million). This week might be the best of Sherwood’s life between the bonus check from the program hitting just after he re-signed with the Jets on a three-year, $45 million contract with $30 million guaranteed for his second NFL deal.
Here is a list of the top 25 performance-based pay distributions from the 2024 season:
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Author: Garrett Podell
March 12, 2025 | 2:20 pm
