NFL to Dole Out $393.8 Million in Performance-Based Pay

NEW YORK — NFL players will receive $393.8 million in Performance-Based Pay for their performance during the 2023 season, the NFL announced this month. The Performance-Based Pay program is a collectively bargained benefit that compensates all players based upon their playing time and salary levels. The money goes mainly to players who earn near the minimum league salary but saw more playing time during the season.

​Guard JOHN SIMPSON, who played for the Baltimore Ravens in 2023, earned the highest amount among all NFL players for the 2023 League Year Performance-Based Pay program. His $974,613 distribution will nearly double his 2023 salary.  Simpson was a 2020 fourth-round draft choice from Clemson who played the 2023 season under a one-year minimum salary contract. He participated in all but seven plays on offense and almost 19 percent of the club’s special team plays.

Players have been paid nearly $2.4 billion cumulatively since the inception of the Performance-Based Pay program, which was implemented during the 2002 season as part of the NFL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement with the NFL Players Association, and has been carried forward in three subsequent collective bargaining agreements.

How Performance-Based Pay Works

Under the Performance-Based Pay program, a fund is created and used as a supplemental form of player compensation based upon a comparison of playing time to salary. Players become eligible to receive a bonus distribution in any regular season in which they play at least one official down. In general, players with higher playtime percentages and lower salaries benefit most from the pool.

Performance-Based Pay is computed by using a player index (“Index”). To calculate the Index, a player’s “PBP Playtime” (defined as the player’s regular season total plays played on offense, defense and special teams, divided by the number of plays in which the player with the most total combined plays participated on that team) is divided by his “PBP Compensation” (defined as each player’s regular season full salary, including his prorated portion of signing bonus, and earned incentives). Each player’s Index is then compared to those of all other players on his team to determine the amount of his Performance-Based Pay. If a player’s full season salary is less than the CBA Minimum Salary for a player with seven or more Credited Seasons, additional salary will be imputed to that player so that his salary is equal to the Minimum Salary for a player with seven or more Credited Seasons (i.e., $1.165M for the 2023 season). By imputing a minimum salary of $1.165 million, a slightly higher percentage of the pool is directed to high-performing veteran players whose salaries exceed $1.165 million, but are not among the highest in the League, as contemplated by the formula. This imputation of salary is solely for the purpose of calculating distributions from the pool and does not affect the actual salary paid to the player under his contract.

Illustration Of Performance-Based Pay System

Each player on the same team com­petes for his own share of his club’s Performance-Based Pay pool. The hypothetical example in the table below illustrates how the Player Index works, using a simplified four-player team and a club bonus pool of $1,000,000. Each player receives his share of the pool depending on how his Index compares to those of his teammates.

	A PBP Playtime	B PBP Compensation	C Index** (A/B)	D % of Club Bonus Pool (C/Team Total C)	E Hypothetical Bonus (D * $1,000,000)
Player A	85%	$ 1,165,000	7.3	56.6% of the Club’s pool	56.6% * $1,000,000 = $566,000
Player B	50%	$ 2,000,000	2.5	19.4% of the Club’s pool	19.4% * $1,000,000 = $194,000
Player C	50%	$ 5,000,000	1.0	7.7% of the Club’s pool	7.7% * $1,000,000 = $77,000
Player D	25%	$ 1,165,000	2.1	16.3% of the Club’s pool	16.3% * $1,000,000 = $163,000
Team Total:			12.9 Points

** Index is multiplied by 10⁷ for legibility purposes only​

 

Top 25 Performance-Based Pay Distributions For 2023

	PLAYER	2023 CLUB	POS.	COLLEGE	ROOKIE YEAR	DRAFT ROUND	DISTRIBUTION (ROUNDED)
1	John Simpson	Baltimore	G	Clemson	2020	4	$ 974,613
2	Reed Blankenship	Philadelphia	S	Middle Tennessee State	2022	UDFA	$ 923,059
3	Spencer Brown	Buffalo	T	Northern Iowa	2021	3	$ 912,723
4	Cordell Volson	Cincinnati	G	North Dakota State	2022	4	$ 905,972
5	Kader Kohou	Miami	CB	Texas A&M-Commerce	2022	UDFA	$ 878,167
6	Luke Fortner	Jacksonville	C	Kentucky	2022	3	$ 872,196
7	Trey Smith	Kansas City	G	Tennessee	2021	6	$ 865,484
8	O’Cyrus Torrence	Buffalo	G	Florida	2023	2	$ 847,180
9	Jamaree Salyer	L.A. Chargers	G	Georgia	2022	6	$ 840,282
10	Tariq Woolen	Seattle	CB	Texas-San Antonio	2022	5	$ 839,154
11	Jason Pinnock	N.Y. Giants	S	Pittsburgh	2021	5	$ 817,224
12	Will Fries	Indianapolis	G	Penn State	2021	7	$ 810,961
13	Brandon Stephens	Baltimore	S	Southern Methodist	2021	3	$ 805,253
14	Deommodore Lenoir	San Francisco	CB	Oregon	2021	5	$ 790,744
15	Camryn Bynum	Minnesota	S	California	2021	4	$ 785,489
16	Tony Adams	N.Y. Jets	S	Illinois	2022	UDFA	$ 777,965
17	Terrel Bernard	Buffalo	LB	Baylor	2022	3	$ 777,092
18	Rodney Thomas	Indianapolis	S	Yale	2022	7	$ 769,445
19	Ben Bredeson	N.Y. Giants	G	Michigan	2020	4	$ 764,130
20	DaRon Bland	Dallas	CB	Fresno State	2022	5	$ 759,756
21	Nate Landman	Atlanta	LB	Colorado	2022	UDFA	$ 753,273
22	Quinn Meinerz	Denver	G	Wisconsin-Whitewater	2021	3	$ 747,505
23	Dan Moore	Pittsburgh	T	Texas A&M	2021	4	$ 740,319
24	Brock Purdy	San Francisco	QB	Iowa State	2022	7	$ 739,795
25	Jonathon Cooper	Denver	LB	Ohio State	2021	7	$ 738,916

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UDFA – Undrafted free agent