The NFL released the numbers for performance based pay earned by players for the 2025 season. The NFL paid out more than $542 million to players, averaging almost $17 million per team, based on playing time and salary. Some of the team’s lowest paid players can earn a healthy bonus based on playing time.
Under the Performance-Based Pay program, a fund is created and used as a supplemental form of player compensation based on 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 pools.
Performance-Based Pay is computed by using a player index (“Index”). To produce the Index, a player’s regular-season playtime (total plays on offense, defense and special teams) is divided by his adjusted regular-season compensation (full season salary, prorated portion of signing bonus, earned incentives). Each player’s Index is then compared to those of the other players on his team to determine the amount of his Performance-Based Pay.
How Performance-Based Pay Works
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., $1.255M for the 2025 season). By imputing a minimum salary of $1.255 million, a slightly higher percentage of the pool is directed to high-performing veteran players whose salaries exceed $1.255 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.
The Washington Commanders player who earned the biggest bonus based on last season was fourth-year guard Chris Paul who gained an extra $1,202,142. That more than doubles the $1.11 million he earned for the last year of his rookie deal. Paul had been a backup for his first three years in Washington after getting picked in the 7th round of the 2022 draft.
Chris Paul earned the starting left guard job in Week 3 last season, taking over for new starter Brandon Coleman. He kept the position for the season and tested free agency. Paul ended up signing for another year with the Commanders, and will compete for the starting LG job again this season.
