In a report published earlier this week, the NFL announced that, in 2025, CB Nahshon Wright led all players in performance-based pay distributions. The NFL's formal Performance-Based Pay program (PBPP) was instituted in 2002 as part of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). As a supplementary salary fund, these awarded bonuses are drawn from a league-wide pool and, consequentially, do not contribute to individual team’s salary caps. The idea of the PBPP is to reward players who outperform their salaries. A ‘player index’ compares playing time with salary and rewards those whose playing time outweighs that expected of them based on their salary. In other words, this program ensures that players who go above and beyond get rewarded. 

 

The 2025 season was an historic year in terms of compensation from the PBPP. A number that is annually right around 500 million, the program distributed over $542 million in combined supplemental compensation to players for the 2025 season. In addition to the overall jump in distributed funds, for the first time since its inception in 2002, the top 25 PBPP earners each received over $1 million. With the total amount of funds distributed hovering around $500 million over recent years (reaching above  $500 million in 2022, dipping right below $400 million in 2023, and then reaching $450 million in 2024), the change in 2025 that feels the most significant can be found when examining the earnings of the top performers. The fact that the top 25 earners reached over $1 million represents an important recent player performance trend. In terms of funds earned by individual players, before 2024 this number had never cracked $1 million, with the top earner in 2023 receiving $974,613 (Ravens G John Simpson). In 2024, that number jumped to 5 players earning over $1 million (Jets LB Jamien Sherwood being the top earner breaking the $1 million barrier with $1,092,206). This number surged in 2025, with at least 25 players hitting the $1 million milestone (the NFL releases only the top 25 earners’ figures).

 

In light of this massive shift in awarded funds, NFL stakeholders face the question; who are these players and why are they getting these opportunities? As we know, PBPP rewards are calculated based on two factors: playing time and salary. A complicated formula is used to crunch these numbers. But, the basic principle is that players who get a lot of playing time with a relatively cheap contract get the best rewards. So who are these players with cheap contracts? Typically, players on rookie contracts, generally those who weren’t picked within the premier first couple of rounds of the draft. Also frequently represented in this list  are veteran players who are on the last stop of their careers and/or who are playing for the veteran minimum. The other players on the list are players like Nahshon Wright. Wright was a third-round selection of the Dallas Cowboys in 2021. Although having had significant draft capital invested in him and all of the promise of a successful career with the team who drafted him, Wright was ultimately bounced from Dallas and labeled a bust.

 

Now that we know who these players are, players with cheap contracts and who qualify for bonuses through the PBPP, we can look at why these players have been getting extended opportunities to prove themselves. A look at Nahshon Wright offers important insight into this question. After an objectively terrible start to his NFL career, where Wright failed to develop any momentum, the Oregon State product was shipped off by the team that had invested a third rounder in him. In the last year of his four-year rookie contract, the Cowboys traded Wright to the Vikings in exchange for another disappointing high-selection DB in Andrew Booth Jr. The thinking by both teams was that, given a fresh start, a more successful pairing was possible. This was not to be the case. Wright failed to gain his footing on Minnesota’ roster, spending only one game off of the practice-squad in 2025. 

 

This is where the story gets interesting. At this point, Wright’s NFL journey seemed to be over. It is a story that is repeated over and over again. A high production player gets drafted with a premium draft pick and it doesn’t work out. He’s labeled a bust prematurely, but some other team understands that maybe he didn’t get a fair shot, so he gets signed. If he makes it there then he gets a second life because he proved that a change of scenery was all he needed. If he doesn’t make it, his NFL journey has all but come to a close. This was the case for Andrew Booth Jr., Wright's trade counterpart who, after a brief stint in Dallas, is now a member of the UFL’s Louisville Kings. Like Booth Jr. and so many others, two shots at making it are all teams seem to be willing to allot. 

 

Younger players with a higher upside than Wright have been done after two stops (Booth Jr. was selected in 2022, a year after Wright, and was picked in the second round, a round ahead of Wright), but Wright got a third. It wasn’t for much (one year, $1.1 million), but the Chicago Bears gave Wright an almost unprecedented third chance at an NFL career. Wright played in all 17 games for the Bears and was on the field for 97% of all defensive snaps in 2025. This opportunity was well earned, with Wright surpassing the conventional belief about him held by almost everyone except himself. Wright ended his year with 80 tackles, 5 interceptions (including a pick-six), and his first Pro-Bowl selection. 

 

After the  2025 campaign it was clear that Wright had what it takes to play in the NFL. The question that remains is, how did the Bears know that [it was worth taking the risk to not only sign him, but to commit so much playing time to the Wright project?

 

Twenty twenty-five was a year in which teams all around the league leaned into their faith in unknown or unproven players. Based on the potential they showed  in high school/college, glimpses in practice, or some other untold metric/gut reaction/impulse/leap of faith, teams in 2025 maintained greater belief in their athletes who had to that point remained unrequited. 

 

In the reality of a league with salary-cap-determined rosters, teams able to squeeze  the most value out of their players with lower contracts will find the greatest success. The Bears, as the most recent example, got a Pro-Bowl level player for only $1.1 million and won the NFC North for the first time in seven years. Teams that are able to consistently follow what appears to be a trend ignited in 2025 and who understand that great production,talent and value can be mined from the ‘nobodys’ and the ‘busts’, are set to establish  a new standard and approach for delivering success in the modern NFL.