With all of the chaos of NFL free agency and anticipation for the draft in April, a couple of notable events went under the radar on the schedule. One of the more important ones was the performance-based payouts being awarded around the league to players who overperformed compared to their yearly contract value. This is something the league does to ensure players are fairly compensated for what they bring to their respective teams.
2025 was a huge year for this, with many Saints receiving pay increases from the league for their work. As one would expect, the players who benefit the most from this are a mix of veterans who signed on smaller “prove-it” contracts and young players who outperformed their rookie deals. Among the top names are Jonas Sanker, Chris Rumph, Kool-Aid McKinstry, Quincy Riley, Jordan Howden, and Jonah Williams, all of whom fit into that category.
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Spencer Rattler was also near the top, which makes sense given both his draft position and his starts in the first half of the season. The top value handed out was to Sanker, for $974,380 and change, who certainly deserved it for how much work he put in throughout the 2025 season.
Despite being drafted higher and more recently than Rattler, Shough also ranks relatively highly, sitting as the No. 15 on the list, receiving an additional $356,855.
It is good to see the NFL doing what it can to give players some extra money to work with, especially those who are putting in exceptional stats on contracts that may not quite be the right valuation.
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This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: Saints players see income increase due to NFL performance based payout