Amon-Ra St. Brown, Kerby Joseph lead Lions’ performance based payouts

Amon-Ra St. Brown led the Detroit Lions in catches for the third straight season while playing for a minimum base salary of $940,000. But thanks to the NFL’s performance based pay system, St. Brown cashed in handsomely with a bonus this week.

The league announced its performance based payouts on Monday and St. Brown led the Lions with an award of $700,473 — or about 75% of his salary in 2023.

Safety Kerby Joseph ($680,854), cornerback Jerry Jacobs ($647,873), defensive tackle Benito Jones ($558,685) and linebacker Derrick Barnes ($543,931) also received payouts of more than a half-million dollars after playing last season on minimum contracts.

The performance based pay system rewards players with lower salaries who play significant roles for their teams, often mid-round picks or undrafted free agents still on their rookie deals.

St. Brown and Barnes were fourthround picks in 2021, Joseph was a thirdround choice in 2022 and Jones and Jacobs entered the league as undrafted free agents.

The Lions are expected to sign St. Brown to a large contract extension this offseason, while Joseph and Barnes have two and one years left, respectively, on their rookie deals. Jones signed with the Miami Dolphins as a free agent this offseason, and Jacobs remains a free agent.

Under the collective bargaining agreement, each team had a performance based pay pool of $12,305,000 for last season, and every player who played a snap received some payout, ranging from St. Brown — his actual payout was $700,473.20 — to Emmanuel Moseley, who played two defensive snaps before tearing his ACL and got a payment of $464.20.

Baltimore Ravens offensive lineman John Simpson got a league-high payout of $974,613, while the Lions had 41 players make at least $100,000 and 16 players top $250,000.