The NFL announced the numbers for their performance-based pay distribution, and some of the Arizona Cardinals will get a nice check. Unfortunately, the money won't come until April 2016.
One piece of the collective bargaining agreement is that the league establishes an amount of money for each team to divide up using a complex formula based on salary and playing time. Every player that made it on the field for something (Ryan Williams and Earl Watford did not in 2013) will get a check of some amount.
The amount the Cardinals players will get ranges from a little under $1200 (Vic So'oto) to over $263,000 (Yeremiah Bell).
How is it calculated? The methodology is here, but essentially it finds a value based on salary and playing time. If you were paid on the lower end and played a lot, your bonus is bigger.
Bell was on the field more than any player on the team -- he played almost every single defensive snap and also played a lot on special teams. He made less than $1 million last season. That's why he gets a bigger bonus.
Here are the players that will get at least $100K (rounded to the nearest $1000):
- Yeremiah Bell: $263,000
- Jaron Brown: $126,000
- Jim Dray: $165,000
- Andre Ellington: $126,000
- Paul Fanaika: $224,000
- Tony Jefferson: $132,000
- Tyrann Mathieu: $210,000
- Frostee Rucker: $104,000
- Bradley Sowell: $247,000