The Arizona Cardinals had no players in the top 25 of those in the NFL who will receive performance-based pay bonuses this year, but many Cardinals players benefitted significantly from the system that was collectively bargained in 2002 and that is part of player benefits over and above the salary cap.
Players have been paid close to $2.4 billion since then and will receive $393.8 million this year, an average of $12.3 million per team, that compensates all players based upon their playing time and salary levels.
New York Jets guard John Simpson, who played last season for the Baltimore Ravens, earned the highest amount among all players with a distribution of $974,613, which is almost double his 2023 salary.
The Cardinals player with the largest bonus is safety Ande Chachere at $471,928.70. Sixteen that played in 2023 will receive distributions of more than $300,000.
The fund is based upon 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 pool.
Cards Wire has obtained the entire distribution list for the Cardinals, found below. Each bonus total is rounded to the nearest dollar.
S Andre Chachere
Playing time percentage: 58.82%
Bonus: $471,923
LB Victor Dimukeje
Playing time: 56.39%
Bonus: $436,321
TE Trey McBride
Playing time: 72.61%
Bonus: $422,681
LB Krys Barnes
Playing time: 51.85%
Bonus: $406,381
WR Michael Wilson
Playing time: 59.75%
Bonus: $404,278
CB Marco Wilson
Playing time: 64.45%
Bonus: $404,132
DL Dante Stills
Playing time: 50.50%
Bonus: $394,940
C Hjalte Froholdt
Playing time: 99.41%
Bonus: $376,927
WR Greg Dortch
Playing time: 46.56%
Bonus: $372,654
DL Jonathan Ledbetter
Playing time: 45.80%
Bonus: $366,600
CB Kei'Trel Clark
Playing time: 46.72%
Bonus: $359,738
CB Starling Thomas V
Playing time: 45.46%
Bonus: $359,543
LB Josh Woods
Playing time: 50.17%
Bonus: $355,505
CB Antonio Hamilton
Playing time: 61.01%
Bonus: $327,571
OL Elijah Wilkinson
Playing time: 45.38%
Bonus: $321,491
WR Rondale Moore
Playing time: 64.12%
Bonus: $317,602
DL Kevin Strong
Playing time: 39.75%
Bonus: $299,194
LB Jesse Luketa
Playing time: 36.56%
Bonus: $292,607
LB Cameron Thomas
Playing time: 39.83%
Bonus: $266,562
DL Roy Lopez
Playing time: 33.87%
Bonus: $251,504
OL Will Hernandez
Playing time: 97.48%
Bonus: $248,721
RB Emari Demercado
Playing time: 29.92%
Bonus: $239,588
S K'Von Wallace
Playing time: 34.37%
Bonus: $230,827
LB Owen Pappoe
Playing time: 29.75%
Bonus: $227,348
DL Leki Fotu
Playing time: 30.34%
Bonus: $208,546
CB Garrett Williams
Playing time: 31.60%
Bonus: $205,794
Players earning less than $200K in performance-based pay
Player – playing time – bonus
LB BJ Ojulari – 42.10% – $199,686.82
OL Trystan Colon – 31.35% – $189,315.66
TE Elijah Higgins – 25.38% – $177,477.05
OL Paris Johnson Jr. – 100.00% – $170,329.41
QB Joshua Dobbs – 44.79% – $167,952.05
WR Zach Pascal – 33.78% – $165,226.95
LB Ezekiel Turner – 33.19% – $155,291.73
TE Geoff Swaim – 40.67% – $152,334.38
S Joey Blount – 18.49% – $146,974.36
S Jalen Thompson – 79.16% – $139,548.75
OL Carter O'Donnell – 16.30% – $130,495.99
LB Kyzir White – 60.08% – $127,463.97
LB Zaven Collins – 53.78 – $125,909.41
LB Dennis Gardeck – 58.07% – $123,055.80
DL Ben Stille – 11.26% – $90,227,06
DL Phil Hoskins – 10.67% – $85,449.25
OL Dennis Daley – 12.61% – $82,610.48
CB Bobby Price – 10.08% – $81,373.24
RB Keaontay Ingram – 10.92% – $78,855.43
OL Kelvin Beachum – 20.92% – $76,751.38
LS Aaron Brewer – 10.67% – $76,100.54
CB Divaad Wilson – 8.07% – $64,503.06
OL D.J. Humphries – 77.48% – $57,578.33
CB Christian Matthew – 6.98% – $55,886,91
DL Naquan Jones – 6.56% – $52,493.83
P Blake Gillikin – 8.15% – $51,972.18
WR Marquise Brown – 65.63% – $45,979.09
WR Andre Baccellia – 5.55% – $44,395.54
RB James Conner – 44.62% – $44,375.09
RB Michael Carter – 6.98% – $41,549.36
K Matt Prater – 11.77% – $40,080.52
RB Tony Jones – 4.79% – $38,351.24
QB Clayton Tune – 5.04% – $37,732.53
CB Kris Boyd – 5.29% – $37,557.38
WR Dan Chisena – 4.54% – $36,323.63
DL Eric Banks – 4.37% – $34,978.31
S Budda Baker – 65.55% – $34,880.15
OL Keith Ismael – 4.20% – $33,666.81
TE Travis Vokolek – 3.70% – $29,358.15
QB Kyler Murray – 45.21% – $26,552.08
DL Carlos Watkins – 4.03% – $25,893.81
S Qwuantrezz Knight – 3.03% – $24,240.11
LB Tyreek Maddox-Williams – 2.94% – $23,549.01
DL L.J. Collier – 3.28% – $23,260,16
RB Damien Williams – 2.61% – $21,021.42
P Nolan Cooney – 2.61% – $20,852.45
RB Corey Clement – 2.19% – $17,493.55
TE Zach Ertz – 24.79% – $14,116.39
TE Blake Whiteheart – 0.92% – $7,340.46
LB Tyreke Smith – 0.84% – $5,584.69
OL Jackson Barton – 0.25% – $2,020.01
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