The NFL revealed Monday that the league will pay more than $542 million in performance-based pay in 2025. A member of the Washington Commandos received a big payday.
2022 seventh-round pick left guard Chris Paul has played in 17 games and started just eight in his first three NFL seasons. However, before Week 3’s game against the Las Vegas Raiders, the Commanders benched second-year offensive lineman Brandon Coleman and inserted Paul into the starting lineup at left guard.
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Paul seized the opportunity, starting the past 15 games and becoming a bright spot for Washington in what has been a disappointing season. His chance to start also comes at a good time, as Paul is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent after the 2025 season.
Paul’s performance-based salary in 2025 is just over $1.2 million, which is the fifth-highest salary in the NFL in 2025. That’s more than double what Paul made in the final season of his rookie contract ($1.1 million).
Most thought Paul’s performance put him out of his comfort zone in Washington. Interior offensive linemen are getting paid through free agency, and Paul is expected to have a strong market. Since the Commanders have major commitments to Laremy Tunsil and Sam Cosmi, it doesn’t appear they will make a competitive offer for Paul. Instead, Paul chose to return to Washington in 2026 after talking to other teams.
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The NFL’s performance-based pay plan is collectively negotiated, with all 32 teams receiving an allocation from the performance-based pay pool. Below is a description of how the program works.
Performance-based compensation is calculated through the use of a player index (the “Index”). To calculate the index, a player’s “PBP minutes” (defined as the player’s total regular-season minutes played on offense, defense and special teams, divided by the number of games played by the player with the most total minutes played on that team) is divided by his “PBP compensation” (defined as each player’s full regular-season salary, including prorated signing bonuses and earned incentives). Each player’s index is then compared to the indexes of all other players on his team to determine his performance pay amount. If a player’s full-season salary is less than the CBA minimum salary for players with seven or more point-pointing seasons, the additional salary will be attributed to the player, making his salary equal to the minimum salary for players with seven or more point-pointing seasons (i.e., $1.255 million for the 2025 season).
This article originally appeared on Commander’s Wire: Washington Commander: G Chris Paul gets huge bonus