We’ve reached the the end of the 2024 NFL season and there’s one more game left. We’re going to find out soon what seed the Detroit Lions go into the playoffs with.
But the end of the year also signals one more thing and that’s Prove Performance Escalators. No, that is not a company that fixes escalators at the mall, this is a mechanism in the NFL that helps players drafted outside of the first round make some extra money through hitting goals. Lions’ safety Kerby Joseph is about to benefit from this. Here’s how it works.
There are three tiers to this. Here’s the breakdown of tiers:
Level 1: If the player participated in a certain percentage of snaps for two of his first three seasons, or averaged that through three years. The percentage is 60% for second-rounders or 35% for later picks.
Level 2: If the player participates in at least 55% of the team’s offensive/defensive snaps in each of his first three seasons. New salary: amount of the original draft round RFA tender + $250k.
Level 3: If the player is an original Pro Bowl selection in any of his first three seasons. New salary: amount of the second-round RFA tender (projected by OTC to be $5.217 million).
Joseph has already achieved level two so he is expected to see a pay pump in 2025 regardless of what happens, but seeing as though he was first among NFC free safeties in Pro Bowl votes, he should find himself on the original ballot for this year’s Pro Bowl. since he leads the league in interceptions and is PFF’s second highest graded safety. He may even become an All-Pro this year too.
Joseph is currently slated to make $1.357 million in 2025. If he makes the Pro Bowl on the original ballot, that will increase by $3.86 million and Joseph will be making $5.1217 million in 2025.
That’s quite an increase. This amount is not guaranteed, but it’s pretty rare that a team wouldn’t pay it out. It’s way more rare when that player is as good as Kerby Joesph is.
The Lions could look to extend his contract over the offseason and change this and maybe push that money down the road a little bit, but he’s going to get what he earned one way or another. We’ll find out likely sometime this week.