Riley Moss tops all Broncos in performance bonus

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Come season’s end, the NFL and players union like to reward the grunts, the relative impoverished who toil in tasks few endure.

OK, that’s laying it on thick.

An undrafted rookie with no signing bonus made $840,000 over a 17-game season last year. His toil may be special teams, the NFL’s sideshow to offense and defense.

There is financial reward. The league and NFL Players Association came up with a formula that pays bonuses determined by a player’s snap counts along with his salary.

The less a player makes and the more he plays, the greater his performance bonus.

Riley Moss, for instance. The starting cornerback was on the books for the two-year service time minimum $985,000 to begin the 2025 season. He played 97 percent of the snaps on defense, another 15 percent on special teams and drew a $1.136 million performance bonus that topped all Broncos and was 12th among all NFL players.

Backup quarterback Jarrett Stidham, in contrast, got in for just four snaps during the regular season while drawing a $5.51 million salary. That computed to a $1,470 performance bonus, lowest among the 65 Broncos who appeared in a game last year.

His start in the AFC Championship Game didn’t count. The NFL has another bonus program for postseason based on how far a team advances.

Anybody remember J.T. Gray? Had to look him up. He was picked up by the Broncos for special teams’ purposes, played in one game, and was released after popping his hamstring. Even he got a performance bonus of $9,671.

Even for players on the back end of rosters, it’s good work if you can get it.

Here are the 9 greatest performance bonuses among Broncos’ players from the 2025 season:

1. Riley Moss, CB, $1,1136,103
2. Luke Wattenberg, C, $887,647
3. Ja’Quan McMillian, CB, $866,178
4. Alex Palczewski, LG, $853,302
5. Dondrea Tillman, OLB $808,853
6. Troy Franklin, WR, $669,075
7. Jonah Elliss, OLB $549,409
8. Devon Key $538,593
9. Tyler Badie, RB, $527,969

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