The NFL has really had it in for Detroit Lions safety Brain Branch in 2024. He's been fined six times this year for a grand total of $60,768. That is a lot of lettuce and there could be more with a fine potentially coming from the Lions' game against the 49ers.
The good news is that thanks to Branch being voted into the Pro Bowl on the original ballot, he's about to make all that money back and then some.
The NFL has a mechanism in the contracts of players drafted in the second-round and beyond called Proven Performance Escalators. There are three levels to this.
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).
By making it into the Pro Bowl, Branch hits the third level and will receive a hefty pay bump in 2026. These PPEs hit in the player's fourth season. Branch still has one more year to go before he can collect on this, but it's his. That'll cover the fines.
The NFL's stupid decision just cost Lions' safety Kerby Joseph millions of dollars
What a season it has been for Kerby Joseph. The third-year man leads the league in interceptions with nine, allows just 43.9% of passes his way to get completed, is the second-highest graded safety in the league according to Pro Football Focus, and led all free safeties in Pro Bowl votes.
That's why it's incredibly strange that all of that was not good enough to get Joseph into the Pro Bowl in 2024. He has been kept off the initial ballot per Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press.
While you might say that it doesn't matter because Joseph potentially wouldn't play in this game due to playing in the Super Bowl, but it does matter. This cost Joseph a lot. By that, I mean that this decision just cost Joseph millions of dollars in 2025. $3.86 million to be exact. Here's why:
The NFL has a mechanism called Proven Performance Escalators, which is written into the contracts of players who are drafted in the second round and beyond. There are three levels to the PPE program.
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 had already qualified for level two so he was going to get a little pay bump in 2025 anyway, but hitting level three and making that Pro Bowl would have given him a major pay pump. He would have gone from making $1,357 million in 2025 to $5.217 million. Unfortunately, that won't happen.
The good news is that there's a solid chance the Lions are going to get him set up with a contract extension this offseason that could make him the highest paid safety in the NFL. So maybe this won't matter at the end of the day. Still, what a snub.
