San Francisco 49ers QB Brock Purdy hasn’t secured his big payday yet, but his bank account just got a little bit of a boost. The 25-year-old received an extra $857,892 from the NFL’s Performance-Based Pay distributions, the league announced on March 12, 2025.
“NFL players will receive over $452 million in Performance-Based Pay for their performance during the 2024 season, the NFL announced today. The Performance-Based Pay program is a collectively bargained benefit that compensates all players based upon their playing time and salary levels,” the NFL said in its press release. “Players have been paid nearly $2.8 billion cumulatively since the inception of the Performance-Based Pay program, which was implemented during the 2002 season as part of the NFL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement with the NFL Players Association and has been carried forward in three subsequent collective bargaining agreements.”
According to the NFL, “Under the Performance-Based Pay program, a fund is created and used as a supplemental form of player compensation 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.”
Purdy, who was drafted with the final pick of the NFL draft in 2022 by the 49ers out of Iowa State, has one season left on his rookie contract, according to Spotrac. He earned a $985,000 base salary in 2024 and is set to earn $5.3 million in 2025. Purdy started 15 games for San Francisco in 2024, throwing for 3,864 yards with 20 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.
Brock Purdy Earned the 16th-Highest Payout From the NFL’s PBP Program, While Teammate Dominick Puni Had the 11th Highest Payout
Thearon W. Henderson/GettyDominick Puni of the San Francisco 49ers blocks Khalen Saunders of the New Orleans Saints.
Purdy earned the 16th-highest payout from the PBP program. But his teammate, Dominick Puni, received a higher bonus, according to the NFL press release. The rookie offensive guard, who was drafted in the 3rd round out of Kansas last year, earned $898,036, the 11th-highest payout, according to the NFL.
The NFL explained how the payouts are calculated in its press release. “Each player on the same team competes for his own share of his club’s Performance-Based Pay pool. The hypothetical example in the table below illustrates how the Player Index works, using a simplified four-player team and a club bonus pool of $1,000,000. Each player receives his share of the pool depending on how his Index compares to those of his teammates.”
The NFL added:
Performance-Based Pay is computed by using a player index (“Index”). To calculate the Index, a player’s “PBP Playtime” (defined as the player’s regular season total plays played on offense, defense and special teams, divided by the number of plays in which the player with the most total combined plays participated on that team) is divided by his “PBP Compensation” (defined as each player’s regular season full salary, including his prorated portion of signing bonus, and earned incentives). Each player’s Index is then compared to those of all other players on his team to determine the amount of his Performance-Based Pay.
If a player’s full season salary is less than the CBA Minimum Salary for a player with seven or more Credited Seasons, additional salary will be imputed to that player so that his salary is equal to the Minimum Salary for a player with seven or more Credited Seasons (i.e., $1.21M for the 2024 season). By imputing a minimum salary of $1.21 million, a slightly higher percentage of the pool is directed to high-performing veteran players whose salaries exceed $1.21 million, but are not among the highest in the League, as contemplated by the formula. This imputation of salary is solely for the purpose of calculating distributions from the pool and does not affect the actual salary paid to the player under his contract.
Puni earned a base salary of $795,000 in 2024, according to Spotrac. He played in all 17 games for the 49ers in 2024.
Ian Rapoport Reported a Contract Extension for Purdy Isn’t ‘Imminent’
NFL Media insider Ian Rapoport told the “Pat McAfee Show” on March 11, “I don’t get the sense that it’s like imminent, imminent. But it’s always coming. So teams do budgeting on out, they know it’s coming and they do have to account for it. You know, what’s the number is going to be is interesting.”
Rapoport added the contract could be around the $55-$60 million average annually salary that several QBs have received recently. He said on the ESPN show, “My sense is that’s probably the target. Is it going to be higher or lower? I don’t know. Unless they get to a point where they’re right up against the season, like with Brandon Aiyuk last year, that was a big contract, but generally, they’ve been pretty conservative with these contracts.”
He added, “I’m going to be fascinated to see where this goes. But like in that range right there is where you’re looking. I just don’t know where it actually fits in.”
