Heading into the 2024 season, Detroit Lions safety Kerby Joseph declared a goal to lead the NFL in interceptions. Then he went out and did it, picking off nine passes to lead the league. He earned First Team All-Pro honors, but he was an egregious Pro Bowl snub due to the popularity contest the voting for that is.
That Pro Bowl snub cost Joseph nearly $3.9 million at the time, the difference between his $1.36 million base salary for 2025 and the $5.346 million second round RFA tender for reaching the third level of PPE (Proven Performance Escalator) criteria with an original ballot Pro Bowl selection. He did earn at Tier 2 PPE Escalator, which bumped up his base salary for 2025 from where it originally was.
Thankfully, there is another layer in place for players with lower salaries (often based on where they were drafted) who perform well to supplement their pay, called "Performance-Based Pay Distribution". As a third-round pick in 2022, Joseph was an easy candidate to cash in there after the season he had.
Indeed, Joseph earned the sixth-highest performance bonus in the league for the 2024 season-$996,253.
Performance-based pay is set to take on a whole new level for Kerby Joseph
Of course Joseph, heading into the final year of his rookie contract, is also eligible for a contract extension this offseason. At his season-ending press conference, Lions general manager Brad Holmes sounded ready to make Joseph the highest-paid safety in the NFL.
"That's on the docket, in terms of to be looked at and discussed. We know where he's at from an eligibility (standpoint). I mean, he's an All-Pro player," Holmes said in January. "I don't know how you don't make the Pro Bowl with nine interceptions, whatever that is. He's an All-Pro player, and he's another one that's gotten better and better, and he's another one that's proven he's a Detroit Lion. He fits, he fits our culture. It's hard to find ball-hawk guys that will tackle how he does. I think that's what makes him unique. Again, we haven't had intense dialogue about that yet, but obviously we want to keep the good players here."
In light of Joseph's performance bonus news, Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press reported the Lions met with his agent at the NFL Combine and are "in the early stages of planning for a new deal."
The highest-paid safety in the NFL right now is Antoine Winfield Jr., via the four-year, $84.1 million extension he signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last offseason ($21 million per year). Spotrac has calculated Joseph's market value at $23.2 million, which would of course make him the highest-paid safety with some room to spare.
The pay bumps Joseph has gotten or should have gotten after his fantastic 2024 season are about to pale in comparison to the pay day he has coming.
