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These NFL Players Got a Smaller Bonus Than You

By:
Martha C. White
2 min read
Matt Cassel #16 of the Dallas Cowboys warms up before the game against the Buffalo Bills on December 27, 2015 at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, New York. Buffalo defeated Dallas 16-6. - Brett Carlsen—Getty Images
Matt Cassel #16 of the Dallas Cowboys warms up before the game against the Buffalo Bills on December 27, 2015 at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, New York. Buffalo defeated Dallas 16-6. Brett Carlsen—Getty Images

While Peyton Manning scored a cool $4 million bonus for leading the Denver Broncos to one final victory last month in Super Bowl 50, not all pro football players snag that kind of a bonus. Nor even in the same ballpark of what the average Joe on Wall Street received as a bonus last year: just under $150,000.

An unlucky 10 NFL players, including four quarterbacks, got performance bonuses of less than $500 each this past year, according to ESPN.

Matt Cassel earned just under $59 for his brief tenure with the Buffalo Bills this past season, though this entry is essentially bogus because he received a bonus of over $28,000 after being traded to the Dallas Cowboys and spending the rest of the season playing for them. The Philadelphia Eagles' Randall Evans made only $302.67 in bonus money, and five other players earned less than $400.

Even a member of the Super Bowl 50 champion Denver Broncos earned the dubious distinction of a bottom-of-the-barrel performance bonus. Backup quarterback Trevor Siemian earned a bonus of just $328.13. Compare that to the Broncos' Matt Paradis, whose performance bonus was $391,647.56 this past season, the largest in the NFL according to the Denver Post. (Manning's bonus was tied to the team's wins in the playoffs and Super Bowl, and is in a different category than pure performance bonuses.)

Maybe Manning and Paradis at least took Siemian out for a beer on them after the big game.

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