Tony Jefferson tops Cardinals performance-based bonuses

Josh WeinfussMar 13, 2015, 02:20 PM ET

TEMPE, Ariz. -- Sitting atop the Cardinals’ list of performance-based bonuses from 2014 was a safety who quietly filled holes in their secondary whenever called upon.

Tony Jefferson, who started eight games and played 647 snaps, earned a bonus of $252,806.34 -- more than half his 2014 salary of $495,000. He saw his playing time increase when Tyrann Mathieu was coming back from a knee injury to start the season and also when he went down with a fractured thumb in December.

Each team had $3.63 million to distribute based on a formula that compared how much a player is compensated to how much he contributes to his team. It tends to favor lower-paid players who either have starting roles or are top backups with high snap counts.

In the case of veteran linebacker Larry Foote, who was second on the Cardinals with a performance-based bonus of $231,429.79, he played about 94 percent of the Cardinals’ defensive snaps but earned less than $1 million.

Tackle Bobby Massie received $225,089.09, Alex Okafor got $169,015.35 and rookie receiver John Brown earned $163,368.89 to round out the top five.

Undrafted tight end Darren Fells earned $91,061.59 while kicker Chandler Catanzaro, also undrafted, received $44,692.73.

Here’s the complete list:

Tony Jefferson, S: $252,806.34

Larry Foote, LB: $231,429.78

Bobby Massie, T: $225,089.09

Alex Okafor, LB: $169,015.35

John Brown, WR: $163,368.89

Andre Ellington, RB: $138,746

Jaron Brown, WR: $134,091.77

Paul Fanaika, G: $131,067.75

Robert Hughes, RB: $120,522.26