Kader Kohou earned an additional $878,167 performance bonus in 2023

Kader Kohou, the Miami Dolphins' cornerback with the least amount of salary, was rewarded by the National Football League on Monday with a performance-based pay bonus of $878,167. The bonus was the fifth largest of any player in the league last season.

The performance-based pay program was instituted by the NFL in 2002 to compensate players who outplay their contracts. The program was designed to pay players who contribute the most, in terms of playtime, but earn the least, Kohou received an additional $705,584 last season from the pool. His bonus was the most by any other Dolphins player last season.

Kohou earned the bonus in particular because he was playing under a three-year minimum salary contract that he signed as an undrafted free agent in 2022. He played in 938 of the defensive snaps for the Dolphins, which amounted to 85 percent of possible plays. He also played in almost ten percent of the special teams snaps. Kohou has three more seasons before he can really cash in and become an unrestricted free agent.

The Texas A&M-Commerce product played in 32 games in his two-year career thus far with the Dolphins and earned 29 starts. During his time with Miami, he recovered one forced fumble, had one interception, and defended 20 passes. He also comes off the edge and has ten tackles for loss.

John Simpson, who played guard for Baltimore in 2023, but has since signed a free-agent contract with the New York Jets in March, was the biggest winner in the pool as he was distributed $974,613. There were a total of four players who earned in excess of $900,000. Kohou was next in line.

Rounding out the top five were Philadelphia Eagles safety Reed Blankenship ($923,059), Buffalo Bills tackle Spencer Brown ($912,723), Cincinnati Bengals guard Cordell Volson ($905,972) and then Kohou.

By contrast, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy, who was drafted in the seventh round, with the final pick of the draft in 2022, earned an additional $739,795 from the pool this season. He made more money in combined salary (pro-rated signing bonus and base salary) than Kohou did so Purdy received less money in leading the 49ers to the Super Bowl and the NFC Championship.

The bonus check nearly equaled Purdy's base pay last year, $889,253.