Malcolm Butler's looking for a much larger payday, but he'll take the performance-based pay he earned in 2016.
Every year since the launch of the performance-based pay program spelled out in the 2002 collective bargaining agreement, NFL players are paid a supplemental form of compensation based on their playing time and salary. In essence, it helps players who out-perform their contracts make some extra money.
Butler was among the top earners in the league last year when it came to performance-based pay, and this year he pulled in $368,882.72, per NESN's Doug Kyed. He was not the highest performance-based-earner on his own team this year, though. That honor went to second-year center David Andrews, who received $426,344.26.
After winning the starting job in training camp, beating out Bryan Stork, Andrews went on to play 99.7 percent of the snaps for the Patriots last season. An undrafted rookie out of Georgia two years ago, Andrews started all 19 games last season and played in every snap but four during a Week 8 win over the Bills.
Other performance-based pay earners included the two teammates who played on either side of Andrews for the majority of the season: Shaq Mason ($352,350.79) and Joe Thuney ($305,206.63). Mason played 92.6 percent of offensive snaps, while Thuney played in 99.7 percent. (There's a veteran pool from which rookies are not eligible to draw, explaining why Mason was paid more than Thuney despite playing fewer snaps.)
Others who cracked the $100,000 mark were Trey Flowers, Malcolm Mitchell, Jonathan Jones, Eric Rowe, Elandon Roberts, James White, Cameron Fleming, Brandon King, Barkevious Mingo, Justin Coleman, James Develin and Logan Ryan.