Mills Leads Eagles in Performance-Based Pay

PHILADELPHIA (973espn.com) - A quick ascent up the Eagles depth chart has paid off in a big way for Eagles cornerback Jalen Mills, who led the team in performance-based pay from the 2016 season.

Despite its name performance-based pay isn't tied to success on the field, it's a way or rewarding lower-paid players who earned significant playing time and each NFL team had a pool of just under $4 million to distribute this year.

As a seventh-round pick who developed into a de facto starter on Philadelphia's defense, playing in 65 percent of the snaps, Mills, who had a base salary of $450,000, was rewarded with an extra $324,112.11, according to NFLPA figures.

That was sixth in the entire NFL, trailing only Atlanta's Brian Poole, Dallas' Dak Prescott, the Cowboys' Anthony Brown, the Falcons' Ricardo Allen, and New England's David Andrews.

Eagles middle linebacker Jordan Hicks received the second-most money of any Philadelphia player with a check for just over $300,000.

Nine other Eagles players picked up at least an extra $100K, including defensive back Jaylen Watkins ($208K), tight end Trey Burton ($188K), nose tackle Beau Allen ($184K), receiver Dorial Green-Beckham ($177K), offensive tackle Halapoulivaati Vaitai ($170K), defensive tackle Destiny Vaeao ($127K), receiver Jordan Matthews ($119K), running back Wendell Smallwood ($111K) and offensive lineman Isaac Seumalo ($111K).

-John McMullen covers the Eagles and the NFL for 973espn.com. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen