Trey Smith among NFL’s leading performance-based pay recipients

Kansas City Chiefs offensive lineman Trey Smith was among the leaders in those who earned performance-based pay for the 2022 NFL season.

Trey Smith has been a revelation from the very beginning of his tenure in Kansas City, ever since he first arrived as a member of the Chiefs roster back in the 2020 NFL Draft. His skill set was already NFL-ready upon being drafted, even as a late Day 3 pick, which is why the NFL has rewarded him for his efforts beyond what his contract calls for.

Every year the National Football League creates a pool totaling hundreds of millions of dollars to go to teams to distribute to players who are performing at a much higher clip than they are currently paid. There’s an entire formula at working using a “player index”, which you can read more about here. The goal is to reward players for their efforts as part of the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement, reaching back to 2002 when it was first instituted.

Back to Smith. The Chiefs selected Smith at No. 226 overall in the 2020 NFL Draft as a sixth-round pick, and even then, on that very day, he was termed a major steal for the Chiefs. Smith was a mauler of a prospect in college who looked like a man among boys, even in the SEC, but medical concerns took him off of the board of several teams and even the Chiefs didn’t pull the trigger on him until after 225 other players had been taken.

Despite the slip, Smith has been an above-average starter at the NFL level since Week 1 of his rookie season. He’s been tasked with protecting Patrick Mahomes and work within the game’s best offense, and he’s delivered on a front line that includes other strong performers like center Creed Humphrey and left guard Joe Thuney.

Of all of the NFL’s performance-based pay recipients, Smith is the only Chiefs player in the top 25 and he lands at No. 20 with an extra $664K coming his way after this season. That’s a nice bonus, and it has to feel like some vindication to be able to earn some of that money back that he lost when his draft stock slipped so precipitously.