FRISCO, Texas — Sometimes, an NFL player simply outperforms their contract, and the Dallas Cowboys have absolutely no problem with that, seeing as it means that player is leaving it all on the field, time and again; and several from the 2025 roster did exactly that.
With the announcement of this year's NFL performance-based pay distributions in mid-March, a list of Cowboys find themselves the worthy recipients of an additional payout from the league — a supplemental system geared towards making sure those on the lower end of the pay scale, but who have "higher playtime percentages" are rewarded for their efforts.
This time around, the fund identified a total of 11 players from the Cowboys' roster who not only qualified for a payout but, for most of them, it garnered major coin.
- Shemar James - $764,652.46
- Cooper Beebe - $728,692.89
- Reddy Steward - $686,457.53
- Brock Hoffman - $646, 213.53
- Ryan Flournoy - $645,753.11
- Brevyn Spann-Ford - $616,704.41
- James Houston - $558,181.73
- Marist Liufau - $539,506.78
- Luke Schoonmaker - $530,975.95
- T.J. Bass - $499,897.65
- Isaiah Land - $11,425.58
Land is the outlier on this list, having played in just three snaps and earning just above $11,000 for doing so, a practice squad player still developing after his return to Dallas in 2025.
Others earned a minimum of $500,000, give or take a few dollars, with James and Beebe taking the lead by pocketing nearly $800,000 — a number that is particularly telling of how much the Cowboys' defense leaned on James as a rookie. Despite being a fifth-round pick in last year's draft, the former Gator was eventually named starter due to injury at the position, going on to produce 544 defensive snaps and 181 special teams reps (725 combined in 6 starts and 16 games played).
Also impressive was Steward, going from a test drive with the Cowboys to their starting nickel corner with 620 combined snaps that included special teams work, now re-signed for 2026 as well, and others such as Hoffman, Spann-Ford and Houston all made their own set of waves as the season went along, their playing time far exceeding their contracts.
Flournoy, the former sixth-round pick in 2024, had a breakout season alongside CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens, effectively forcing Jalen Tolbert out of the door in free agency and taking over the role as WR3, with no equivocation. And Flournoy did it while also contributing on special teams, logging more than 900 combined snaps in four starts with 16 games played in 2025.
As it stands, Hoffman is the only player on this list not currently on the Cowboys' roster, meaning there's plenty of potential for all but one to outperform yet again when things get underway in September 2026.
