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Brian O'Neill gets an extra $441K, tops Vikings' earners in performance-based pay

In his second year with the Vikings, right tackle Brian O'Neill established himself as a fixture of the team's offensive line for years to come.

March 12, 2020 at 11:11PM
(The Minnesota Star Tribune)
(The Minnesota Star Tribune)

In his second year with the Vikings, right tackle Brian O'Neill established himself as a fixture of the team's offensive line for years to come. He also earned himself a substantial raise through the NFL's performance-based pay program.

O'Neill, who played all but eight snaps in the 15 regular-season games where the Vikings used their starters, earned a combined $441,753.31 from the program, collecting $254,399.43 from a pool of money available to both rookies and veterans and another $187,353.88 from a pool available only to veterans. The league's program is designed to reward players whose importance to their team — as a function of their playing time — outstrips the value of their contract. O'Neill, who was playing in the second year of his rookie deal, had a base salary of $680,302 in 2019.

The tackle got the second-most money from the pool available to rookies and veterans, coming in behind wide receiver Bisi Johnson (who got $288,197.61 after playing nearly 42 percent of the team's offensive snaps). O'Neill was also the Vikings' second-highest earner in the pool available to both rookies and veterans, coming in behind guard Pat Elflein, who received $190,797.44.

In the pool available to both rookies and veterans, linebacker Eric Wilson ($236,131.62), Elflein ($232,388.08) and fullback C.J. Ham ($222,000.38) rounded out the Vikings' top five.

Wilson ($148,566.51), Ham ($139,425.36) and defensive end Stephen Weatherly ($129,289.94) joined Elflein and O'Neill as the Vikings' top earners from the veterans-only pool.

Each team in the NFL was allocated $4.623 million for its rookies and veterans, and another $2.6 million to divide among its veterans, with all amounts determined by an index based on salary cap figures and playing time.

The program is designed to reward even the league's highest-paid players with a little extra walking-around money for their effort during the season. Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins, who played on a base salary of $27.5 million last season, got an extra $16,270.09 from the two pools ($8,259.57 from the rookies-and-veterans pool and $8,010.52 from the veterans only pool).

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about the writer

about the writer

Ben Goessling

Sports reporter

Ben Goessling has covered the Vikings since 2012, first at the Pioneer Press and ESPN before becoming the Minnesota Star Tribune's lead Vikings reporter in 2017. He was named one of the top NFL beat writers by the Pro Football Writers of America in 2024, after honors in the AP Sports Editors and National Headliner Awards contests in 2023.

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