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Every year, the NFL hands out quite a bit of money in performance-based pay to players on every team. The idea behind the money is to compensate players in addition to their normal salary based on how much they played compared to their salary. The number of snaps played for each player is compared to the player's contract to determine a "player index" for that player, and then the player is compared to the other players to determine just how much performance-based pay he will get. This year, the NFL payed out $121.68 million in performance-based pay to players throughout the league.
For the Indianapolis Colts, the leader in performance-based pay for 2015 was safety Dwight Lowery, who received $230,522.63 (according to CBS4's Mike Chappell). A 16-game starter for the Colts, Lowery played the second-most snaps of any Colts player last season. He did so while playing on a one-year contract worth $950,000, meaning that it makes perfect sense why he'd be in line to get quite a bit of performance-based pay. Lowery was a crucial part of the team's defense last year despite not having a big contract, and as a result he's been compensated accordingly. He also got a decent contract from the San Diego Chargers this offseason.
A few other Colts players got significant payouts in the performance-based play program. Rookie nose tackle David Parry, who started all 16 games, got $201,842.62. Center Jonotthan Harrison received $208,313.59, guard Jack Mewhort received $201,844,62, and ten other players earned more than $100,000.
The money is not a part of a team's salary cap and was created particularly to aid undrafted players and lower round draft picks as an effort to fairly reward those players who exceed their contract, which is a great idea. The player who earned the most this season was Broncos center Matt Paradis, who as a sixth-round pick in 2014 is on a small rookie contract and received $391,648 in performance-based pay.
Here's the full list of Colts players in terms of performance-based pay from the 2015 season, according to CBS4's Mike Chappell:
| Player | Pos. | Pay |
| Dwight Lowery | S | $230,522.63 |
| David Parry | NT | $210,842.62 |
| Jonotthan Harrison | C | $208,313.59 |
| Jack Mewhort | G | $201,844.62 |
| Donte Moncrief | WR | $184,540.74 |
| Hugh Thornton | G | $164,576.76 |
| Jack Doyle | TE | $156,974.52 |
| Clayton Geathers | S | $140,338.50 |
| Jonathan Newsome | LB | $134,075.28 |
| Henry Anderson | DL | $116,686.85 |
| Zach Kerr | NT | $113,617.50 |
| T.Y. McGill | DT | $108,635.39 |
| Josh McNary | LB | $105,489.38 |
| Colt Anderson | S | $103,237.65 |
| Khaled Holmes | C | $99,338.89 |
| Denzelle Good | T | $92,299.01 |
| Griff Whalen | WR | $79,209.53 |
| Jalil Brown | CB | $73,711.83 |
| Zurlon Tipton | RB | $69,774.64 |
| Coby Fleener | TE | $61,169.27 |
| Sio Moore | LB | $59,875.68 |
| Dwayne Allen | TE | $47,463.51 |
| Winston Guy | S | $46,172.06 |
| Mike Adams | S | $45,266.99 |
| Jerrell Freeman | LB | $44,569.77 |
| Joe Reitz | T | $43,973.31 |
| Billy Winn | DT | $43,355.32 |
| T.Y. Hilton | WR | $42,009.58 |
| Lance Louis | G | $38,859.94 |
| Ahmad Bradshaw | RB | $38,394.88 |
| Darius Butler | CB | $33,583.04 |
| Josh Thomas | CB | $32,275.39 |
| Kendall Langford | DE | $30,181.92 |
| Quan Bray | WR | $30,047.08 |
| Tyler Varga | RB | $28,301.53 |
| D'Qwell Jackson | LB | $28,133.74 |
| Earl Okine | DE | $27,453.29 |
| Erik Walden | OLB | $25,739.56 |
| Boom Herron | RB | $25,634.88 |
| Sheldon Price | CB | $25,559.96 |
| Phillip Dorsett | WR | $22,104.62 |
| D'Joun Smith | CB | $21,812.11 |
| Frank Gore | RB | $21,687.79 |
| Matt Hasselbeck | QB | $21,616.10 |
| Nate Irving | LB | $20,259.55 |
| Josh Robinson | RB | $19,105.60 |
| Anthony Castonzo | T | $18,716.95 |
| Daniel Adongo | LB | $18,605.26 |
| Amarlo Herrera | LB | $17,771.08 |
| Matt Overton | LS | $16,769.85 |
| Greg Toler | CB | $16,688.60 |
| Bjoern Werner | LB | $16,610.52 |
| Andre Johnson | WR | $13,391.03 |
| Akeem Davis | S | $13,353.88 |
| Vontae Davis | CB | $12,918.00 |
| Todd Herremans | G | $12,626.11 |
| Trent Cole | LB | $12,457.58 |
| Eric Patterson | CB | $11,822.09 |
| Andy Studebaker | LB | $11,662.33 |
| Josh Freeman | QB | $11,448.99 |
| Pat McAfee | P | $11,114.08 |
| Andrew Luck | QB | $10,177.49 |
| Dewey McDonald | S | $9,707.09 |
| Charlie Whitehurst | QB | $9,240.29 |
| Tony Carter | CB | $7,649.08 |
| Robert Mathis | LB | $7,244.38 |
| Erik Swoope | TE | $6,777.74 |
| Tay Glover-Wright | CB | $6,390.32 |
| Adam Vinatieri | K | $3,302.09 |
| Shaun Prater | CB | $3,088.65 |
| Ryan Lindley | QB | $2,369.30 |
| Trey Williams | RB | $1,960.80 |