New England Patriots guard Michael Onwenu earned a well-deserved payday Friday for exceeding his expected playing time as 2020 sixth-round pick.

Onwenu earned $813,083 in performance-based pay. It was the fourth-highest figure in the NFL.

Onwenu earned a base salary of just $895k last season. His performance-based pay nearly doubled that amount for playing 99 percent of offensive snaps.

From the league:

“Under the Performance-Based Pay program, a fund is created and used as a supplemental form of player compensation based on a comparison of playing time to salary. Players become eligible to receive a bonus distribution in any regular season in which they play at least one official down. In general, players with higher playtime percentages and lower salaries benefit most from the pool.

“Performance-Based Pay is computed by using a player index (“Index”). To produce the Index, a player’s “PBP Playtime” (defined as the player’s regular season total plays played on offense, defense and special teams, divided by the number of plays of the player with the most total combined plays on that team) is divided by his “PBP Compensation” (defined as regular season full salary, prorated portion of signing bonus, earned incentives). Each player’s Index is then compared to those of the other players on his team to determine the amount of his Performance-Based Pay. If a player’s base salary is less than the Minimum Salary of a player with seven or more Credited Seasons, then player’s base salary will be imputed to be equal to the Minimum Salary of a player with seven or more Credited Seasons (i.e., $1.120M for the 2022 season). By imputing a minimum salary of $1.120 million, a slightly higher percentage of the pool is directed to high-performing veteran players whose salaries exceed $1.120 million, but are not among the highest in the league, as contemplated by the formula. This imputation of salary is solely for the purpose of calculating distributions from the pool and does not affect the actual salary paid to the player under his contract.”

Onwenu is eligible for a contract extension, so this might not be his last payday of the offseason. He’s been the Patriots’ second-best sixth-round pick out of Michigan in franchise history as an impressive contributor at left guard, right guard and right tackle. He seemingly found a permanent spot at right guard last season. New England has continued to build around him, center David Andrews, left guard Cole Strange and offensive tackle Trent Brown by signing tackles Riley Reiff and Calvin Anderson this offseason.

Featured image via Mark Konezny-USA TODAY Sports