Former Bears Pro Bowl cornerback Nahshon Wright earned one last pay day before leaving town after his breakout year in Chicago
Nahshon Wright has earned a good chuck of change over the last few days.
The Chicago Bears had to make some difficult decisions this offseason to retool the roster going into the second season under head coach Ben Johnson and defensive coordinator Dennis Allen, and one of those decisions involved letting Pro Bowl cornerback Nahshon Wright walk out of the door.
Wright originally signed with the Bears on a one-year, $1.1 million deal. He turned that deal into a Pro Bowl worthy season after leading his position with five interceptions and leading the league in total takeaways. In free agency, Wright signed one-year, $3.5 million deal with the New York Jets that can reach up to $5.5 million in incentives.
It was a much-deserved pay raise for Wright, but still less than many expected to get on the open market, a sign the Jets want to see him play at that kind of level again before fully committing to him. Even still, it’s not going to be the only pay day Wright is getting this offseason.
Nahshon Wright earns the highest performance based pay in the league for 2025 season
The league has a nice little incentive known as performance based pay that rewards players who play a high snap count with low salaries with a little cash bonus. The NFL announced the Top-25 earners for the 2025 season with Wright leading the entire group with an extra $1,441,397 coming his way. That’s more money than he earned the entire season from the Bears.
Back in 2025, former Bears offensive lineman Matt Pryor earned $1,020,303 performance based pay before walking in free agency. Clearly, Chicago has a knack of finding great value players that can contribute at low cost and Wright was the crowning achievement of that.
Even legendary quarterback Tom Brady named Wright as his LFG Best Value Player during his end of season awards he gave out on social media.
“He had a tremendous season,” Brady said about Wright. “He was an absolute turnover machine. The Bears, they didn’t do a great job between the 20’s, okay. The ball was moved a lot. But, when it came down to turning the ball over, they were better than every team in the league and he was a huge reason why.”
All of this puts great closure on Wright’s one-year tenure in Chicago and now a new chapter can open with the Jets next season. As much as Wright wanted to remain with the Bears and continue working with defensive backs coach Al Harris, he will be in a great situation playing for head coach Aaron Glenn in a secondary that desperately needs help in the turnover department.
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