Pocket watching is something I often try to avoid doing as it isn’t my business what someone else makes, but when it comes to the NFL and its contracts being public knowledge, it’s hard not to.
As the season gets to within a month away, the talk in NFL town is contract negotiations with quarterbacks. Naturally, quarterback is the most important position on the field, so it goes without saying that this group commands the biggest money deals.
And one thing is for certain when it comes to these deals – there is no meritocracy when it comes to deciding who is paid the most. If it were based on ability, then Patrick Mahomes would make an astronomical figure that’s far higher than second place. That’s why, on a per-year basis, 10 quarterbacks make more than the three-time Super Bowl champion and future first-ballot Hall of Famer.
Four quarterbacks who signed new deals this offseason have certainly ruffled some feathers due to the sheer nature of the generational wealth that they’re receiving, including Detroit’s Jared Goff, Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence, Miami’s Tua Tagovailoa and Green Bay’s Jordan Love.
The general rule of thumb is that after one quarterback signs a top-level deal, the next contract signed is marginally greater in value than its predecessor. That may not have been the case for Goff, who signed his new $53 million per year this spring. Lawrence followed with a $55 million per year deal, leading to a game of chicken between the Packers, Dolphins and the Dallas Cowboys, who have still yet to pay Dak Prescott.
There were risks involved with both Love and Tagovailoa, which likely caused a delay into late July. With Love, he had a great 2023 season with an end-of-season stretch that was better than anyone – but it was his first and only year as a starter due to him sitting behind Aaron Rodgers since being drafted in 2020. For Tagovailoa, injury history and inability to play at a top level in a game with stakes are major red flags. Yet, the Dolphins paid him anyway. And the Packers paid Love even more.
The top three quarterback contracts on a per year basis belong to Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow, who is great, Love, who has shown unsustained greatness, and Lawrence, who has not lived up to his “generational prospect” billing since being drafted out of Clemson. Not one of them is better than Mahomes – though Burrow is at least comparable.
So why am I talking about what these players are making? After all, it shouldn’t be any of our business what anyone is bringing home on pay day. And before you say that these players already make way too much money compared to folks working important jobs such as being a teacher – which, yeah, they should absolutely be paid more – I would argue that these players are justly paid and could even be paid more money. Why? Because look at how much the NFL generates in revenue. According to Sportico, the NFL distributed over $400 million to each of the 32 franchises after an excess in revenue last year. That’s nearly $13 billion, and I bet there’s more where that came from.
But the point about these contracts is how this affects a team’s ability to make moves elsewhere on the roster. Logic dictates that if you’re paying your quarterback 25% or more of your salary cap – which limits how much a team is able to spend on their roster – you probably won’t be able to sign other big-time players to big-time contracts.
The Packers should be OK for a while in this, as their offense was the youngest by far in 2023. They’re cheap and can be replaceable if need be. For the Dolphins, they’re in serious trouble. They couldn’t win a playoff game with Tagovailoa when he was making significantly less money while on his rookie contract. How are they going to manage to win one with their quarterback making all this money? I don’t see that working, especially since he hasn’t shown me anything that would give me faith if he was relied upon to will his team to victory in a playoff game scenario.
As the salary cap continues to rise each year, more and more quarterbacks will be paid more and more astronomical contracts. It seems insane for one person to get that much money – nearly half a billion dollars in the case of Mahomes’ overall contract value – but trust me: These teams can afford it.
The Pickoff
So we all saw that opening ceremony at the Olympics, right? It certainly appeared to mock The Last Supper, and it certainly rubbed a lot of folks stateside the wrong way. That’s perfectly fine and maybe even encouraged, but I would say the best course of action is to turn your frustration to the country of France as opposed to the Olympics as a whole. The U.S. teams still deserve support, as they had nothing to do with that debacle.
Whether they truly meant to mock The Last Supper or not, it sure was a bad look to many. You don’t have to watch, but I would refrain from bashing the athletes who spend years of their lives training to represent our country.
Play of the week
Is James McCann the toughest man on Earth? Maybe not, but the Baltimore Orioles’ catcher made a case Monday afternoon after taking a 95 mph fastball on the nose. He immediately fell to the ground with blood gushing from his face, but that wasn’t enough to keep him down. He plugged his nostrils to stop the bleeding despite a suspected broken nose, and he took first base without exiting the game. He was behind the plate catching in the next half-inning, too.
For that, I tip my cap to you.
