What’s the most essential rule of the NFL’s version of Wall Street? Every quarterback coming up a payday wants to make more money than the last guy.
Now, a team backs up the Brinks truck for a former Mr. Irrelevant — the latest domino in the NFL quarterback market officially fell Friday when the San Francisco 49ers and signal-caller Brock Purdy agreed to a five-year, $265 million contract extension. The deal includes $181 guaranteed for the former seventh-round pick, an improbable payday for a player once selected dead-last among his draft class. Despite a relative down year last season (which was due more to the team’s injury circumstances than his own play), Purdy has clearly still shown enough to earn a massive payday and reset the quarterback market for the next player.
With the market for gunslingers ticking further upwards every offseason, where does Brock Purdy rank among the NFL’s highest-paid quarterbacks?
Top-10 Highest Paid NFL Quarterbacks
Here’s the 10 largest quarterback contracts in the NFL in order of total contract value:
1. Patrick Mahomes: $450 million, 10 years
2. Josh Allen: $330 million, six years
T3. Joe Burrow: $275 million, five years
T3. Trevor Lawrence: $275 million, five years
4. Brock Purdy: $265 million, five years
5. Justin Herbert: $262.5 million, five years
6. Lamar Jackson: $260 million, five years
7. Jalen Hurts: $255 million, five years
8. Dak Prescott: $240 million, four years
9. Kyler Murray: $230.5 million, five years
10. Deshaun Watson: $230 million, five years
Clearly, Patrick Mahomes’ 10-year deal still reigns supreme as one of the biggest paydays in the history of professional sports. However, his was signed in 2020 — a couple of years before the market really took off — making Mahomes’ contract one of the best values in the NFL.
A flurry of activity in the 2023 offseason resulted in some notable paydays for Jalen Hurts and Lamar Jackson, who signed within 10 days of each other that April. They clearly helped Justin Herbert and Joe Burrow earn more lucrative deals later in the year. In 2024, the Trevor Lawrence deal earned plenty of headlines given the young signal-caller’s relative lack of accolades and playoff success, but Dak Prescott’s new contract stole the show just before the season began in September.
Really, Josh Allen and now Brock Purdy should send Prescott and Jerry Jones a thank you card. Once the Cowboys quarterback reset the market in terms of average annual value, both Allen and Purdy have each signed deals pushing the numbers even higher.
Here’s the 10 highest-paid quarterbacks in terms of average annual value, or AAV.
1. Dak Prescott: $60 million/yr
T2. Josh Allen: $55 million/yr
T2. Joe Burrow: $55 million/yr
T2. Trevor Lawrence: $55 million/yr
T2. Jordan Love: $55 million/yr
3. Tua Tagovailoa: $53.1 million/yr
T4. Brock Purdy: $53 million/yr
T4. Jared Goff: $53 million/yr
5. Justin Herbert: $52.5 million/yr
6. Lamar Jackson: $52 million/yr
7. Jalen Hurts: $51 million/yr
8. Kyler Murray: $46.1 million/yr
9. Deshaun Watson: $46 million/yr
T10. Patrick Mahomes: $45 million/yr
T10. Kirk Cousins: $45 million/yr
Prescott’s deal earns top billing in terms of annual value at a staggering $60 million, meaning he accounts for roughly 21% of the Cowboys’ total $279.2 million salary cap. That’s a lot of money to pay a quarterback with limited playoff pedigree, but the shorter four-year term on it led to more unique circumstances and a higher yearly salary.
A four-way tie between Allen, Burrow, Lawrence, and Love keeps them knotted for the second-highest AAV, then Tua Tagovailoa comes in third with $53.1 million per year. That figure just barely beats out Purdy’s new deal which sits tied for the league’s fourth-highest mark with Jared Goff.
Herbert, Jackson, and Hurts round out the next batch of players before a noticeable gap in annual value of about $5 million separates the rest of the highest-paid quarterbacks in the NFL.
One noteworthy trend here is that seven of the top eight players in terms of AAV all signed their deals in May 2024 or later. The lone exception there is Joe Burrow, who signed his contract in September 2023 but clearly remains one of the top talents in the league. To take this pattern one step further, every quarterback making $50 million per season or more signed in the 2023 offseason or more recently — a sign of how the going rate for the most important position in sports just keeps rising.
