JUNE 18, 2024
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NFL quarterback contracts have continued to increase in a major way over recent years, especially for stars at the position, consistently taking up more of an NFL team’s salary-cap room. Whether that trend should continue, however, has become a topic of debate within NFL circles. With every new quarterback contract in the NFL, more eyebrows are raised at the inevitability of record-setting dollar amounts at the position, with even inconsistent and relatively unproven signal-callers commanding historic hauls. The league is well aware of the situation, according to NFL Media, with some team owners privately discussing the possibility of a separate cap on quarterback salaries.
“There has certainly been discussion within the league among certain owners about even the idea of a quarterback cap, that at some point you don’t want quarterback numbers to go over a certain percentage of your salary cap,” NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero said Tuesday during an appearance on The Rich Eisen Show (6:10 mark). “To my knowledge, that hasn’t really gained traction, in part because so many teams have paid their quarterbacks.”
The top 11 contracts in the NFL based on total money belong to quarterbacks, per Sportrac. The top 16 NFL contracts in average annual salary are all quarterbacks. The top 12 contracts in terms of practical guaranteed money are—you guessed it—all quarterbacks.
Here’s another way of framing the growing imbalance between quarterbacks and the rest of the positions in the sport: Daniel Jones, who has never been a Pro Bowler and has a career touchdown-to-interception ratio of 60-to-42, is making an average annual salary of $40 million.
No position player in the sport, however, is making more than an average of $35 million on their current deals. If you were starting an NFL franchise from scratch, would you really want to pay a player like Jones more than Justin Jefferson, Nick Bosa, Chris Jones, A.J. Brown, T.J. Watt, etc.
On the other hand, quarterback is the most valuable position on the field. The difference between a good quarterback and a poor quarterback can be the difference between fielding a playoff team and having a losing squad. Just ask the New York Jets last season, who went from Aaron Rodgers to Zach Wilson and Tim Boyle.
Adopting “an NBA model” might be one way to better regulate those percentages, as Pelissero noted. The NBA currently has “max” and “supermax” restrictions for free-agent and long-term contracts, limiting the number of players teams can sign to a certain dollar amount, while capping the percentage of the salary cap for which maximum deals account. The idea “really hasn’t gained traction” among NFL owners, however, “in part because so many teams have paid their quarterback,” contributing to the position’s escalating market.
So, most teams would rather overpay for a solid player—think the Kirk Cousins or Derek Carrs of the world—than find themselves dealing with a Wilson. Hence, the market inflating beyond just the very top superstars.
Whether that situation is ever remedied remains to be seen. It would certainly be a tectonic shift for salary-cap management, though such changes aren’t without precedent—in 2011, the NFL put a rookie wage scale in place to curb the size of contracts for first-round picks.
That made a bit more sense, though, as rookies who had never played a snap were signing bigger deals than their veteran teammates. Capping quarterback salaries for established veterans would be a much tougher sell.