No market inflates quite like the quarterback market in the NFL. If you're an above-average starter, you're going to get paid. If you're a superstar, odds are you'll soon be the richest player in league history.This offseason alone has proven as much: the extended for an average of $50 million per year despite him approaching 39; the and extended and with top-10 deals, respectively, despite their lack of playoff succe s; and the committed a record $230M in fully guaranteed money to as part of a blockbuster trade, even while the former star faced 22 civil lawsuits alleging sexual misconduct.The NFL Players A sociation has championed Watson and Cousins in recent years for netting fully guaranteed deals. But an old funding rule, woven into the NFLPA's collective bargaining agreement with the NFL, could soon dictate that only certain teams are able to compensate QBs as such. More specifically, only the richest NFL owners might be able to afford the best QBs.The NFL's salary cap, which prevents teams from spending over a certain amount on player salaries each year, is partially in place to maintain competitive balance acro s the league. And it does help; consider that rebuilding teams like the , , and Texans are projected to have some of the most money to spend in 2023. But the dynamic changes when you're committing monstrous sums of guaranteed money over four, five, six or, in the rare case of the ' , 10 whole seasons.
Zach Banner Jersey Salary cap or not, it's po sible, if not probable, that certain NFL owners won't just be uncomfortable but to properly keep up with the market for long-term QB deals. Here's why: the aforementioned funding rule requires teams to pay a portion of guaranteed contracts in advance, via an escrow account, with a third party temporarily holding funds until they are to be paid to the player. This practice was established, , at a time when NFL owners weren't nearly as wealthy as they are today, and it was po sible that a franchise could've run out of money to fulfill future guarantees.This is why, PFT posits, recent extension with the contains a reported $70M le s in total guarantees than the Watson deal: "For Watson," Mike Florio writes, "Browns owner Jimmy Haslam must deposit $169M into an escrow account by March 31, 2023. ... (That's) quite po sibly a check that Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill can't afford to write." CBS Sports' Joel Corry, a former NFL agent, , noting that "a fully guaranteed contract
Chris Wormley Jersey never seemed like a realistic po sibility for Murray because the Cardinals aren't considered a cash-rich team." Pick Six Newsletter Crafted By The Best NFL Experts Get the day's big stories + fun stuff you love like mock drafts, picks and power rankings. I agree to receive the "Pick Six Newsletter" and marketing communications, updates, special offers (including partner offers), and other information from CBS Sports and the Paramount family of companies. By pre sing sign up, I confirm that I have read and agree to the and acknowledge Paramount's . Please check the opt-in box to acknowledge that you would like to subscribe. Thanks for signing up! Keep an eye on your inbox. Sorry! There was an error proce sing your subscription. It's unlikely the NFL and NFLPA would renegotiate the CBA solely to amend the funding rule, especially when it's built to protect future guarantees for players beyond the QB position. So what does that mean for the future of QB contracts? Just because the teams with the most liquid a sets are best positioned to buy premium pa sers doesn't mean the elite QBs will always -- and only -- follow the money. Take the ' , for example, who is currently -- and absurdly -- the 16th-highest-paid QB, relying on additional outside income to offset a below-market deal for the sake of team-building. Or the ' , who signed a four-year extension in 2021 rather than play under a second franchise tag and then test free agency. While title-winning QBs are almost always one of the highest-paid players on their respective teams, research also shows there is an :
Buddy Johnson Jersey somewhere between 10.6% and 12.3% of a team's total salary cap. The perfect formula, recent history shows, is not highly paid QBs so much as avoiding an imbalanced distribution of resources. And, better yet, knowing when to pull the plug on a QB, even if it means entering a season of uncertainty. New Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, unabashedly analytically minded, hit on this very dilemma in , Cousins, lamenting the fine line between paying big bucks for a "good QB" and "burning it down" to find a great one.Still, it's easier said than done, if you're the Cardinals, for example, to convince your coaches, players and fans that you'd be better off reallocating resources than committing huge money to Murray at QB. At some point, you've got to make a gamble, one way or another: pay the price of a mega-QB deal, or the price of restarting the search for a QB worth paying. The fortunate teams organically identify and acquire said QB, with a playoff-caliber supporting cast already in place or on the way.That leads us to the QBs most likely to be impacted next, down the road -- the ones who could be tasked with either settling for something le s than the market says they're worth, or cashing in with a franchise ready and able to meet the funding rule's demands. It's not hard to identify the candidates, both of whom hail from a stacked AFC: and . Two other AFC stars, the ' and ' Lamar Jackson, are also eligible for new deals in the near future. Regardle s of whether Denver or Baltimore hesitates to lock up their big names, each franchise is financially equipped to dole out record guarantees. New Broncos owner Rob Walton, heir to the Walmart fortune, has the highest estimated net worth ($60 billion, ) of any
Dan Moore Jr. Jersey NFL ownership group, and Ravens owner Steve Biscotti ($5.7B), falls just outside of the top 10.Burrow and Herbert, meanwhile, could almost a suredly command even more money than Wilson and Jackson, considering their meteoric rise as young MVP candidates. And yet their team owners aren't nearly as awash in cash. The ' Mike Brown, who notoriously still leans on "antiquated" contract structures, according to Corry, last had an estimated net worth of , the lowest figure among all owners. The ' Dean Spanos, who's rebutted lawsuit claims by his sister of , is estimated at $2.4B, ranked just outside of the bottom 10.That's not to say neither the Bengals nor Chargers are presently incapable of properly extending their star QBs. The Cardinals, for example, rank among the bottom 10 teams in terms of ownership value, and they just signed Murray to a ma sive deal. It's just that the trend of QB contracts could present significant difficulties in negotiations, a suming Burrow and Herbert remain on their
Ahkello Witherspoon Jersey own trajectories and seek potentially record guarantees in their inevitable extensions. And that's not accounting for any other factors in terms of team-building, such as what Burrow and/or Herbert think of their teams' respective coaching staffs, supporting casts, etc. when it comes time to put pen to paper. For reference, here's a look at all the NFL ownership groups, using Forbes data, as well as their current QB:RankTeamOwnerNet worthCurrent QB1BroncosWalton-Penner family$60BRu sell Wilson2Jody Allen$20.3B3David Tepper$16.7B4ChiefsHunt family$15.5BPatrick Mahomes5CowboysJerry Jones$11.8BDak Prescott6Stan Kroenke$10.7B7Christopher and Woody Johnson$10.7B8Robert Kraft$8.3B9Stephen Ro s$8.2B10Shad Khan$7.5B11FalconsArthur Blank$6.8B12Terry and Kim Pegula$5.8BJosh Allen13RavensSteve Bisciotti$5.7BLamar Jackson14BuccaneersGlazer family$4.7BTom Brady15TexansJanice McNair$4.2B16York family$4B17Dan Snyder$4B18BrownsJimmy and Dee Haslam$3.9BDeshaun Watson19Gayle Benson$3.8B20Jeffrey Lurie$3.5B21PackersPublic shareholders$3.5BAaron Rodgers22Jim Irsay$3.5B23ChargersSpanos family$2.4BJustin Herbert24Sheila Ford Hamp$2B25RaidersMark Davis$1.7BDerek Carr26GiantsSteve Tisch and John Mara$1.7B27CardinalsMichael Bidwill$1.4BKyler Murray28Art Rooney II$1.35B29Adams family$1.3B30VikingsZygi and Mark Wilf$1.3BKirk Cousins31BearsVirginia Halas McCaskey$1.2B32BengalsMike Brown$925MJoe Burrow
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