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NFL Salaries/Contracts · NFL explained.

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1:04
Speaker 1: Hey everyone, d D Kinkabwala, joined as always by the
1:08
Speaker 1: fabulous Mike Yam. I will take fabulous. I will take
1:12
Speaker 1: any positive, glowing adjective that you are willing to throw
1:16
Speaker 1: my way at d You know, I feel like if
1:18
Speaker 1: you've been up since two am, Mike, then even if
1:20
Speaker 1: I just said the chipper Mike, yam, you would have
1:23
Speaker 1: been happy. That might have been the more impressive adjective
1:26
Speaker 1: to use, because you're right, and people, by the way,
1:27
Speaker 1: I am not like the party animal. I've kind of
1:29
Speaker 1: aged out of that. I am doing the Will Selva
1:32
Speaker 1: shift with the very early morning updates on NFL Network.
1:36
Speaker 1: So I don't want people thinking, hey, I've been up
1:37
Speaker 1: since who I am because I can't sleep or anything
1:40
Speaker 1: kind of crazy. Yeah, people, no one would think that. Yeah,
1:44
Speaker 1: I'm okay with that. I'll own it all right. But
1:47
Speaker 1: as we talk about fun times, good times, we have
1:50
Speaker 1: to talk about a fun football movie that came out
1:52
Speaker 1: in and gave us probably one of the most fun
1:57
Speaker 1: quotable lines of any sports film ever. So Mike, come on,
2:01
Speaker 1: give it to us. What am I talking about? Show
2:03
Speaker 1: me the money? Sorry, that's as good as it's going
2:07
Speaker 1: to get. That's as good as I have to say
2:09
Speaker 1: for being up since two am. That is really good, Mike.
2:13
Speaker 1: Right there. I might need you to record that for
2:15
Speaker 1: my ringtone that would scare everyone around you. Of course,
2:21
Speaker 1: there are any of our listeners who are wondering where
2:24
Speaker 1: exactly that's from. It is Jerry McGuire, who, of course
2:27
Speaker 1: the football agent who is trying to keep his top client,
2:31
Speaker 1: Cuba Gooding Jr. And that leads us into today's NFL
2:35
Speaker 1: Explained topic, contracts. So Mike, let's go ahead and touch
2:40
Speaker 1: on the history of the collective bargaining agreements, which players
2:43
Speaker 1: make the most money. We can take a look at
2:45
Speaker 1: whether or not teams spend too much money on quarterbacks,
2:49
Speaker 1: and look into some of the craziest contract incentives of
2:53
Speaker 1: all time. And we'll see, Mike, if you can maybe
2:56
Speaker 1: parlay that into a bit part when Jerry McGuire too
3:01
Speaker 1: comes out, you know, please bring that on, by the way,
3:04
Speaker 1: A little side tangent here. I don't know if I
3:06
Speaker 1: would have screamed like that on a normal show when
3:08
Speaker 1: I record from home, because I might scare my neighbors.
3:11
Speaker 1: I am in a soundproof vo booth where no one
3:14
Speaker 1: can actually hear me. But as if far some of
3:17
Speaker 1: the contracts are concerned, I think the best place to
3:20
Speaker 1: start is the collective bargaining agreements because that's essentially what
3:24
Speaker 1: determines the wages, and it's a little bit higher than
3:27
Speaker 1: minimum wage. It's really long, it's a complex history, So
3:30
Speaker 1: just the basic timeline here. Nineteen the NFL first recognized
3:35
Speaker 1: the NFL Players Association or the NFL p A. Now,
3:38
Speaker 1: the NFL was clearly growing in popularity, and players actually
3:41
Speaker 1: threatened to strike in order to get increased salaries, pensions,
3:45
Speaker 1: and benefits. A deal was struct shortly thereafter, which increased
3:48
Speaker 1: rookie salaries to get this nine thousand dollars and veteran
3:51
Speaker 1: salaries to ten k. And we're also setting a little
3:55
Speaker 1: bit of a coin on the side for some of
3:56
Speaker 1: those pension plans. Okay, So fast forward two years to
4:01
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy after the merger, and there would have actually
4:06
Speaker 1: be a number of strikes and lawsuits of our compensation
4:08
Speaker 1: and free agency and the use of replacement players in
4:12
Speaker 1: general animosity between the league and players that got us
4:16
Speaker 1: all the way to n when the two sides decided,
4:20
Speaker 1: you know what, maybe we could get a little bit
4:22
Speaker 1: further if we play nice, and so the c b
4:26
Speaker 1: A then included unrestricted free agency and a thirty eight
4:31
Speaker 1: percent increase in player salaries. That's what I'm talking about.
4:35
Speaker 1: I have to be honest, Mike, I've never had a
4:36
Speaker 1: thirty eight percent salary increase in my life. Yes, here,
4:39
Speaker 1: I'm thinking that's that's the way to go. I need
4:42
Speaker 1: some of those dudes kind of negotiating my contract again. Again,
4:45
Speaker 1: that was after the two sides decided, you know what,
4:48
Speaker 1: when we are in this together, we can be more successful. Yeah,
4:52
Speaker 1: it makes sense. Everyone's going to play nice. Then everyone
4:54
Speaker 1: gets a little bit of extraor something something. But the league,
4:57
Speaker 1: once again the popularity actually got the increase in salary
5:01
Speaker 1: cap from thirty four point six million in ninety four
5:04
Speaker 1: to get this A and twenty million in twenty eleven.
5:09
Speaker 1: So that's when the owners and players decided upon a
5:11
Speaker 1: new collective bargaining agreement, which clearly makes sense when you're
5:14
Speaker 1: talking about a boost in terms of that salary cap.
5:17
Speaker 1: The big change in that year was that the owners
5:19
Speaker 1: were able to reduce player revenue from fifty three to
5:22
Speaker 1: forty eight percent, and the players and impacted. Basically, we're rookies.
5:27
Speaker 1: So I'll give you an example here, because I know
5:28
Speaker 1: that's a lot to chew on. We'll take Sam Bradford.
5:30
Speaker 1: The first overall pick in his contracts six years, seventy
5:35
Speaker 1: eight million, with a then record fifty million of that guaranteed.
5:40
Speaker 1: One year later, Cam Newton's like, dude, I just wish
5:43
Speaker 1: I was a little bit older, just a little bit older,
5:46
Speaker 1: the number one overall pick. That's Mr Newton got the
5:49
Speaker 1: new maximum rookie deal of four years, twenty two million,
5:53
Speaker 1: all guaranteed. So check this out. The signing bonuses of
5:56
Speaker 1: the first round picks in worked two hundred million more
6:00
Speaker 1: than the total rookie contracts in eleven. We'll get into
6:04
Speaker 1: quarterback pay a little bit later, but as you can see,
6:06
Speaker 1: rookies got a little bit of the raw end of
6:08
Speaker 1: the deal across the board. Yeah, and so I'm not
6:12
Speaker 1: sure that I'm buying that, Mike, because let's remember, they
6:13
Speaker 1: haven't played a snap in the league yet, they haven't
6:15
Speaker 1: taken themselves. And this actually meant more financial protection for
6:20
Speaker 1: the veterans who had put in time in the league.
6:23
Speaker 1: So after that initial rookie contract of four years, for example,
6:28
Speaker 1: a veteran in his fifth year in two will now
6:32
Speaker 1: make a minimum of just over a million dollars. So
6:37
Speaker 1: before we get into all of that, though, before I
6:38
Speaker 1: overcomplicate all that. We should really talk about the salary cap.
6:42
Speaker 1: The NFL has what's called a hard cap, which means
6:45
Speaker 1: you cannot ever, ever, ever, ever, for any reason, ever
6:49
Speaker 1: go over what the cap is. The NBA has a
6:53
Speaker 1: soft cap, which more or less allows teams to hold
6:56
Speaker 1: onto players on their rosters. In Major League Baseball doesn't
6:58
Speaker 1: have a cap at all. It's just a luxury at tax.
7:01
Speaker 1: So if you have a lot of money, you can
7:03
Speaker 1: pay more in salary and then you just pay at tax.
7:05
Speaker 1: In there you go. The NFL salary cap is calculated
7:09
Speaker 1: by multiplying the league's revenue by the players share that
7:13
Speaker 1: was agreed upon in the collective bargaining agreement. Remember we
7:16
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier that that's forty eight percent right now, and
7:21
Speaker 1: by all accounts, even though the cap is not officially
7:24
Speaker 1: set for a few weeks, still twenty two is set
7:27
Speaker 1: to have a salary cap in the range of about
7:30
Speaker 1: two hundred and eight million dollars. So, okay, in two
7:33
Speaker 1: thousand eleven, you told us the salary cap was one
7:36
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty million. Two thousand twenty two, the salary
7:41
Speaker 1: cap is set to be two hundred and eight million.
7:46
Speaker 1: That's a pretty big increase. So let's talk about some
7:49
Speaker 1: of these veterans and get into the biggest contracts in
7:51
Speaker 1: the league right now. The highest average per year salaries
7:54
Speaker 1: in the league right now, of course, go to quarterbacks.
7:58
Speaker 1: Patrick Mahomes he's averaging forty five million dollars a year,
8:02
Speaker 1: Josh Allen forty three million dollars year, Dak Prescott forty
8:06
Speaker 1: million dollars a year. The top fourteen paid quarterbacks in
8:11
Speaker 1: the NFL are right now, averaging thirty four million dollars
8:16
Speaker 1: a year. So what about other positions? What's the mike?
8:20
Speaker 1: If you think about it, what's the most important position.
8:22
Speaker 1: If you're building a team. Number one has to be quarterback,
8:25
Speaker 1: then what's number two? Give me a guy that can
8:27
Speaker 1: get to the quarterback. Good job, that's how you build
8:31
Speaker 1: a team. So t J. Watt, he's the highest paid
8:34
Speaker 1: defender right now, making twenty eight million dollars a year. Now,
8:39
Speaker 1: the top two non quarterbacks on offense are DeAndre Hopkins,
8:43
Speaker 1: who's slept to make twenty seven point three million dollars,
8:48
Speaker 1: and a guy who has charged with protecting the quarterback
8:52
Speaker 1: that's tackled, Trent Williams, who's set to make twenty three
8:55
Speaker 1: million dollars, but of course the most actual cash. Now
8:58
Speaker 1: these are numbers. This is like all tied up in
9:01
Speaker 1: bonus and this and that, and as we know, teams
9:03
Speaker 1: can maneuver money. The most actual cash that any NFL
9:08
Speaker 1: player ever collected in one year in one check, and
9:14
Speaker 1: he guesses player in a state with no income tax.
9:17
Speaker 1: Well to states that come to mind with no state
9:19
Speaker 1: income tax, Texas and Florida. So I will go, we're
9:22
Speaker 1: talking quarterbacks, so I think it's probably pretty obvious. Then
9:25
Speaker 1: maybe Dak Prescott, you are correct. Cut a check for
9:29
Speaker 1: seventy five million dollars last year. Seventy five million, Show
9:35
Speaker 1: me the money, that's what I'm talking about. I'll take
9:40
Speaker 1: that coin. Uh, you know, it's kind of crazy though,
9:42
Speaker 1: you know of look seventy five million cutting check like
9:44
Speaker 1: that's that's enormous and it's huge. There's one deal in particular,
9:48
Speaker 1: when it became public, got so much hype around, not
9:52
Speaker 1: on the NFL, but just business circles and just I
9:56
Speaker 1: think people were kind of floored by that number. Because
9:58
Speaker 1: you mentioned Patrick Mahomes averaging about forty five million per
10:01
Speaker 1: year the contract. I think it's kind of important to
10:04
Speaker 1: take a holistic view because people are throwing out that
10:06
Speaker 1: phrase like half a billion dollars. Mahomes actually signed the
10:10
Speaker 1: largest contract in sports history in remember it was that
10:13
Speaker 1: ten year contract extension where four hundred and fifty million,
10:17
Speaker 1: which also included a hundred and twenty three million base salary.
10:20
Speaker 1: Sixty three million of that was guaranteed. So realistically, here
10:26
Speaker 1: the Chiefs could bail from the contract in when mahomes
10:29
Speaker 1: roster bonus becomes fully guaranteed, that's a year ahead of
10:32
Speaker 1: time instead of two. So the contract actually includes a
10:35
Speaker 1: number of guaranteed mechanisms which essentially forces the Chiefs to
10:38
Speaker 1: pay expensive buyouts to get out of the deal really early.
10:41
Speaker 1: But the point is a dd I mean like, this
10:43
Speaker 1: is a lot of cash, and it does make things
10:46
Speaker 1: relatively complicated right for agents and teams as they're trying
10:49
Speaker 1: to manage that cap. So for Mahomes, the sixty three million,
10:52
Speaker 1: it sounds big, But how about this, it doesn't even
10:55
Speaker 1: top the list of fully guaranteed money. You mentioned a
10:59
Speaker 1: little bit earlier, that seventy million dollar check that Dak
11:01
Speaker 1: Prescott got. Uh, there's actually another quarterback that got a
11:05
Speaker 1: little bit war change a deity when it comes to
11:07
Speaker 1: fully guaranteed contracts, and that dude is an absolute gun slinger.
11:11
Speaker 1: You know who I'm talking about, of course, my son's
11:14
Speaker 1: favorite quarterback, Josh Allen. Oh I didn't realize that that
11:18
Speaker 1: was a kink of wild household favorite. Well, here's the thing.
11:21
Speaker 1: Like Josh Allen, Baker Mayfield, Lamar Jackson, they're all the
11:24
Speaker 1: same draft class, and Josh Allen is the first one
11:26
Speaker 1: to sign a long term deal. And part of that
11:28
Speaker 1: is because Josh Allen was not holding the bill's hostage
11:32
Speaker 1: for every single last penny he could get. I remember
11:34
Speaker 1: talking with several members of their front office who said
11:37
Speaker 1: that Josh Allen recognized a team has a finite amount
11:40
Speaker 1: of money, which is when we talk about the salary cap,
11:42
Speaker 1: and he knows that he needs pieces around him. And
11:46
Speaker 1: so while he wanted what he was worth, he didn't
11:48
Speaker 1: necessarily need to get every last penny of what he
11:51
Speaker 1: was worth, which is well thought out for a young quarterback.
11:53
Speaker 1: Although you know we got a hundred million coming your way,
11:56
Speaker 1: that doesn't you know, You're you're still able to go
11:59
Speaker 1: and eat um. But the point is there's some more
12:01
Speaker 1: context here on just how complex some of these different
12:04
Speaker 1: types of contracts and guaranteed money can get. So you've
12:07
Speaker 1: got full guarantees, which is guaranteed at the signing. That
12:10
Speaker 1: money fully guaranteed when you sign the deal. It's guaranteed
12:13
Speaker 1: for skill cap and injury purposes. So an example here
12:16
Speaker 1: Kirk Cousins three year, eighty four million dollar contract with
12:18
Speaker 1: the Vikings fully guaranteed for skill, cap and injury. What
12:22
Speaker 1: I mean by that you've got the skill guarantee is
12:25
Speaker 1: if a player's contract is terminated, in the team's opinion,
12:28
Speaker 1: he does not have the skill level so to speak, anymore,
12:31
Speaker 1: that player will be entitled to any money that is
12:34
Speaker 1: protected by a skill guarantee. You've got a cap guarantee
12:38
Speaker 1: as well, which is basically, if a player contract is
12:40
Speaker 1: terminated so that a team can get under the salary cap,
12:43
Speaker 1: sign a free agent or re sign one of its
12:45
Speaker 1: current players, that player is entitled to any money that
12:48
Speaker 1: is protected by a cap guarantee. And then you got
12:51
Speaker 1: the injury guarantee. And this is big in a sport
12:54
Speaker 1: like football. So if for player's release but is currently
12:57
Speaker 1: unable to perform football duties like doesn't pass to physical
13:00
Speaker 1: for example, as a result of the team activities or
13:03
Speaker 1: something that happened to him while he was lame. That
13:06
Speaker 1: player is actually entitled to any money in his contract
13:10
Speaker 1: protected against injury. The injury only guarantee is actually the
13:14
Speaker 1: most common in terms of partially guaranteed money, and Mike,
13:17
Speaker 1: like we were talking about earlier, there are certain teams
13:19
Speaker 1: that have not traditionally offered guaranteed money beyond the first
13:24
Speaker 1: year of a deal, or have not offered all three
13:28
Speaker 1: guarantees beyond the first year of a deal. And you
13:30
Speaker 1: mentioned t J. Watt earlier. That was certainly something that
13:32
Speaker 1: the Steelers had to address because prior to t J.
13:35
Speaker 1: Watt they did not offer money under all three guarantees
13:38
Speaker 1: beyond the first year of a deal, and of course
13:40
Speaker 1: to sign the defensive player of the year, which is
13:43
Speaker 1: what t J. Watt was, they had to adjust that. Yeah,
13:46
Speaker 1: you know, just kind of think about how front offices
13:48
Speaker 1: has changed. And we mentioned a little bit earlier, DD
13:50
Speaker 1: you took us through it. You explained the caps in
13:52
Speaker 1: the different sports. You know, the NBA and their capologists
13:54
Speaker 1: and you know NFL front office littered with those guys
13:57
Speaker 1: that understand not only the cap but how to manage
13:59
Speaker 1: some of those things. Like those are real jobs for
14:02
Speaker 1: for people, because this thing does get really complicated for sure,
14:06
Speaker 1: and when you're thinking about how you push money into
14:08
Speaker 1: the future or not and what is dead money and
14:10
Speaker 1: this and that. But anyway, since we are talking about guarantees,
14:13
Speaker 1: let me guarantee you this. We'll be back after the
14:16
Speaker 1: break to talk more about the way the positions breakdown
14:20
Speaker 1: and who gets paid the most in what positions end
14:24
Speaker 1: up fighting for table scraps, and because we love random
14:29
Speaker 1: trivia Mike, we of course have to talk about some
14:31
Speaker 1: of the most unusual contract incentives, including one player who
14:37
Speaker 1: missed out on a one million dollar bonus because of
14:42
Speaker 1: one penalty flag. All that and more when we come
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Speaker 1: work marketplace. Welcome back to NFL. Explain. So if we
16:02
Speaker 1: want to talk average salaries by position, Mike, of course,
16:05
Speaker 1: of course, quarterback leads the way ten point four million
16:09
Speaker 1: dollars a year according to spot rack. Now, even though
16:13
Speaker 1: you and I both agree that the second position we
16:15
Speaker 1: would choose on our team is the guy that eats
16:18
Speaker 1: the quarterback, it's actually the guy that protects the quarterback,
16:22
Speaker 1: who makes the second highest average left tackles on average,
16:26
Speaker 1: bringing seven point nine million dollars a year. But you
16:29
Speaker 1: want to know who brings in the least amount of
16:33
Speaker 1: money besides the punter, and the long snapper and the
16:36
Speaker 1: tight end. I want to drop like kickers, I would think, well,
16:40
Speaker 1: keeping out the special teams guys, running backs on average
16:44
Speaker 1: make just two point four million dollars. The running back
16:48
Speaker 1: average this past year, according to spot rack, was just
16:51
Speaker 1: two point four million dollars a year. Interesting because if
16:56
Speaker 1: you look at the last seven or eight Super Bowls,
16:58
Speaker 1: the starting running back for each Super Bowl winning team,
17:02
Speaker 1: nobody made more than two million dollars. I feel like
17:06
Speaker 1: I need to scream show me the money again to
17:08
Speaker 1: get that going for that position group. Yeah, but in
17:11
Speaker 1: any case, guards, kickers, everyone else makes more on average
17:16
Speaker 1: than are running back except for the punter, the long snapper,
17:20
Speaker 1: and the tight end. Well, if you think about it,
17:22
Speaker 1: which is kind of surprising on the tight end considering
17:24
Speaker 1: although I guess if you look at the position collectively,
17:27
Speaker 1: there's some stars at the top, But I guess as
17:30
Speaker 1: you go down the roster and the depth, I don't know,
17:32
Speaker 1: something tells me the way the game is evolving, those
17:35
Speaker 1: tight ends might be on track at some point in
17:37
Speaker 1: the near future surpassing some of those running back totals.
17:41
Speaker 1: But indeed, you know, we keep bringing up the quarterbacks
17:43
Speaker 1: and I think one of the biggest questions is whether
17:44
Speaker 1: or not they should be the guy that gets paid
17:47
Speaker 1: these incredible amounts of money. The first thing to note, though,
17:50
Speaker 1: is the QB with the highest cap hit or the
17:53
Speaker 1: amount of money on the team's books for that season
17:56
Speaker 1: has actually missed the playoffs seven of the last nine seasons.
18:01
Speaker 1: The exception Peyton Manning in twelve and his brother Eli
18:04
Speaker 1: in Both of those players were actually knocked out those
18:09
Speaker 1: seasons in the first round. But on top of that,
18:11
Speaker 1: that goes back to what I was saying about Josh Allen.
18:15
Speaker 1: When you think about Tom Brady. Tom Brady was never
18:19
Speaker 1: the highest paid quarterback in the NFL because he recognized,
18:22
Speaker 1: if there's a finite amount of money to spread around,
18:25
Speaker 1: let's spread it around. And it makes a lot of
18:28
Speaker 1: sense from that perspective when you just look at some
18:30
Speaker 1: of the numbers here. But on top of that, since
18:33
Speaker 1: the c b A in that year, no quarterback has
18:35
Speaker 1: actually won a Super Bowl on a one hundred million
18:38
Speaker 1: dollar contract. Hey, Now, because we always think about dudes
18:41
Speaker 1: getting paid a lot of money. The largest annual salary
18:44
Speaker 1: by a Super Bowl winning quarterback the guy that didd
18:48
Speaker 1: just dropped Tom Brady at million. So in fact, four
18:53
Speaker 1: of the last eight Super Bowl winning quarterbacks were on
18:56
Speaker 1: their rookie contracts. So that includes Patrick Mahomes, Russell Wilson,
19:00
Speaker 1: Joe Flacco, Carson Wentz who was the starter before getting
19:04
Speaker 1: injured late for the Eagles and the will throw him,
19:06
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow, Jared Goff, Colin Kaepernick, all other examples of
19:09
Speaker 1: quarterbacks on their rookie contract to lead their team to
19:13
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl. So when you look at qbs on
19:15
Speaker 1: their rookie deals versus those veteran guys on big money deals,
19:19
Speaker 1: the numbers are a little surprising. Of the eleven quarterbacksleven
19:24
Speaker 1: who went on to sign long term deals with the
19:26
Speaker 1: same team, they actually had a lower winning percentage and
19:29
Speaker 1: dramatically fewer playoff appearances and fewer playoff wins. So those
19:33
Speaker 1: quarterbacks on the rookie deals eighteen and sixteen in the playoffs,
19:37
Speaker 1: so two games over five hundred versus six and nine
19:41
Speaker 1: in the playoffs following their veteran deals with that same team.
19:45
Speaker 1: So once again, I don't know, like is that just
19:47
Speaker 1: an age thing, like you're not aging well in your
19:50
Speaker 1: just like I don't know how else to to explain
19:52
Speaker 1: some of those numbers and results of duty again, Mike,
19:55
Speaker 1: because you need multiple guys to win. Football is a
19:58
Speaker 1: team sport. You need to pay players all across the field.
20:03
Speaker 1: And if you are spending the majority of your money
20:06
Speaker 1: on just one position, then what about the guys that
20:08
Speaker 1: he's throwing to. What about the guys that he's handing
20:11
Speaker 1: off to. What about the guys who are protecting him.
20:13
Speaker 1: What about the guys on the other side of the
20:15
Speaker 1: ball who are getting the ball back to him. Again,
20:18
Speaker 1: it's a team sport. You need to be able to
20:20
Speaker 1: have money to pay everyone. And if your quarterback is
20:23
Speaker 1: taking whatever of your cap, then obviously your entire team
20:29
Speaker 1: is not going to be constructed as well as it
20:31
Speaker 1: possibly him be Adity not done talking about the dollars
20:34
Speaker 1: and cents of contracts, the best the worst deals when
20:38
Speaker 1: it comes to quarterbacks. That's next on NFL explained, Where
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Speaker 1: the world. Kindrel the heart of progress. Hey guys, welcome
21:42
Speaker 1: back to NFL. Explained Mike Ammata d D Kinkawalla with
21:45
Speaker 1: you all right, did D. I'm gonna flip the script here.
21:47
Speaker 1: Since we're talking about quarterbacks. You always like to throw
21:49
Speaker 1: the questions my way. I'm gonna throw one your way.
21:53
Speaker 1: Active players heading into the two seasons who have made
21:57
Speaker 1: the most money Number one on the lists. Any guests
22:01
Speaker 1: on who you think that might actually be. For sure,
22:04
Speaker 1: it's going to be one of the oldest quarterback in
22:05
Speaker 1: the league. So it's either Aaron Rodgers or Matt Ryan.
22:08
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna guess it's by Ryan because I don't
22:10
Speaker 1: think Aaron Rodgers has ever had a mega deal where
22:14
Speaker 1: we all went crazy like we did over Matt Ryan. Yeah, well, Matt,
22:17
Speaker 1: it's actually close, but you're right. I mean it is
22:19
Speaker 1: Matt Ryan two hundred and sixty seven million, Aaron Rodgers
22:24
Speaker 1: two hundred and sixty three point six million, so not
22:26
Speaker 1: all that far behind. And just to throw out a
22:28
Speaker 1: couple of names that the top four other our quarterbacks
22:32
Speaker 1: Matt Ryan, Aaron Rodgers, Matthew Stafford, and Russell Wilson Larry
22:35
Speaker 1: Fitzgerald actually checking in at number five. So just some
22:39
Speaker 1: context there on some of these players add, it's generally speaking,
22:42
Speaker 1: guests as the quarterbacks. Occasionally you'll get some other players
22:45
Speaker 1: thrown into the mix. You know what's sort of crazy.
22:47
Speaker 1: I was there in two thousand and twelve when kirk
22:50
Speaker 1: Cousins was drafted by Mike Shanahan after Washington had already
22:55
Speaker 1: taken Robert Griffin. Kirk Cousins in his lifetime has made
22:58
Speaker 1: one hundred and sixty one point seven million dollars. Oh,
23:03
Speaker 1: it is good to be the king at now. Of course,
23:08
Speaker 1: all of these guys had some performance incentives and bonuses
23:11
Speaker 1: written into their contracts, and look just this past season
23:15
Speaker 1: we saw a few examples of players who needed big
23:18
Speaker 1: games in the last week to hit some of those bonuses.
23:22
Speaker 1: And how about friends looking out for friends like Tom
23:27
Speaker 1: Brady coming off the sidelines to make sure that his
23:30
Speaker 1: buddy Rob Gronkowski hit a certain number of yards and
23:33
Speaker 1: receptions on the year to get an extra one million dollars.
23:39
Speaker 1: Remember that one, Mike, I totally do. When you just
23:41
Speaker 1: said one million, I just got like one of those
23:43
Speaker 1: uh like you know, Austin powers like million. I wish
23:48
Speaker 1: I could do it. Well I can't, but yeah, I
23:50
Speaker 1: do remember that moment for sure, And you're right. It
23:52
Speaker 1: is friends looking out for some of their friends in
23:54
Speaker 1: a good way. Yes, well, all right, how about this
23:56
Speaker 1: one Stefon Diggs. He needed six catches in the last
23:59
Speaker 1: game of the year to get an extra seven hundred
24:02
Speaker 1: and fifty thousand added to his twenty went to two
24:06
Speaker 1: base and an extra eight hundred thousand added to his
24:10
Speaker 1: three base. He got nine catches. I'm open, I'm open,
24:14
Speaker 1: I'm open open all game long. And then, of course,
24:19
Speaker 1: rams Super Bowl champion Andrew Whitworth he rode off into
24:22
Speaker 1: the sunset, which what a career. But again, riding off
24:27
Speaker 1: into the sunset, not just with that elusive ring and
24:30
Speaker 1: that amazing moment, but also five hundred thousand dollars for
24:34
Speaker 1: making the playoffs, five thousand more for winning at least
24:38
Speaker 1: one playoff game, and another five thousand dollars for winning
24:42
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl. Damn, I'll take that. I do love
24:45
Speaker 1: the fact that some of these guys just look out
24:47
Speaker 1: for each other and once again, like that's kind of awesome.
24:50
Speaker 1: It's the team chemistry thing, it's the friendship thing, and
24:52
Speaker 1: it's just getting a little extra cash in everyone's pocket.
24:55
Speaker 1: But you have to think these guys are really very
24:57
Speaker 1: much aware and look to actually help each other out.
25:00
Speaker 1: One of the craziest instances of a player failing to
25:03
Speaker 1: reach an incentive got to go back to two thousand eight.
25:05
Speaker 1: Packers running back Ryan Grant needed to reach one thousand,
25:09
Speaker 1: two hundred fifty yards to finish in the top five
25:12
Speaker 1: in the conference and get a million dollar bonus. Second
25:15
Speaker 1: half of a week seventeen game against the Lines, it
25:18
Speaker 1: looked like he was just going to hit the mark
25:19
Speaker 1: a d R touchdown run boom off to the races.
25:22
Speaker 1: That one was called back he was ruled down by
25:25
Speaker 1: contact on the replay, Grant fell short of making that
25:28
Speaker 1: mark by forty seven yards. Forty seven yards, missing out
25:33
Speaker 1: on a cool one million dollars, and you know that's
25:36
Speaker 1: so tough. I hate stories like that, So let's move
25:39
Speaker 1: on to some of the weird clauses, Mike. One of
25:41
Speaker 1: my favorites is when Rick Meyer was drafted number two
25:44
Speaker 1: overall in nineteen by the Seahawks. The wording in his
25:48
Speaker 1: contract including that he was to be paid all of
25:52
Speaker 1: his contract up to and including the end of the world.
25:57
Speaker 1: I love that. So I don't know if he had
26:00
Speaker 1: some sort of a bunker if the world ended. And
26:03
Speaker 1: remember Kyle Shanahan did bring up that he didn't know
26:05
Speaker 1: of the world would exist on the following Saturday at
26:08
Speaker 1: some point this past year, so maybe it was just
26:11
Speaker 1: you know, following along that we should account for any
26:14
Speaker 1: and all possibilities. But I will tell you this, Paul
26:17
Speaker 1: Taglabu and the NFL p A would not allow the
26:20
Speaker 1: wording of up to and including the end of the
26:24
Speaker 1: world in any future contracts after Rick Myers. Whoever that
26:28
Speaker 1: agent was, well done. Kudos to you, because I think
26:31
Speaker 1: there's a lot of agents in which they had that foresight.
26:34
Speaker 1: With all the COVID stuff and player contracts and broadcaster contracts,
26:38
Speaker 1: you heard a lot about that stuff. That little forced
26:40
Speaker 1: masure clause in that contract, so well done by whoever
26:43
Speaker 1: that agent was. Um, all right, let's go a little
26:46
Speaker 1: patriot way here. New England had a weight clause in
26:49
Speaker 1: the contracts of defensive tackles Allen Branch and Vince wolf
26:53
Speaker 1: Work that would pay him four hundred K and three
26:55
Speaker 1: hundred K, respectively, if they stayed below a certain number
26:59
Speaker 1: of pounds. Boy, if that's not incentive to to get
27:02
Speaker 1: onto the bike and get a little extra burn, I
27:04
Speaker 1: don't know what is. But the same thing was done
27:06
Speaker 1: by the Seahawks and Eddie Lacey. His contracts stipulated that
27:09
Speaker 1: if the running back could get his weight from two
27:11
Speaker 1: sixty seven to forty five and keep it there to
27:13
Speaker 1: the season, he'd earned three eight five K. Man, I
27:17
Speaker 1: just got a peloton for Christmas. I would be on
27:19
Speaker 1: that bike non stop. If someone's like, yo, stayandard this way,
27:24
Speaker 1: come in your way, sign me up. I made that
27:26
Speaker 1: sort of incentive right now. Let me tell you, especially
27:28
Speaker 1: at the end of the season. Now, Mike, before we
27:30
Speaker 1: get into some of the worst contracts in NFL history,
27:33
Speaker 1: in some ways that players do sometimes get a little
27:36
Speaker 1: bit left out screwed. Let's hit you with one of
27:40
Speaker 1: the happy endings. So quarterback Nick Foles. You mentioned Carson
27:44
Speaker 1: Wentz beforehand. Nick Foles had an incentive in twenty eighteen
27:48
Speaker 1: that would have given him one million dollars if the
27:50
Speaker 1: Eagles went to the playoffs and he played thirty three
27:53
Speaker 1: per cent of the Eagles snaps. Unfortunately, he suffered bruise
27:58
Speaker 1: ribs during the final game of the season. He ended
28:02
Speaker 1: this season by playing just thirty two percent of the
28:05
Speaker 1: Eagles place but he was given the one million dollar
28:08
Speaker 1: incentive anyway, So it is occasionally stunny in Philadelphia. Yeah,
28:13
Speaker 1: not moving Santa Claus at least on a day like that.
28:16
Speaker 1: All right, Why am I getting like all the bad
28:19
Speaker 1: news here? I feel like you're all the positivity and
28:21
Speaker 1: I'm like negative Nelly over here. Hey, let's just call
28:24
Speaker 1: it like it is. No right, all right, let's a
28:26
Speaker 1: couple of the the worst contracts in NFL history on the
28:28
Speaker 1: player's side here. Ricky Williams certainly comes to mind. We
28:31
Speaker 1: actually probably could do an entire podcast on how bad
28:34
Speaker 1: it was. For those who don't know don't remember, an
28:37
Speaker 1: extremely incentive laden deal that required Ricky to rack up
28:41
Speaker 1: big numbers to make the most amount of money, which
28:43
Speaker 1: of course, he never hit and walked away with probably
28:46
Speaker 1: only a fraction of what he could have made, so
28:48
Speaker 1: that was a little bit of a buzz kill. And
28:50
Speaker 1: on the team side of handing out some bad deals, well,
28:52
Speaker 1: maybe the worst in NFL history the Washington football team
28:56
Speaker 1: the Commanders two thousand nine, defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth given
29:00
Speaker 1: a seven year deal worth one hundred million, including a
29:04
Speaker 1: then record forty one million and guaranteed cash. He ended
29:07
Speaker 1: up starting in just twelve games in two seasons. Javal
29:10
Speaker 1: Walker remember him, the talented wide out six year, fifty
29:13
Speaker 1: five million dollar deal with the Raiders in two thousand eight.
29:15
Speaker 1: Dude had just fifteen receptions in two seasons with Oakland.
29:19
Speaker 1: Ouch Well, Mike, because I can't seem to stop talking
29:22
Speaker 1: about Nick Foles, who honestly as one of the nicest
29:25
Speaker 1: guys that I've ever covered. So let's just go back
29:27
Speaker 1: to Nick Foles. Following that surprise Super Bowl run, the
29:32
Speaker 1: jack signed him to a four year, eighty eight million
29:35
Speaker 1: dollar deal with over forty million dollars in guarantees, but
29:38
Speaker 1: he only played with the Jaguars for one season. He
29:41
Speaker 1: had a record of owen four and ended up collecting
29:44
Speaker 1: quite a bit of money from Jacksonville. He yelled, show
29:47
Speaker 1: me the money, got the money and was able to bounce. Yeah,
29:51
Speaker 1: I can't see him yelling show me the money. It's
29:53
Speaker 1: just not that kind of He's definitely not that type
29:55
Speaker 1: of dude. I'm with you. There another famous quarterback. I
29:58
Speaker 1: kind of remember when this one actually happened. A ton
30:01
Speaker 1: of hype, small sample size. Matt Flint Aaron Rodgers is
30:04
Speaker 1: back up in of him, tossed a franchise record six
30:07
Speaker 1: touchdowns when he was filling in for Rogers in the
30:10
Speaker 1: final game of the season. Get to three year contract
30:12
Speaker 1: worth over twenty million by Seattle in Flynn. Actually we
30:18
Speaker 1: remember this. I mean, there's a reason why Russell Wilson
30:20
Speaker 1: is out there, got beaten out. Wilson takes that job
30:22
Speaker 1: in the preseason. The rest it's a rap. I will
30:24
Speaker 1: say this not always easy to admit when you're wrong
30:28
Speaker 1: and sort of like pivot here, But that franchise Pete Carroll,
30:32
Speaker 1: they deserve some credit. They realized Flynn not the dude.
30:35
Speaker 1: Despite the big contract. They went with the guy that
30:36
Speaker 1: could win of some football games. Well, it's tough, especially
30:39
Speaker 1: when you're committing that much money and Unfortunately, it's the
30:42
Speaker 1: quarterback position where so much money is committed and sometimes
30:46
Speaker 1: it just doesn't work out. Look at the Bear signing
30:48
Speaker 1: Mike glennon three year, forty five million dollar deal in
30:52
Speaker 1: Bears Go one in three and Chicago said goodbye. And
30:55
Speaker 1: then of course look at brock Osweiler, I mean four year,
30:58
Speaker 1: seventy two million dollar contract with the Texans in thirty
31:04
Speaker 1: seven million of that Garon teed us Sweidler was shipped
31:08
Speaker 1: to the Browns the following season, and that was kind
31:11
Speaker 1: of just a cap play more than anything. There's a
31:14
Speaker 1: lot of contracts add that we could sort of it
31:17
Speaker 1: could be dangerous, a bad rabbit hole, the best, the worst.
31:20
Speaker 1: We can do this for hours here, but would love
31:23
Speaker 1: to hear from some of our folks out there who
31:25
Speaker 1: are checking out the show. This week has actually been
31:26
Speaker 1: kind of cool a d D. I feel like you
31:28
Speaker 1: and I have been tagged on a bunch of tweets
31:29
Speaker 1: with people asking questions. Mail bag episode by the way
31:32
Speaker 1: coming up around the corner. I've been tracking the questions.
31:34
Speaker 1: Can't thank you guys enough for the support. You can
31:37
Speaker 1: hit us up at a Kinkabala at Mike Underscore Yam
31:41
Speaker 1: if you've got a question that you just don't know
31:42
Speaker 1: who else to ask, we got you covered, and certainly
31:45
Speaker 1: our research team definitely does if we don't know the answer.
31:47
Speaker 1: But this was a lot of fun talking about some
31:49
Speaker 1: of these deals. DV. Well, sure if talking about other
31:52
Speaker 1: people's money is fun. I mean, I can tell you this.
31:55
Speaker 1: My NFL network contract doesn't have any interesting incentives in
31:59
Speaker 1: it and no clauses that are surprising like this. Let's
32:03
Speaker 1: just say that I want the clause in my contract
32:05
Speaker 1: that's says if I show up smiling every day, I
32:07
Speaker 1: get a huge bonus for you. Isn't Well, we'll have
32:13
Speaker 1: some fun with that, um A. D D. Always great
32:15
Speaker 1: to be working with you and breaking down some of
32:17
Speaker 1: these numbers. Yeah, I can't wait until next week. All right, everybody,
32:20
Speaker 1: thank you as always for joining us. That is NFL
32:24
Speaker 1: Contracts explained brought to you by up work, where you
32:34
Speaker 1: can build the team that will build your business. Learn
32:36
Speaker 1: more at upwork dot com. Kindrel Designs builds, manages, and
32:40
Speaker 1: modernizes the mission critical technology systems that the world depends
32:44
Speaker 1: on every day. Working side by side with their customers,
32:47
Speaker 1: they imagine things differently by forging new strategic partnerships. They
32:51
Speaker 1: unlock new possibilities, creating a world power by healthy digital
32:54
Speaker 1: systems alive with opportunity, oxygen to innovation, and energy to
32:59
Speaker 1: change the world. Kindrel the heart of progress.