The Curse of a Salary-Cap-Eating Quarterback

Paying quarterbacks a hefty amount of money over the last few years of the NFL has been incredibly common. None of the five highest-paid quarterbacks in 2018 by average salary—Rodgers, Atlanta’s Matt Ryan, Minnesota’s Kirk Cousins, Garoppolo, and Detroit’s Matthew Stafford—made the playoffs. Only Cousins came close. New Orleans’s Drew Brees, Indianapolis’s Andrew Luck, and Seattle’s Russell Wilson each make over $20 million a year. Although what might be a small sample size since 2018, neither of those quarterbacks have appeared in a superbowl since then and Luck and Brees even retired. : The more you give to a quarterback, the less you give to everyone else. It’s pretty simple. This era of salary growth came after changes to the value of rookie contracts. In 2010, no. 1 overall draft pick Sam Bradford received about $50 million guaranteed. A year later, after the new collective bargaining agreement, no. 1 pick Cam Newton signed for $22 million guaranteed. The two highest-paid players on the Eagles’ Super Bowl winning team last year combined for 11.6 percent of the cap. The only team ever to win the Super Bowl while having its two highest-paid players make more than 21.6 percent of the salary cap is the 49ers in 1994 with Steve Young and Jerry Rice. Overall, paying your defense and offensive players money is more beneficial than paying almost half to a quarterback. 

Do Massive Quarterback Contracts Limit Teams in the Long Run?

Despite quarterbacks being so important in the modern game, there has been a thought culminating throughout the NFL that “market-rate contracts” for quarterbacks actively hurt their teams. The idea is that even though a quarterback is valuable, the contract tied to the signal-caller can hold back the team because they, theoretically, run out of money that should be allocated elsewhere. During the last nine years, there have been a good amount of quarterbacks to make the championship game on their rookie deal. Luck, Wilson, Kaepernick, Mahomes, Goff, Wentz, and Bortles all gave their team an advantage at the quarterback position in relation to what other quarterbacks were paid in the NFL. For these teams, that meant that the team could invest more money in the rest of the roster. There have only been a total of 12 instances of a quarterback’s salary cap hit exceeding 15% of the year’s salary cap in the last 10 years. It has been happening more recently, but it still doesn’t happen routinely. In 2023, Mahomes’ salary cap hit is $42.45 million. If we apply the general rule of championship quarterbacks not taking up more than 15% of the team’s cap, then the salary cap in 2023 would have to be at least $283 million for the Chiefs to have little issues. 

NFL: Who is the highest paid quarterback?

This article is quite a simple one. Although very useful to my research. It simply just lists the top ten highest paid quarterbacks in the NFL as of right now, 2022. The list looks pretty simple at first glance. However, one Deshaun Watson, who isn’t even playing in the league right now due to legal troubles, is the fourth highest paid QB in the league. Dak Prescott at number three, who has never been to an NFC title game. An aging Russel Wilson, and Aaron Rodgers headline five and six. Finally, Jared Goff, Kirk Cousins, and Carson Wentz appear towards the end of the top ten, and each of their teams missed the playoffs this year. Each making 30 million plus. 

Is Tom Brady the only QB that values winning over money?

For this source, I took an excerpt from “Leland Lundahl” who responded to the question “Is Tom Brady the only QB that values winning over money.” Brady has repeatedly taken pay cuts in his career most prevalent when on the New England Patriots. In 2017 he even asked for an extension of 5 years for 22 million dollars. This was way too low and the patriots had to decline. Brady has less career earnings than Matt Ryan and Aaron Rodgers who are even younger than him. And obviously Brady has a way better resume totaling seven career superbowl rings. Matt Ryan and Aaron Rodgers combine for one superbowl each and two superbowl appearances combined. 

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2347078-what-makes-seattles-legion-of-boom-so-great.&nbsp

This article touches on the dynasty of one of greatest defenses of all time. “The Legion on Boom.” They consisted of all pro corner Richard Sherman, all pro safeties Kam Chancellor and Earl Thomas, along with a lot of other solid players. Defenses are essential to a team’s success in the long run. They were able to win a superbowl in 2013. With a young Russel Wilson, and a stout defense they destroyed the Denver Broncos. Their unique scheme and defense carried their team to a Superbowl Victory. 

The Ideal Cap Hit For a Super Bowl QB is Lower Than You May Think

This article lists the ideal cap hit for a superbowl winning quarterback. The average cap number for title-winning signal-callers in that time is $9.81 million. In terms of share of the cap spent on a quarterback, 7.47 percent is the sweet spot across the past two decades, with just seven Super Bowl champions using at least 10 percent of their cap on the man under center. In other words teams made due with a reasonable deal for a quarterback and built a great team around him. Even super Bowl runners-up since 2001 have spent an average of 7.17 percent of their cap on the quarterback. So to get to the big game you must spend wisely on your quarterback. 

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/positional/

Spotrac simply lists the average salary cap hit for each position in the NFL. I used this information mostly in my definition argument. I based my average cap hit for each position mostly off this sight. I can even look up individual players from superbowl teams to see how much money they made in that season. Finally, it lists every team’s payroll for any season dating back to 2000. 

https://www.samford.edu/sports-analytics/fans/2019/The-Art-of-Positional-Spending-in-the-NFL.&nbsp

Samford was very useful for my definition argument as well. It gives analytics and stats about each and every position in the NFL. Based on regular season success, who was the worst with money, and who was the best. It lists every average salary for each position as well. Also helping me formulate my definition argument. It also mentions average payroll for Superbowl winning teams position players as well. So, I was able to figure which position was most important to least important. 

https://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2021/12/1/22811367/nfl-running-backs-contracts-injuries-christian-mccaffrey

This article by sb nation dives into the running back controversy in the NFL. Teams are quickly realizing that paying running backs nowadays is too risky and not smart. The position is injury riddled. Making for teams to waste money on players who won’t even play full seasons. Players such as Saquon Barkley, Christain McCaffrey, and Todd Gurley were all great running backs at one point but have struggled to stay on the field in their careers. Making it smarter for teams to invest their money elsewhere.

Working Hypothesis

1. Paying a quarterback a big amount of money is not beneficial to a team now and in the future. 
2. Paying Quarterback a large amount of money only makes for a downfall of a franchise. 

Other Topics 

• Ideal Payroll for an NFL team.
• Positional Spending.
• Taking Advantage of a young quarterback’s contract.

Current State

Currently, I am finishing my rebuttal argument. I feel pretty good where I stand as of right now, and I should have more sources to add on to my list.