Tua Tagovailoa and Jordan Love became much wealthier individuals on Friday. The Miami Dolphins locked their quarterback to a four-year, $212.4 million deal, while Love and the Green Bay Packers agreed to a four-year, $220 million deal,
The quarterbacks have joined the short list of quarterbacks who are making $50 million annually. That list also includes Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow ($55 million), Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence ($55 million), Detroit’s Jared Goff ($53 million), L.A.’s Justin Herbert ($52 million), Baltimore’s Jamar Jackson ($52 million), and Philadelphia’s Jalen Hurts ($51 million).
Tagovailoa getting $167 million guaranteed makes him only the eighth quarterback ever to receive a guarantee over $160 million, joining Cleveland — Herbert ($218.7 million guaranteed), Burrow ($219.01 million guaranteed), Lawrence ($200 million guaranteed), Jackson ($185 million guaranteed), Hurts ($179.4 million guaranteed) and Goff ($170.6 million guaranteed).
Does having a well compensated quarterback equate to championships? Well, just one player inside the newly etched top 10 highest-paid quarterbacks in the league has hoisted a Lombardi Trophy — Patrick Mahomes, who is tied for 10th in average per year with new Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins. Here’s a rundown of the highest-paid signal-callers in the league and a comparative chart of how they stack up against one another on the field.
Note: APY denotes average per-year earnings (via Spotrac).
On top of Mahomes being the only quarterback within this top 11 to actually win a Super Bowl, just three others have been to the big game: Jared Goff, Jalen Hurts and Joe Burrow.
Still, this list does signal that quarterbacks are arguably overcompensated if the name of the game is to win at a high level in the playoffs. Only Mahomes and Burrow have playoff records above .500, and seven of the 11 — have records are below .500. In any event, if Tagovailoa and Love can lead their respective teams to a championship, no one will blink twice when hearing that they are among the highest-paid quarterbacks in the league.
