With the explosion in the NFL's popularity over the last couple decades, we've seen the value of the league's media rights (i.e. television and streaming deals) explode exponentially. Proportionally, we've seen a meteoric rise in player salaries. Even rookies drafted in the seventh and final round of the draft get four year deals that top out at over $4 million for the life of the deal.
It's great to see everybody across the NFL's player spectrum benefitting and making life changing money from choosing such a brutal vocation. At the opposite end of the spectrum from the seventh round rookies are the established veterans, playing premium positions, with most of them being quarterbacks. The going rate for a starting NFL quarterback these days is around $60 million per year at the top of the market.
It's hit or miss as to whether those quarterbacks are worth that money. Some are, some definitely are not, and then there is this middle layer of talented quarterbacks, who seemingly always get paid, while accomplishing very little. This class of quarterback fools people into thinking they COULD be elite, but just never get there.
One of the patron saints of this class of quarterback retired this past weekend, with Saints signal caller Derek Carr calling it quits with a right shoulder injury. WIth nearly $200 million in career earnings and no playoff wins in his career, Carr is one of the ultimate salary bandits in the NFL. There are others, too. Let's highlight the best of the best, when it comes to duping teams into paying them obscene sums of cash.
Without further ado, here are the four faces on the NFL's Mount Rushmore of "bag getters," guys who made obscene amounts of money, with multiple teams, over several years, while ultimately accomplishing very little. Salary numbers are courtesy of Spotrac:
KIRK COUSINS, QB ($294.19 million total career earnings)
Vikings: $185.03 million
Falcons: $62.52 million
Redskins: $46.64 millionNobody has played the business side of football better than Cousins. After getting drafted in the fourth round of the 2012 draft by the Redskins, Cousins took over the starting job from fellow 2012 draftee Robert Griffin III in 2013, and never looked back. After getting paid on two franchise tags in Washington, Cousins signed a fully guaranteed $90 million deal with the Vikings in 2018. After tearing his Achilles in 2023, Atlanta still gave him a four year, $180 million deal in free agency last year. Cousins has a pedestrian career record of 83-74-1, with a 1-4 record in the postseason.
DEREK CARR, QB ($195.67 million total career earnings)
Raiders: $135.67 million
Saints: $60.00 millionAs mentioned above, Carr called it quits this past weekend. Carr's legacy might look much different if he had stayed healthy at the end of 2016, when he led the Raiders to a 12-4 record and finished third in the MVP voting. Instead, Carr would go on to lead the Raiders to just one playoff game after that, a loss to the Bengals in 2021, in which Carr had a 53.7 percent completion rate. $200 million from two teams, for zero playoff wins. Wow.
DESHAUN WATSON, QB ($188.78 million total career earnings)
Browns: $137.38 million
Texans: $51.40 million
Watson's journey is really a tale of two chapters. In Houston, Watson as a rising star, with three Pro Bowls and a passer rating of 104.5. Following 2020, though, he requested a trade after leading the league in passing yards on a 4-12 disaster of a team. We all know what happened after that — a couple dozen lawsuits, a year in purgatory, and then a trade to Cleveland, with which the Browns tore up Watson's old deal with the Texans and gave him a fully guaranteed $230 million contract that still has $92 million left on it. In Cleveland, Watson has started just 19 games in three years (9-10 record), with an 80.7 passer rating, and a twice torn Achilles tendon. Watson may have taken his last snap in the NFL. Watson has one playoff win in his career, a 2019 postseason win over the Bills.
SAM BRADFORD, QB ($130.02 million total career earnings)
Rams: $65.06 million
Vikings: $25.03 million
Eagles: $24.00 million
Cardinals: $15.93 million
Bradford was drafted first overall in the 201 NFL Draft, the final draft before the league instituted a rookie wage scale, so Bradford got paid big money right out of the gates. Over the course of his career, with four different teams, Bradford was hailed as a savior multiple times, but ultimately, amidst several injury-marred seasons, he complied just a 34-48-1 with exactly zero postseason appearances.
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