What’s an NFL offseason without teams locking up their “franchise quarterback” for the foreseeable future and breaking the bank? Friday was a big day across the league, seeing two quarterbacks from the 2020 NFL Draft get their massive pay days after months of speculation.
Earlier in the day, it started with Miami Dolphins star signal caller Tua Tagovailoa . The former Alabama standout signed a new four-year, $212.4 million contract. That included $167 million guaranteed, making this the largest four-year contract extension in NFL history at the time.
That contract comes off of Tagovailoa’s first fully healthy season of his career so far. When healthy, he has been very productive for the Dolphins. Over the last two years, he has thrown for 8,172 yards and 54 touchdowns. Tagovailoa led the NFL in passer rating (105.5) and yards per attempt (8.9) in 2022, while leading the league with 4,624 passing yards this past season.
After that Tagovailoa contract was announced, it didn’t take long for the new deal with Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love to also get announced. That deal was to the tune of four years and $220 million. Love’s new guaranteed money on the deal was $155 million. That included a $75 million signing bonus, an NFL record.
The new contract for Love is an interesting one, especially with the former Utah State signal caller coming off just his first year as a starter for the Packers in 2023. Love was tremendous during that first year, especially down the stretch. On the season, he threw for 4,159 and 32 touchdowns, as well as four more scores on the ground. Love helped to lead the team to a playoff berth, and first round 48-32 victory over the Dallas Cowboys.
With both Tagovailoa and Love getting paid, that now makes five different quarterbacks from that 2020 NFL Draft who have gotten second contracts north of 200 million dollars in value. Along with Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow (5 years, $275 million), Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert (5 years, $262.5 million) and Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts (5 years, $255 million), those five talented signal callers are set to potentially make close to $1.25 billion off of their new deals.
The NFL Draft is largely known as a crapshoot, throwing darts at a dartboard and hoping things work out. That’s especially true at the quarterback position, especially with situations mattering at such a high level. Just look at the 2021 NFL Draft, which was viewed as a potentially tremendous crop of signal callers at the time. Trevor Lawrence was able to earn a big contract but Zach Wilson, Trey Lance, Justin Fields, and Mac Jones were also drafted in the top 15 selections, but are all already on their second teams.
For the 2020 quarterback class, it has defied the odds and produced five legitimate franchise-level quarterbacks, at least for the time being. That’s a rare thing. You are looking at the highest-earning quarterback class of all time.
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