Seven Quarterbacks Now Earning $40 Million+
April 13th, 2022
Eleven months from free agency.
Another quarterback entered the $40 million club today.
That’s Raiders QB Derek Carr, who inked a three-year extension for $121.5 million. He joins Dak Prescott, Matt Stafford, Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, Deshaun Watson and Aaron Rodgers in the $40 million bucket.
How many of them, if any, are as valuable as Tom Brady?
When Brady signed a contract extension with the Bucs last season, to play in 2022, he banked $44 million last year but he’s set to earn only a shade over $10 million this year as terms of the deal. So Joe will call it $55 million over two years.
That represents a ridiculous bargain and one likely far greater than any hometown discount Brady gave New England.
Now more than ever, Brady is a businessman as well as a football player. He’s got the TB12 supplement/fitness company, the Hollywood production outfit and a clothing line, in addition to diverse endorsements. So Joe thinks it’s unrealistic for any Bucs fan to think Brady isn’t enticed by money. Obviously, he cares a ton about money.
Three weeks ago, Joe asked Bucs general manager Jason Licht if he was willing to tell Bucs fans that the team will do whatever it can to keep Brady in 2023. For some very strange reason, Licht wouldn’t say he’ll try his best to make Brady a Buccaneer for life.
JoeBucsFan.com: Should fans assume that you’re doing everything you can to re-sign Tom Brady for next year and beyond, to give him a long-term contract?
Jason Licht: You know, we’re just happy that we have him back. We’ll see where it goes from here. We’re just happy that he’s going to be playing for us this year. We’ll see where it goes.
Licht previously said he wants Mike Evans to be a “Buc for life,” and Licht has said he can’t imagine a Bucs team without Chris Godwin, so Joe finds it odd that those words don’t fit in Licht’s mouth publicly for Brady.
Behind the scenes, Joe sure hopes the Bucs have a gargantuan contract on the table for Brady around the $50 million-per-year range. Anything less of an effort would be a true crime against Bucs fans and the Tampa Bay community.
A quarterback is so important that Bucco Bruce Arians claimed he didn’t want to retire if he had to leave Todd Bowles without Brady — despite a roster loaded with six current Pro Bowlers, plus former Pro Bowlers, an excellent coaching staff, a Super Bowl general manager and crappy division opponents. And Arians is lauded as a living legend by Licht and Team Glazer.
Wednesday Fresh! It’s The Ira Kaufman Podcast.
April 13th, 2022 at 11:16 am
Like the Bucs, or any team for that matter, can afford a salary of that magnitude.
Show me a team that has won the Superbowl AFTER paying their QB 20% of their entire Salary Cap allotment. It would be a very very short list of… zero teams
If you pay aaaaaaaaaaaany one guy THAT much, there is nothing left to build the remainder of the team. A terrible financial path to choose, and as of right now, a completely unsuccessful one.
April 13th, 2022 at 11:31 am
I agree with Crakerball, stats show that most SBs go to the team with rookies contract of QB.
April 13th, 2022 at 11:32 am
Aaron Rodgers has been holding GBs front office financially hostage the last few years
April 13th, 2022 at 11:36 am
Agree guys
But bills paid their qb and they are about to run the table
That team is stacked
Hope we see them in final
April 13th, 2022 at 11:39 am
@CrackerBall, I can count on one hand the number of teams that won the Super Bowl in the last 20 years without a HOF-caliber QB at the helm… that would be our very Buccaneers (Brad Johnson) in 2003, the Ravens (Joe Flacco) in 2013, and the Eagles (Nick Foles) in 2018 (yes, I’m calling Eli Manning and Russel Wilson HOFers). Only one team out of 32 NFL teams ends their season with a meaningful win, and it seems like too much of a coincidence that 18 out of the last 21 Super Bowl winners have had such a talent at QB. It’s win-now with TB12, and I think the best chance for that to happen is to entice him to play for us this year and beyond as much as possible, and to fill in the rest of the roster by extending our best talent (when possible), signing older free agents, signing one-year prove-it contracts with high upside, and, most significantly, hitting on cheap talent in the draft.
April 13th, 2022 at 11:42 am
Got to agree with Crackerball! Can you say CAP? I think it’s more important to Brady to be surrounded by a strong supporting cast than to make more money and have no chance of advancing to the playoffs. True, Rodgers has done it, but let’s see what he does this year without Davante Adams. Yes, Brady’s about the money, but he’s more about the winning, and you can’t give him the offensive firepower it takes to win with that kind of salary hit.
April 13th, 2022 at 11:46 am
@Mikejp… I think the statistics actually show the opposite, that the majority of past Super Bowl winners have QBs on their second or later contract!
April 13th, 2022 at 11:53 am
For “Life”
Is more than the $pirit of just saying
I suspect a “piece “ of the franchise is “
4life “
Similar to what he was ready to get with Miami!
That is what he wants and is what he will get.
April 13th, 2022 at 11:54 am
Remember now that Staffords Cap hit was only 20 mil and I believe it’s been lowered through contract finagling to below 15 in 2023 …….. That’s 25 to 35,000,000 for a couple studs, a stud and a couple good good players or a couple good players and three quality depth positions , so on and so forth !! Much easier to field a great team !! If his cap was 40 mil they don’t have Odel or V Miller ( who almost single handedly beat the Bucs )
April 13th, 2022 at 12:03 pm
the rams are buying everybody and kicking the can down the road
April 13th, 2022 at 12:08 pm
Are you talking about the tampering Miami Dolphins? Brady was not a free agent. You support that, do you?
April 13th, 2022 at 12:26 pm
I know Brady took all those PPP loans when Covid hit, so he probably does care a lot about every penny..
April 13th, 2022 at 12:28 pm
Brady is concerned with money just not salary income he wants business income and capital gains income. And partial ownership of large businesses. That’s why Miami was interesting to him a chance to own a 4-5B businesses even if it was 10% that’s 400-500m in value of more than Brady earned in his entire career
April 13th, 2022 at 12:28 pm
The bucs are in a lucky and unique position to have Brady and also ME13 as well as Godwin (injury) to not break the back and put team above all else; the NFL and the pay situation is really going to hurt the product in the future. The NFL and players association needs to get a hold of this or the individual teams; like the Bills window will be closed in 2 years when they no longer can sign anyone due to Allen and Diggs ridiculous contracts.
April 13th, 2022 at 12:31 pm
If he sells even 100,000 Brady brand shirt tops pants hats at 40-75/piece at 50-75% margin with shipping he’s making 20-30 a unit so 2-3 million just off plain cotton clothes with the word Brady on it. Haha
April 13th, 2022 at 12:37 pm
Something has to happen with these QB salaries……perhaps exempt the QB from the cap….but that would really punish teams with cheaper QBs or QBs on their rookie salary.
So..perhaps allow teams a $50 mil credit for QB & another player combined.
Or, you could simply just raise the cap…..but I’m not sure that works that well.
April 13th, 2022 at 12:58 pm
Joe can we do a poll about how many people on the BUCS web site want to hear from pat fan.
April 13th, 2022 at 1:17 pm
IF Brady continues after this year, He will be a dolphin for mega bucs the next…
April 13th, 2022 at 1:21 pm
TBBF, that’s not a bad idea and frankly is probably something the NFL is looking into.
That said, I’ll take a 45-year-old TB this year. Next year if you wants to start fresh with another team at 46, well good luck to him. No one can really doubt him at this point but he will age eventually. Just hopefully not this year.
April 13th, 2022 at 1:33 pm
Shady is going to Miami with Payton and a few other old saints
April 13th, 2022 at 1:47 pm
So if Brady is part owners of the dolphins, and than played QB for the dolphins, would he play for free to make more money for the owners, and therefore himself? Plus if he was owner, could he make life miserable for Goodell for revenge of deflategate? I think his real plan is to become a owner so he can trade himself to the 49ers so he gets to play where he really wants. The possibilities are endless. He sees Jerry Jones and Kraft having fun with the young girls and thinks maybe Gisele might be getting old and crabby? I should be a sportswriters. I can make up things as good as any of them.
April 13th, 2022 at 1:49 pm
It kills me that some of these guys get mega extensions and then their play falls off a cliff like Goff or Wentz.
They don’t do refunds.
April 13th, 2022 at 1:54 pm
Just imagine if Deshawn Watson gets suspended for a year.
His first few years is all bonus and little salary.
April 13th, 2022 at 2:13 pm
Cracker, Russell Wilson
April 13th, 2022 at 2:18 pm
Okay Joe… 50 million? Who do you wanna cut to get there? You can’t just make cap space out of thin air. They’ve already done a ton of restructuring. They have a number of players being paid well. If you wanna cut them and sign scrubs to replace them so you can pay Brady 50 million, well let’s just say I’m glad you’re not GM.
April 13th, 2022 at 2:25 pm
Jose Do we know how much the cap is increasing next year?
April 13th, 2022 at 2:41 pm
Two options for QB salaries:
1) No single player pay (including base, bonuses, incentives) can exceed 20% of the salary cap for a year.
2) A team’s largest QB salary does not count against the salary cap.
Teams forfeit their 1st rd puck and their salary cap is reduced the following year by the amount they exceeded the cap.
April 13th, 2022 at 2:43 pm
I want to see Brady go full anti-db12 & play for the vet minimum.
April 13th, 2022 at 2:43 pm
Brady doesn’t care about money. I would give him ownership instead. This way he will always be tied to the bucs.
April 13th, 2022 at 2:57 pm
I listened to Lichts interview and Joe is right. The way Licht answered the question about Brady sounded very ominous. It’s almost as if Brady had told him he will talk about it at the end of the season or Brady had told the Bucs he’s done in Tampa after this year. I hope that is not true but it sure didn’t sound like Licht normally does when he is trying to lock a guy up long term.
April 13th, 2022 at 3:07 pm
Aaron is a karen
Hates him some brady
Loves him some jamiey wameiy
The messiah cult lives
Aaron – whats ndog up too? You guys still playing hide the weeanie?
April 13th, 2022 at 3:08 pm
Sure, I’d like to have Brady next year & the year after and then on until he eventually retries….
But…..three years from him was great…..would have absolutely no hard feelings if he left next year.
The Bucs & Brady are both living on borrowed time.
April 13th, 2022 at 3:10 pm
Sign him to the richest contract in NFL history. He is the best player in the NFL.
April 13th, 2022 at 3:17 pm
I’m VERY VERY GRATEFUL that TB12 is here this season!!!!!!! Go BUCS!!!!
April 13th, 2022 at 3:34 pm
Didn’t anybody think about the Glazers in this scenario? What if they offered Brady a nice chunk of the Manchester United franchise. It’s worth even more than most NFL teams. It might improve the popularity of the Glazers in the UK. where they are looked on as interfering scheming foreigners.
April 13th, 2022 at 3:39 pm
It would also offer Brady a new challenge. Not that he could play there. Though I too am grateful as hell that the Bucs are finally having a moment. For a brief shining moment we have become the Camelot of football, just with King Tom instead of King Arthur.
April 13th, 2022 at 3:39 pm
The cap isn’t an issue, and hasn’t been since the late 90s. Teams that want the best players, spend. It’s quite simple. While it is true that Brady never accounted for more than 13 percent of the cap in NE, it almost never resulted in the Patriots spending more real dollars, to help the team. He gave them discount after discount. The Krafts believe it was business acumen that won them six rings. Turns out it wasn’t Bill, or smart business, but having the best QB in the history of football.
The cap only exists in the minds of the delusional. Tell me how the saints escaped from cap jail. Tell me how the Bills and Rams are seemingly paying everything to everyone. If you want to see a real cap, look at the NHL. They can’t create phoney years with incredible dollars, that a player will never see. Most of this money being thrown around the NFL is only on paper. Look at the guaranteed money, it’s all that really matters.
April 13th, 2022 at 3:55 pm
I think Brady made it clear to JL that he wanted to be a free agent next year. Probably also wants ownership in Miami. If he doesn’t wanna be with us, let him go. Let somebody else cripple their team with an extreme QB contract.
April 13th, 2022 at 3:58 pm
GOB. Nope. The cap is real. You can keep pushing the hit into the future, but there’s still a cap and it will bite you if you think you can just go out and buy any player you want… and it’s there to promote competitive balance.
April 13th, 2022 at 4:23 pm
Joe … ‘Behind the scenes, Joe sure hopes the Bucs have a gargantuan contract on the table for Brady around the $50 million-per-year range. Anything less of an effort would be a true crime against Bucs fans and the Tampa Bay community’.
Sorry Joe, but the ‘true crime’ is in thinking that Brady can be bought. He’s proven for over 20 years now that’s NOT the case. TB12 understands better than anyone what it takes to WIN THE WHOLE ENCHILADA. It takes a TEAM, and you can’t build that when you pay any 1 player on a team $50 mil of your salary CAP.
And obviously no one’s taken a look at where we sit TODAY in relation to our projected 2023 salary CAP (anticipated to be $218.2 mil). Bucs CURRENTLY have 41 players under contract for a total projected salary CAP status of $252.5 mil. That’s $35.3 mil OVER the projected CAP with only 41 players signed. And at least 13 of THOSE are relative unknowns who’ve never made our roster.
Bucs have mortgaged the future so badly that next year we’ve already got 4 players with CAP hits in excess of $20 mil each, and another 6 players with CAP hits between $10-$20 mil. That’s $184 mil all together for JUST our top 10 players. And BTW, that doesn’t figure in any Dead CAP money yet. So sure, go ahead and offer Tom Brady $50 mil next year … on top of the $24 mil he’ll already be making from us for not even playing (deferred compensation). THAT would be the real crime.
April 13th, 2022 at 4:49 pm
Sasquatch, the facts don’t support your argument. I love your opinions here, but you’re just wrong.
A team can mismanage the cap in near perpetuity. You would be correct if the cap were stagnant, or marginally increased every year. but we both know it ain’t. Phoney bologna deals, with massive cap hits at the end, almost never see the light of day. Restructuring and conversions into signing bonuses, are essentially a get out of cap jail free card. Even if a front office is so derelict that they get into cap trouble, it’s a two year reset at most. And, that would need to take monumentally bad accounting. Everyone that spends, needs to clean the books up eventually, but that has much much more to do with real dollars, instead of any mythical cap.
April 13th, 2022 at 5:00 pm
Brady doesn’t care about his salary he wants ownership!
April 13th, 2022 at 5:02 pm
Defense Rules, you’re assuming these deals don’t get renegotiated.
April 13th, 2022 at 5:15 pm
I predict that the salary cap games that NFL owners and GM’s play are over and you can thank Deshaun Watson’s $230,000,000 fully guaranteed contract, Aaron Rodger’s $150,000,000 fully guaranteed contract, and Tyreek Hill’s $50,000,000 fully guaranteed contract.
You can’t play the funny money shell game if the contract is fully guaranteed.
The players and their agents know that if NFL teams cut players that it doesn’t hurt them if contracts are fully guaranteed.
Wilson Alvarez made millions from the Tampa Bay Rays, never playing for them for years. Fully guaranteed contracts give the players all of the power.
The cap is going to become very significant from here on out because the NFL superstars and their agents will demand fully guaranteed contracts like Watson’s, Rodger’s and Hill’s.
April 13th, 2022 at 5:28 pm
What some are forgetting is this. You can not have any ownership interest in a Team, and be a player on that team too. It is considered a salary cap violation.
April 13th, 2022 at 5:34 pm
The cap isn’t a factor until it is……
Sort of like deficit spending……sooner or later you’ve got to go through the checkout line.
April 13th, 2022 at 6:04 pm
Well if all the stories coming out today are true… they’re gonna have to offer Brady some ownership and front office power to match what Miami was going to offer, if they wanna keep him in Tampa beyond this year.
April 13th, 2022 at 6:17 pm
GOB … Not really assuming anything at this point. Just telling you what our CURRENT salary CAP situation for 2023 is showing. Sooner or later the bill comes due. All teams are free to manipulate the salary CAP, but they can’t escape its’ eventual impact.
April 13th, 2022 at 6:58 pm
Derek Carr got $40m? LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!!!
That’s hilarious. The Raiders just sentenced themselves to 4-more seasons for being a .500 club, with a QB that will always lose games in big situations.
At least it shuts up the morons here who constantly talked about as if he’s a good QB.
April 13th, 2022 at 7:06 pm
Brady cares about rings. Full stop.
April 13th, 2022 at 7:10 pm
So now we’re hearing that TB was going to the Saints until Brees came back, so he settled for Tampa Bay and all he got out of it was another SB ring. How disappointed he must have been. Per Jeff Darlington.
April 13th, 2022 at 8:08 pm
I wonder if transferring a percentage of ownership counts against the cap?
April 13th, 2022 at 8:34 pm
gp Says:
April 13th, 2022 at 8:08 pm
That would be circumventing the cap and it would basically be cheating. You think owners wanna get into the game of having to fork over chunks of their team in order to keep franchise players? H3ll no.
Also, as fans, why would anyone be asking for this? These kind of monetary inducements, even if they were within the rules, would be anti-competitive and make the rich teams richer. The salary cap exists so that larger market teams or wealthier owners can’t just go out and buy championships. The NFL would absolutely suck without the salary cap.
April 13th, 2022 at 8:45 pm
Florio over at PFT went through the contract details and it averages $35 million per year, so Carr is not in the $40 million club.
April 13th, 2022 at 8:49 pm
The market for Jitttery G Garoppolo dried up completely.
April 13th, 2022 at 9:02 pm
How many combined super bowls between the 7?
April 13th, 2022 at 9:39 pm
Mike will no doubt retire as a Buc. And Lavonte David. Two of the most professional leaders in franchise history that have given so much back in the Tampa Bay community.
April 13th, 2022 at 10:29 pm
This is why the owners should now be financially motivated to start a QB development program out of high schools. College game is not NFL Football. Develop a QB through the program make available to draft and have a QB ready for NFL from day 1. Yes it’s a big financial investment but a hell of a lot cheaper than current QB contracts.
April 13th, 2022 at 10:49 pm
Easiest solution to this is to just cap the percentage that any player can take out of the total cap. 25% is too much. I’m thinking more like even more restrictive, say 10%. Screw these cap busting greedy a55h0les.
April 13th, 2022 at 11:50 pm
We got the goat, it’s now or never. Kick the can down the road.
April 14th, 2022 at 1:30 am
As someone mentioned earlier. NFL rules State. No one can have any part of ownership of an NFL team and play for that same team. So everyone needs to stop listening to take news about Brady going to Miami as a player/Owner.😂😂😂
April 14th, 2022 at 1:04 pm
NFL was already very top heavy, and it’s getting worse and worse. The top 10% make up a vast majority of the total cap in the league already. This is going to have to be reigned in somehow because we will have teams soon with $200 million QBs and every other position on the team making minimum salary.
April 14th, 2022 at 1:17 pm
And it’s becoming increasingly obvious he’s out of here next year. So better start moving Trask’s development along a bit quicker.
April 14th, 2022 at 3:57 pm
Bird huh good one you what you a woodpecker meet up with Nassib and y’all get to pecking lol
April 14th, 2022 at 8:06 pm
It makes no practical business sense for him to sign an extension. He’s such an outlier because of the high level he’s still playing at his age. We keep forgetting the man will be 45 in August! He has no idea how he will feel after the season. Also, the cliff comes fast. I still get stomach pains watching Marino in his last season with the Dolphins or even Manning’s last season. He also wants the flexibility to just walk away with no contractual obligations, and that’s not because he wants to play elsewhere. This season is absolutely it for him as a player. Think about it, you really think he wants to learn a new offensive system? Or deal with another coach? He might have other business endeavors related to the NFL, but not as a player. The plan was always a two year deal, and then a year to year thing. He only signed that extension to help the team cap wise.
In regards to the whole Dolphins situation, you really need to talk it through to see if it really makes any sense, not just on Brady’s part, but the Dolphins. First of all, Mike McDaniels runs a run heavy variation of the West Coast offense. It requires the QB to be a little mobile because they incorporate boots and different RPOs. That’s why the 49ers drafted Lance and why Brady to the 49ers was nonsensical. Second, no way a new coach wants to cater his offense to a 46 yr old QB, regardless if it’s the GOAT. He wants to pave his own way. Finally, No way Brady wants to play for another coach, especially one young enough to be his son.