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With how much money the NFL makes, the NFL players are also taking advantage of the lucrative business. People will say that the quarterback position is the toughest to play in all sports. Well, they sure get paid like it is, because all five players on this list are quarterbacks.
In this article, we will discuss the five highest-paid players in the NFL going by APY. All of which come from the quarterback position. So, let’s dive in.
Jared Goff almost signed the same contract with the Lions as Tua Tagovailoa did later in the off-season. It was a four-year $212 million extension but Goff had more guaranteed money with $170. That broke the tie-breaker for the sake of this list.
Goff has had some good success throughout his NFL career. He of course was the number one overall pick by the Rams at one point. He ultimately led the Rams to a Super Bowl, but could not find a way to come away with a victory. He was then sent off to Detroit where he has had the most success on the field as a passer. The Lions team also made a leap in the 2023 season making it the NFC Championship game before losing to the San Francisco 49ers. Jared Goff earned every bit of that extension.
Trevor Lawrence checks into this list as the number four highest NFL player in the NFL. Before the start of the 2024 NFL season, Lawrence signed a five-year $275 million extension with the Jaguars.
Lawrence has had a roller-coaster ride type of career. He had a very tumultuous rookie season under the tutelage of Urban Meyer where Lawrence threw 12 touchdowns to 17 interceptions. The next season he bounced back with a Pro Bowl season throwing 25 touchdowns to just eight interceptions.
Trevor Lawrence went toe-to-toe with Patrick Mahomes in the playoffs that year thinking that would be a springboard to great success the rest of his career. Last season the Jaguars fell short of making the playoffs going 8-9. Lawrence still has a lot to prove as a player in the NFL. Now, he has all of the pressures of this huge contract. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.
Jordan Love of the Green Bay Packers checks in at number three on this list. Love is an interesting story as he didn’t start a game for the first three years of his career while he was backing up Aaron Rodgers. Love has a great first year as a starter leading the Packers to the NFC Divisional Round of the playoffs when a lot of people thought it would be a rebuilding year for the Pack.
Love led the league in touchdown passes in the 2023 season with 32, compared to just 11 interceptions. That was enough to show the Packers front office that it was time for a big extension. Love signed a four-year $220 million extension with $160,300,000 of it guaranteed. The Packers now look at Love as their franchise quarterback, like they did with Aaron Rodgers and before him, Brett Favre.
The Dak Prescott contract negotiation was one of the main talking points for the Dallas Cowboys during this past offseason. The Cowboys had a tough end of the season in 2023 after getting blown out by the Packers at home in the playoffs.
Once the season arrived Jerry Jones and the Cowboys were able to get the contract done and make Prescott the second highest-paid player in all of football. Prescott signed a four year $240 million extension with $231 million of it guaranteed.
After signing that contract Dak has a lot to prove in the playoffs. He has been a very good regular-season quarterback but has struggled to win the big game so far in his career. Some of that has been out of his control but he is not blameless in his 2-5 record in the playoffs. The hope is for Dak Prescott and the Cowboys to get to the Super Bowl sooner rather than later. That is something a Cowboys quarterback has not done since 1995.
Mr. Joe Burrow checks into this list as the number one highest paid players in the NFL. Burrow signed his massive extension in the 2023 season. It was a five-year extension worth $275 million with $219 million of it guaranteed.
That is a big extension for someone who has dealt with various injuries throughout his career. Burrow has had two season-ending injuries during his short career. In his rookie season he tore his ACL and then his 2023 season ended with having to have wrist surgery. But when Burrow is healthy and on top of his game, he is great. He was able to take down Patrick Mahomes in Arrowhead in the AFC Championship game in the 2021 season and make it to the Super Bowl. The Bengals lost that Super Bowl to the Rams and you know that still eats at Burrow to this day.
Let’s hope for Burrow’s sake and the Bengals, Burrow can stay healthy for the foreseeable future and lead the Bengals to the promised land.
Here are how the highest paid players in the league break down by position. As you can see from the table below, salaries vary wildly according to position, with quarterbacks ruling the roost and the specialist position of long snapper down at the bottom of the list. The success of the Kansas City Chiefs in recent years is reflected in the fact that they appear 4 times on this list for paying top dollar to different positional players. This is list is broken down per year, which is why Dak overtakes Joe on the QB ranking.
| Position | Name | Team | Salary AAY |
| Quarterback | Dak Prescott | Dallas Cowboys | $61.3 Million |
| Wide Receiver | Justin Jefferson | Minnesota Vikings | $35 Million |
| Edge Rusher | Nick Bosa | San Francisco 49ers | $34.7 Million |
| Defensive Tackle | Chris Jones | Kansas City Chiefs | $31.7 Million |
| Offensive Tackle | Penei Sewell | Detroit Lions | $30 Million |
| Corner Back | Jalen Ramsey | Miami Dolphins | $24.1 Million |
| Guard | Chris Lindstrom | Atlanta Falcons | $21.8 Million |
| Safety | Antoine Winfield Jr. | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | $21.5 Million |
| Off-ball Linebacker | Roquan Smith | Baltimore Ravens | $20 Million |
| Center | Creed Humphrey | Kansas City Chiefs | $18 Million |
| Running Back | Christian McCaffrey | San Francisco 49ers | $17.2 Million |
| Tight End | Travis Kelce | Kansas City Chiefs | $17.1 Million |
| Kicker | Harrison Butker | Kansas City Chiefs | $6.4 Million |
| Punter | Michael Dickson | Seattle Seahawks | $3.9 Million |
| Long-snapper | Luke Rhodes | Indianapolis Colts | $1.67 Million |
Dylan has had a love for sports since he was a kid. Four years ago, he decided to dive into the sports content-creating industry specializing in Fantasy Football, NFL and NBA. He has since had his work published on sites that include Fantasy Alarm, Fansided, and Fantasy Six Pack.