Who are the top 10 highest paid NFL quarterbacks in 2022?

Paul HighamPaul Higham5 April 2022
The best paid quarterbacks in the NFL in 2022

The best paid quarterbacks in the NFL in 2022

Planet Sport looks at the highest wage earners at the quarterback position for the upcoming 2022 NFL season. Seven-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady misses the cut.

They're the ones with the ball in their hands the most, sell the most shirts and grab all the headlines, so it's natural that the NFL quarterbacks are the best paid players in the league.
It's probably the most important position in American sport with very few teams being able to win anything unless they have a franchise QB under centre.

As such, NFL teams are throwing money at their star quarterbacks if they're lucky enough to get one.

So we've taken a look at the highest earners in the upcoming 2022 NFL season - based on the annual average of their contracts on Overthecap.com.

Notable absentees from this list include seven-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady, who has always been more about winning rings than signing big contracts.

Brady will earn a mere $25million this coming season and throughout his career has regularly taken smaller contracts than he could have signed in order to help build a winning team.

The likes of Joe Burrow, Kyler Murray and Trevor Lawrence also don't make the list as they're still on the relatively low rookie deals.

Here's who does make Planet Sport's top QB earners of 2022 list though...

10. Washington Commanders QB: Carson Wentz ($32 million)

Carson Wentz's contract is a complicated one thanks to him being traded twice since signing a four-year deal worth $128m with the Eagles, before moving to the Colts and now the Commanders.
Wentz has been a bit of a question mark throughout his career, being an MVP candidate with the Eagles before being injured for the Super Bowl victory.
After joining the Colts, Wentz passed for 3,500 yards and 27 TDs with just seven interceptions in a fine statistical year, but he flopped in the crucial game as the Colts missed the playoffs.
Behind a superb offensive line and alongside the league's leading running back it was just not good enough - with Wentz now having to prove himself back in the NFC East where he gets to play the Eagles twice a season.

9. Detroit Lions QB: Jared Goff ($33.5 million)

Jared Goff Detroit Lions NFL

The Rams certainly got the better end of the Matthew Stafford trade as the Lions are left with a middling, yet very expensive QB in Jared Goff.

Goff did get to a Super Bowl with the Rams, but he's a limited passer with no real x-factor to make the big plays.
It's very much a year to prove himself for Detroit coming up.

7. Denver Broncos QB: Russell Wilson ($35 million)

NFL, Russell Wilson, Seattle Seahawks, QB

Russell Wilson was another big trade move in the offseason as he ended a decade in Seattle by joining the Denver Broncos, who took on the final two years of his $140m extension he signed with the Seahawks.

A new deal may be coming, but Denver seems in no rush and with the cash being splashed around there's little wonder.
Wilson has more wins in his first 10 NFL seasons than any other QB in history, and has two Super Bowl appearances with one win.

He could easily argue for being higher up this list considering what he's achieved already.

7. Minnesota Vikings QB: Kirk Cousins ($35 million)

Kirk Cousins is the master of guaranteed contracts as he's pocketed an incredible $161m over his 10 seasons in the NFL playing for Washington and now Minnesota.
That's a mind-boggling amount for a steady enough passer who, with a 59-59-2 regular season record has won exactly the same number of games as he's lost.
Cousins has played in only four playoff games, and won just the one, yet is the seventh-highest paid QB in the league.

5. Los Angeles Rams QB: Matthew Stafford ($40 million)

Matthew Stafford led his side on a game-winning drive in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl

Matthew Stafford joined the Los Angeles Rams with all kinds of pressure on his shoulders. He'd never won a playoff game but was always thought of as an elite talent on a bad Lions team.

And he responded in spectacular fashion, throwing the Rams to a Super Bowl victory in their own stadium and being immense down the stretch.
— NFL (@NFL) March 19, 2022

The Rams handed him a contract extension as a reward.

5. Dallas Cowboys QB: Dak Prescott ($40 million)

Speaking of pressure, the role of Dallas Cowboys quarterback is one of the biggest jobs in all of sport, and although Dak Prescott has done well at times he really needs to starting going deep in the playoffs.
Prescott is in the second year of a four-year, $160m deal in Dallas but all that money didn't help him when they lost to the 49ers in dramatic fashion.
Prescott rather fluffed his lines on the last play of the game, and anyone earning this type of money will always take the flak when that happens.

4. Buffalo Bills QB: Josh Allen ($43 million)

Josh Allen signed a six-year deal worth $258m, with $150m guaranteed with the Buffalo Bills, and showed in last year's playoffs exactly why they dished out all that cash.

Incentives could pump up Allen's earnings in the 2022 season to around the $48m mark and he just might meet them if he continues his upward trajectory.

Allen might just have the strongest arm in the league, it's a cannon, and he's definitely the most powerful quarterback runner - a giant of a man that storms through tacklers.

Allen really is box office viewing.

3. Kansas City Chiefs QB: Patrick Mahomes ($45 million)

Patrick Mahomes signed a monster contract worth $450m over 10 years and it kicks in this year as his salary cap number jumps from $7.4m to $36m.

The deal means the Chiefs locked down one of the most naturally gifted passers in the league. But it does swallow up a lot of cash - cash that perhaps could've been used to keep Tyreek Hill?

Kansas City will have to do plenty of creative accounting due to Mahomes' contract but he's proved his worth already with two Super Bowl appearances, one Lombardi Trophy, a host of QB records and a brilliant highlight reel.

2. Cleveland Browns QB: Deshaun Watson ($46 million)

Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson Dec20

One of the most controversial moves for some years saw Deshaun Watson traded from the Houston Texans to the Cleveland Browns - who broke the bank to hand him a record new deal.

This eye-watering amount of a $230m deal being fully guaranteed is a game-changer and has NFL owners and general managers shaking their heads in disbelief!

Watson's five-year deal will now be held up as the example for all big quarterback contract negotiations going forward.
What made it even more controversial is that Watson is still under investigation by the NFL while civil lawsuits surrounding allegations of sexual misconduct by 22 women continue.
The Browns have also tried to reduce any fine Watson may get by handing him a massive signing bonus and paying him a base salary of just $1m for 2022. That move also hasn't gone down too well.

1. Green Bay Packers QB: Aaron Rodgers ($50.3 million)

Aaron Rodgers signs a new $200million contract with the Green Bay Packers

Aaron Rodgers signs a new $200million contract with the Green Bay Packers

And top of the three is back-to-back league MVP Aaron Rodgers, who looked like he was leaving Green Bay in the summer of 2021 only to settle his feud with the Packers and sign a bumper new deal for 2022 and beyond.

As with a lot of NFL contracts it's quite a complicated formula, but if you break it down it's essentially a three-year deal worth just over $150m.
There's a $40m signing bonus and over $101m guaranteed - a figured dwarfed by Deshaun Watson's record contract and a reason for so much talk about what the Cleveland Browns have done to the market.
Rodgers has won one Super Bowl and desperately needs to get back to another to really cement his legacy, but that will be a bit more difficult after Davante Adams left Green Bay.
He's the top earner in the NFL, and the top dog in terms of MVP awards the last couple of years but has fallen at the final hurdle a few too many times - and time is running out for him to capture a second ring.
READ MORE: All the biggest free agency moves, trade deals and new contracts in the 2022 NFL offseason

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