You can’t win the Super Bowl without an elite QB (unless you have an elite defense).
So recently teams have been paying elite QBs insane piles of money.
The on-paper value of Patrick Mahomes’ contract is $450 million. That is about the same amount that Drew Brees and Alex Smith earned combined during their entire careers.
This study will look at career quarterback earnings as available on Sportrac.com.
The big caveat is that this is NOT era adjusted, so John Elway’s or Dan Marino’s earnings are not in “today’s dollars.”
The table below is sorted by dollars earned per start. Chase Daniel is in a class by himself having only started five games in his NFL career (and having only won two). His $7.6 million per start is crazy even by today’s standards of outrageous QB salaries in the NFL.
Top 100 career earners at QB shown:
| Rank | PLAYER | SEASONS | EARNINGS | Career Starts | Dollars per start | Career Wins | Dollars per win |
| 1 | Chase Daniel | 12 | $37,809,164 | 5 | $7,561,833 | 2 | $18,904,582 |
| 2 | Jimmy Garoppolo | 7 | $88,758,637 | 32 | $2,773,707 | 24 | $3,698,277 |
| 3 | Joe Burrow | 1 | $24,415,978 | 10 | $2,441,598 | 2 | $12,207,989 |
| 4 | Drew Stanton | 14 | $31,951,719 | 17 | $1,879,513 | 11 | $2,904,702 |
| 5 | JaMarcus Russell | 4 | $39,365,000 | 25 | $1,574,600 | 7 | $5,623,571 |
| 6 | Sam Bradford | 9 | $130,022,863 | 83 | $1,566,541 | 34 | $3,824,202 |
| 7 | Kevin Kolb | 7 | $29,003,708 | 21 | $1,381,129 | 9 | $3,222,634 |
| 8 | Brock Osweiler | 7 | $41,396,679 | 30 | $1,379,889 | 15 | $2,759,779 |
| 9 | Matthew Stafford | 12 | $226,478,969 | 165 | $1,372,600 | 74 | $3,060,527 |
| 10 | Nick Foles | 9 | $74,433,635 | 55 | $1,353,339 | 28 | $2,658,344 |
| 11 | Kirk Cousins | 9 | $140,640,630 | 104 | $1,352,314 | 51 | $2,757,659 |
| 12 | Andrew Luck | 8 | $109,107,998 | 86 | $1,268,698 | 53 | $2,058,641 |
| 13 | Aaron Rodgers | 16 | $240,914,529 | 190 | $1,267,971 | 126 | $1,912,020 |
| 14 | Matt Ryan | 13 | $243,972,535 | 205 | $1,190,110 | 113 | $2,159,049 |
| 15 | Jared Goff | 5 | $80,720,672 | 69 | $1,169,865 | 42 | $1,921,921 |
| 16 | Carson Wentz | 5 | $79,059,339 | 68 | $1,162,637 | 35 | $2,258,838 |
| 17 | Tyrod Taylor | 10 | $54,301,548 | 47 | $1,155,352 | 24 | $2,262,565 |
| 18 | Alex Smith | 16 | $189,725,000 | 167 | $1,136,078 | 99 | $1,916,414 |
| 19 | Mike Glennon | 8 | $30,474,126 | 27 | $1,128,671 | 6 | $5,079,021 |
| 20 | Russell Wilson | 9 | $162,362,520 | 144 | $1,127,518 | 98 | $1,656,760 |
| 21 | Ben Roethlisberger | 17 | $253,286,864 | 231 | $1,096,480 | 156 | $1,623,634 |
| 22 | Eli Manning | 16 | $252,280,004 | 234 | $1,078,120 | 117 | $2,156,239 |
| 23 | Jacoby Brissett | 5 | $33,230,075 | 32 | $1,038,440 | 12 | $2,769,173 |
| 24 | Mark Sanchez | 10 | $74,223,773 | 73 | $1,016,764 | 37 | $2,006,048 |
| 25 | Philip Rivers | 17 | $243,917,656 | 240 | $1,016,324 | 134 | $1,820,281 |
| 26 | Matt Schaub | 17 | $94,351,582 | 93 | $1,014,533 | 47 | $2,007,480 |
| 27 | Ryan Tannehill | 9 | $115,475,979 | 114 | $1,012,947 | 60 | $1,924,600 |
| 28 | Michael Vick | 13 | $115,952,908 | 115 | $1,008,286 | 61 | $1,900,867 |
| 29 | Tony Romo | 14 | $127,422,458 | 127 | $1,003,326 | 78 | $1,633,621 |
| 30 | Carson Palmer | 15 | $174,148,722 | 181 | $962,148 | 92 | $1,892,921 |
| 31 | Joe Flacco | 13 | $167,575,000 | 175 | $957,571 | 98 | $1,709,949 |
| 32 | Drew Brees | 20 | $269,710,422 | 286 | $943,043 | 172 | $1,568,084 |
| 33 | Peyton Manning | 18 | $248,732,000 | 265 | $938,611 | 186 | $1,337,269 |
| 34 | Cam Newton | 10 | $125,349,771 | 139 | $901,797 | 75 | $1,671,330 |
| 35 | Teddy Bridgewater | 7 | $44,053,408 | 49 | $899,049 | 26 | $1,694,362 |
| 36 | Marcus Mariota | 6 | $54,286,134 | 61 | $889,937 | 29 | $1,871,936 |
| 37 | Tom Brady | 21 | $263,541,804 | 299 | $881,411 | 230 | $1,145,834 |
| 38 | Matt Moore | 13 | $27,519,500 | 32 | $859,984 | 16 | $1,719,969 |
| 39 | Derek Carr | 7 | $91,010,601 | 110 | $827,369 | 47 | $1,936,396 |
| 40 | Kyler Murray | 2 | $26,302,414 | 32 | $821,950 | 13 | $2,023,263 |
| 41 | Matt Cassel | 14 | $65,494,057 | 81 | $808,569 | 36 | $1,819,279 |
| 42 | Jay Cutler | 12 | $122,196,087 | 153 | $798,667 | 74 | $1,651,298 |
| 43 | Robert Griffin III | 8 | $33,222,399 | 42 | $791,010 | 16 | $2,076,400 |
| 44 | Deshaun Watson | 4 | $40,792,361 | 53 | $769,667 | 28 | $1,456,870 |
| 45 | Brian Hoyer | 12 | $29,881,470 | 39 | $766,192 | 16 | $1,867,592 |
| 46 | Colin Kaepernick | 6 | $43,479,216 | 58 | $749,642 | 28 | $1,552,829 |
| 47 | Shaun Hill | 14 | $25,779,225 | 35 | $736,549 | 17 | $1,516,425 |
| 48 | Vince Young | 7 | $35,390,000 | 50 | $707,800 | 31 | $1,141,613 |
| 49 | Josh McCown | 18 | $52,302,471 | 76 | $688,190 | 23 | $2,274,020 |
| 50 | Derek Anderson | 15 | $33,374,303 | 49 | $681,108 | 20 | $1,668,715 |
| 51 | Sam Darnold | 3 | $25,733,023 | 38 | $677,185 | 13 | $1,979,463 |
| 52 | Jameis Winston | 6 | $47,280,894 | 70 | $675,441 | 28 | $1,688,603 |
| 53 | Jake Delhomme | 14 | $63,474,061 | 96 | $661,188 | 56 | $1,133,465 |
| 54 | Chad Henne | 13 | $35,330,135 | 54 | $654,262 | 18 | $1,962,785 |
| 55 | Blake Bortles | 7 | $47,497,154 | 73 | $650,646 | 24 | $1,979,048 |
| 56 | Chad Pennington | 10 | $50,966,000 | 81 | $629,210 | 44 | $1,158,318 |
| 57 | Baker Mayfield | 3 | $27,867,591 | 45 | $619,280 | 23 | $1,211,634 |
| 58 | Donovan McNabb | 13 | $99,689,735 | 161 | $619,191 | 98 | $1,017,242 |
| 59 | Case Keenum | 9 | $38,181,151 | 62 | $615,825 | 27 | $1,414,117 |
| 60 | Andy Dalton | 10 | $86,526,241 | 142 | $609,340 | 74 | $1,169,274 |
| 61 | Marc Bulger | 10 | $55,391,000 | 95 | $583,063 | 41 | $1,351,000 |
| 62 | Mitchell Trubisky | 4 | $29,149,677 | 50 | $582,994 | 29 | $1,005,161 |
| 63 | Matt Hasselbeck | 18 | $88,044,500 | 160 | $550,278 | 85 | $1,035,818 |
| 64 | Byron Leftwich | 10 | $27,212,000 | 50 | $544,240 | 24 | $1,133,833 |
| 65 | Kurt Warner | 12 | $62,773,000 | 116 | $541,147 | 67 | $936,910 |
| 66 | Patrick Mahomes | 4 | $24,545,931 | 46 | $533,607 | 38 | $645,946 |
| 67 | Dak Prescott | 5 | $36,312,172 | 69 | $526,263 | 42 | $864,576 |
| 68 | David Carr | 12 | $40,000,000 | 79 | $506,329 | 23 | $1,739,130 |
| 69 | Steve McNair | 13 | $76,234,917 | 153 | $498,267 | 91 | $837,746 |
| 70 | Ryan Fitzpatrick | 16 | $71,541,098 | 146 | $490,008 | 59 | $1,212,561 |
| 71 | Josh Freeman | 7 | $28,328,824 | 61 | $464,407 | 25 | $1,133,153 |
| 72 | Brett Favre | 20 | $137,829,000 | 298 | $462,513 | 186 | $741,016 |
| 73 | Jake Plummer | 11 | $58,777,775 | 136 | $432,190 | 69 | $851,852 |
| 74 | Brad Johnson | 17 | $53,120,500 | 125 | $424,964 | 72 | $737,785 |
| 75 | Drew Bledsoe | 14 | $80,056,250 | 193 | $414,799 | 98 | $816,901 |
| 76 | Joey Harrington | 8 | $31,195,000 | 76 | $410,461 | 26 | $1,199,808 |
| 77 | David Garrard | 11 | $28,684,000 | 76 | $377,421 | 39 | $735,487 |
| 78 | Kyle Orton | 10 | $30,109,000 | 82 | $367,183 | 42 | $716,881 |
| 79 | Kerry Collins | 17 | $63,748,000 | 180 | $354,156 | 81 | $787,012 |
| 80 | Daunte Culpepper | 11 | $34,990,000 | 100 | $349,900 | 41 | $853,415 |
| 81 | Steve Young | 15 | $49,372,000 | 143 | $345,259 | 94 | $525,234 |
| 82 | Troy Aikman | 12 | $55,537,000 | 165 | $336,588 | 94 | $590,819 |
| 83 | Kordell Stewart | 11 | $28,105,000 | 87 | $323,046 | 48 | $585,521 |
| 84 | Jeff Garcia | 10 | $36,637,500 | 116 | $315,841 | 58 | $631,681 |
| 85 | Jason Campbell | 10 | $24,454,500 | 79 | $309,551 | 32 | $764,203 |
| 86 | Neil O’Donnell | 14 | $30,540,000 | 100 | $305,400 | 55 | $555,273 |
| 87 | Rich Gannon | 17 | $36,463,000 | 132 | $276,235 | 76 | $479,776 |
| 88 | Jeff George | 14 | $34,180,764 | 124 | $275,651 | 46 | $743,060 |
| 89 | Jeff Blake | 12 | $27,026,000 | 100 | $270,260 | 39 | $692,974 |
| 90 | Jon Kitna | 16 | $32,755,600 | 124 | $264,158 | 50 | $655,112 |
| 91 | Trent Dilfer | 14 | $27,050,000 | 113 | $239,381 | 58 | $466,379 |
| 92 | Vinny Testaverde | 21 | $51,055,585 | 214 | $238,578 | 90 | $567,284 |
| 93 | Randall Cunningham | 16 | $30,380,000 | 135 | $225,037 | 82 | $370,488 |
| 94 | Chris Chandler | 11 | $33,060,000 | 152 | $217,500 | 67 | $493,433 |
| 95 | Dan Marino | 17 | $51,510,000 | 240 | $214,625 | 147 | $350,408 |
| 96 | John Elway | 16 | $45,445,000 | 231 | $196,732 | 148 | $307,061 |
| 97 | Warren Moon | 17 | $37,143,000 | 203 | $182,970 | 102 | $364,147 |
| 98 | Jim Kelly | 11 | $28,715,000 | 160 | $179,469 | 101 | $284,307 |
| 99 | Joe Montana | 14 | $25,555,000 | 164 | $155,823 | 117 | $218,419 |
| 100 | Boomer Esiason | 14 | $25,145,000 | 173 | $145,347 | 80 | $314,313 |
By career earnings, Brees currently is No. 1, but he will be surpassed in the coming season by the zombie known as Tom Brady.
John Elway earned roughly 45 million during his 16 NFL seasons. Patrick Mahomes was scheduled to earn that in one season prior to his recent contract restructure. Fifteen quarterbacks next season will make more than Hall-of-Famer Joe Montana made during his entire career.
Keep in mind that the table above is only their salaries as NFL players and does not include endorsement earnings.
If you sort the table above by dollars per win, you find that only two players have earned more than $10 million per win – Chase Daniels and Joe Burrow. Of course Burrow will bring that number down soon, unless the Bengals continue to bungle. We should also note that from a dollars-per-win number, Mahomes appears to be a bargain since the vast majority of his wins were accumulated while he was still on his relatively cheap rookie contract.
There are seven former Broncos QBs who appear in the list, which was originally just the list of the top 100 earning QBs of all-time. Brock Osweiler, Joe Flacco, Peyton Manning, Case Keenum, Jake Plummer, Kyle Orton and John Elway.
To bring this back to us everyday mortals working 9-to-5 jobs, only 8% of all U.S. households earned more than $150,000 per year in 2020. That is about how much the LOWEST guy on this table earned PER START during his NFL career.
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Are NFL quarterbacks worth what they are paid?
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yes, mostly
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I don’t know – I need more information
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no, and get off my lawn you whippersnapper!
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