NFL’s top 10 highest-paid QBs of 2023: Comparing their records, playoff results, other production

Justin Herbert became the latest young quarterback to land a long-term contract this week, which means he also became the latest to claim the fleeting crown of highest-paid player in NFL history. Chargers fans are right to be elated, considering Herbert is now locked up through 2029. But with big money comes big expectations. Entering Year 4 in search of his first playoff victory, the freshly paid gunslinger is not so unlike Ravens QB Lamar Jackson in that his lofty earnings now demand lofty results.

Speaking of which, the top of the QB earnings chart is chock-full of veterans looking to live up to their salaries. More than any other position, QB is unsurprisingly bound to be overcompensated, with teams desperate to find and retain competence under center — or else risk a total reset. But a surface-level look at the track record of today’s top 10 highest-paid QBs just reiterates it:

Note: APY denotes average per-year earnings. Other statistics are career marks.

There are 11 QBs here, of course, not 10, but Prescott and Jones have the same average annual value, so we included both. Of the 11, only three (or 27%) have won a single Super Bowl, and only four (36%) have won a conference title. Yes, it’s hard to do those things, especially in a team sport with so many year-to-year variables. But the fact that a healthy majority of the NFL’s best-compensated QBs haven’t even tasted a Super Bowl speaks to the amount of value given to upside and future outlook.

Consider that only two of the QBs here are over 30. Those two — Aaron Rodgers (39) and Russell Wilson (34) — basically exist in a space of their own, owning 170+ starts and Super Bowl victories while looking to rejuvenate their careers on new (or relatively new) teams in 2023. Rodgers and Wilson have already established their legacies; the rest of the group, sans Patrick Mahomes, is very much still in the process of leaving a lasting imprint. It is proof that teams pay just as much for potential as production.

Of course, the list could change in a matter of one or two additional deals, namely involving the Bengals‘ Joe Burrow, who stands to match or exceed the APY of Herbert and boasts more of a Mahomes trajectory in terms of early postseason results. But right now, Mahomes is the obvious unicorn of the bunch, offering a Hall of Fame-caliber track record while remaining in his prime. The fact he leads almost all the basic categories — win percentage, playoff record, Super Bowl wins — is an almost painfully obvious reminder that, for as long as he’s his normal self, he’ll register as impossibly underpaid relative to his peers.