Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is the most valuable player in the NFL, as it relates to the value he brings to his team and the league. He generates a lot of interest. He makes football games more fun than they would otherwise be. The fact that he is humble enough not to let those things change him makes him appeal.
He’s worth at least $100 million a year in the NFL, without question.
By background, when his new APY of $45 million a year slips away from the highest-paid players, Mahomes isn’t complaining. He is glad that others are increasing.
“Good for football,” Mahomes told Jarrett Bell about USA Today after Packers quarterback Jordan Love reaches $55 million per year and Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa earns $53.1 million per year.
“It’s great for the quarterback position, but I think every position,” Mahomes told Bell. “I know every time a contract comes up, everybody’s looking at my APY . . . and everything like that. I’m doing pretty well, too. For me, it’s just about getting out there and trying to win football games, I’m trying to make money for my family at the end of the day. I feel like I’m doing a good job with that.”
So does he feel underpaid?
“There’s no need,” Mahomes said.
And there is a reason for that. As Bell says, we’ve shown that, as others have gotten higher and higher APYs, Mahomes has the highest four-year cash flow from 2023-26 and 2024-27.
“I think we’re doing a good job of managing my money, being able to pay me a lot and keep a good team around,” Mahomes said of the Chiefs. “I know we’ve restructured it a couple of times and made money flow in certain areas and certain years. It’s about having good communication, good communication with the front office, with the owners. .We’ve done that here. And because we’ve been able to be the best paid guy at the same time we’ve built a great team around me.”
That’s where the wage rate helps the owners to reduce their personal income. They are asking the media and fans to shame the players into taking the smaller ones by saying that it prevents the team from having enough big players.
This ignores two important points. One, the cap keeps going up and up. So there is always more money, for everyone. (The impending disappearance of $14.1 billion could change that, of course.) Second, each team can fill more than 10 percent of the annual roster with draft picks. highly restricted agreements.
During any four-year cycle, each team can select at least 28 players (more if they don’t sign free agents) who can keep the machine running without costing a lot of money , compared to the best players on the team. That’s what the Bengals would love to do with Joe Burrow. And it just might work.
Finding the best player takes a little bit and is the last step of the reward system. However, if/when a team has a great player who actually takes less, it’s worth watching to see if the team spends more, year after year. Whether it does everything in its power to add to the roster by keeping its impact players and rounding out the roster by luring free agents to town needs careful consideration. Otherwise, the best player or players on the team should get more.
And that’s why tying quarterbacks’ salary to a percentage of the salary cap continues to be the perfect way to ensure that quarterbacks are paid fairly, and that there’s enough money for everyone. . But teams continue to refuse, because the league tells them to. (Reunion, anyone?)
Why don’t you do it? Maybe all the noise about having more money for some players is just noise. Perhaps adding a franchise quarterback’s salary to a percentage will reveal that. Perhaps the truth is that the owners would like to find a way to have competitive teams while spending money closer to the minimum than the maximum, because every dollar saved on the players it’s actually a dollar earned.
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