Half a billion, and a stake in the Royals
Patrick Mahomes signed an eight-year extension worth $504.75 million with Kansas City this year. No NFL player had crossed the half-billion mark before him. The deal runs through 2033 at an average of $63.09 million a season, and it added $239.05 million on top of the ten-year, $450 million contract he agreed in 2020 at the age of 24.
Money on that scale reshapes a career away from the field. Mahomes used the earnings from the earlier deal to buy a minority stake in the Kansas City Royals, which makes him a part-owner of a baseball franchise while still taking snaps across town.
Josh Allen sits second on the all-time list with six years and $330 million from Buffalo in 2025, an average of $55 million. Dak Prescott’s four-year, $240 million agreement with Dallas in 2024 still carries a higher annual figure at $60 million, which shows how much a shorter term distorts the picture.
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The non-quarterback ceiling keeps moving
The more revealing shift has happened away from the quarterback position. Myles Garrett reset the market in 2025 at $40 million a year with Cleveland. Ja’Marr Chase edged past him weeks later at $40.25 million after Bengals general manager Duke Tobin had promised at the scouting combine that Chase would end up the highest-paid non-quarterback in the league.
Micah Parsons then landed four years and $186 million in Green Bay at $46.5 million a season, arriving after the Packers sent two first-round picks and Kenny Clark to Dallas for him.
Will Anderson broke it again in April 2026. Houston gave the defensive end three years and $150 million with $134 million guaranteed, an average of $50 million, off the back of an All-Pro season of 12 sacks, 20 tackles for loss and 23 quarterback hits. Four different players held the non-quarterback record inside roughly eighteen months.
Receivers catch up
Jaxon Smith-Njigba is the other marker worth tracking. Seattle extended him after their Super Bowl 60 win on four years and $168.6 million, with more than $120 million guaranteed, both records at the position. He had just been named Offensive Player of the Year with a league-leading 1,793 receiving yards and a second straight season above 100 receptions.
Trent Williams still holds the offensive line reference at $138.06 million, a number he signed at 32. Premium positions keep paying, and the list of men earning premium money keeps getting longer.
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