Brock Purdy (left) and Lamar Jackson.
Robin Alam/ISI Photos/Getty Images; G Fiume/Getty Images
The NFL season is down to four teams with the conference championships up next. The four teams have starting quarterbacks in vastly different tax brackets.Brock Purdy makes a lot less than the others but his salary gives his team a huge advantage.
Four teams are still vying for a chance to play in this year’s Super Bowl in Las Vegas. Despite all four starting quarterbacks helping to take their teams to the playoffs, there is a large divide among what they make, and that can be a huge advantage for NFL teams.
In the AFC Championship game on Sunday, the Baltimore Ravens and their starting quarterback, Lamar Jackson, will face the Kansas City Chiefs, led by Patrick Mahomes.
On the NFC side, the Detroit Lions and Jared Goff will take on the San Francisco 49ers and their starting quarterback, Brock Purdy.
While Mahomes and Jackson are considered two of the best players in the league, there is a huge difference in how much money they make before taxes.
According to Spotrac, an online professional sports resource that catalogs contracts and pay for players, Jackson earned $80 million this season between his salary and bonuses. Mahomes’ pay this season totaled $59.4 million.
Goff is a distant third at $26 million in salary and bonuses for the 2023 season. However, even he is miles ahead of the younger Purdy, who made $870,000, which ranked 75th among QBs this season, in a league with only 32 teams.
Brock Purdy.
AP Photo/Tony Avelar
While these numbers are for the regular season, all four players will earn playoff bonuses depending on how far they advance in the postseason. Unfortunately for Purdy, even his bonus is well behind some of the others.
Purdy would earn the standard $164,000 Super Bowl bonus all players would receive for winning the championship. Meanwhile, Goff would take in $945,000 and Mahomes would earn $1.3 million, additional bonuses that are written into their contracts.
Jackson does not appear to have a bonus tied to winning the Super Bowl but would get the standard $164,000, like Purdy.
While Purdy is still at least a year away from signing his first large contract and joining the tax bracket of the other championship quarterbacks, his salary is one of the greatest advantages any team can have in the NFL.
The perks of finding an inexpensive quarterback
With the NFL’s strict salary cap rules, finding a player with a relatively low salary able to play in the most important position is rare.
If a team can find a talented quarterback with a less expensive contract, they can spend more on other key positions that may help them advance throughout the season. This is a huge advantage compared to most other championship-caliber teams paying their quarterback tens of millions of dollars.
Other teams have successfully used this strategy to become Super Bowl contenders, including the 2013 Seattle Seahawks, which won the big game with second-year quarterback Russell Wilson.
Russell Wilson.
Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports
The easiest way to successfully use this strategy is to find a young quarterback in the NFL draft who can become a top player quickly. The league limits how much players can make in their first four years, so if a team does find one of these inexpensive quarterbacks, they only have a few years to take advantage before that player’s salary skyrockets.
This is especially true for the 49ers and Purdy, who is not only still in his third NFL season but was chosen by the team with the final pick of the 2022 NFL draft. His deal is even smaller than most young players.
Purdy’s first contract was for four years and a total of $3.7 million.
For comparison, Jackson is in his sixth season, signed a new contract before the 2023 season worth $260 million over five years, and came with a $72.5 million signing bonus. Mahomes, in his seventh season, is in the fourth year of a 10-year, $450 million contract.
Goff has one year left on the 4-year, $134 million extension originally signed with the Los Angeles Rams. He is in his eighth NFL season.
Unfortunately for Purdy, he also lives in the notoriously expensive city of San Francisco. To help stretch his money, he spent this season living with a roommate, teammate Nick Zakelj.