FanPost

What is a Quarterback Worth?

What’s a quarterback worth?

It seems like we need a place to talk about this. One discussion that keeps coming up is how much the Bears should pay for Jay Cutler, and while I am probably in the pro-Cutler camp (I like McCown, too, though, and would love it if we could somehow keep both of them), I think it’s worth having a general discussion about what a QB is worth, these days. Since McCown is going to hit free agency, anyway, we are in the market for a quarterback one way or another. How much should the Bears expect to pay?

Using mostly numbers from Over The Cap, I went through at looked at the average salaries for ‘starting’ quarterbacks in the NFL. Feel free to disagree with my methodology, but I made my best guesses. For example, I disregarded Mark Sanchez’s terrible deal and used Geno Smith’s salary instead (more than a $12,000,000 difference), but I did plug in Kolb instead of Manuel for the Bills (a roughly $800,000 difference).

Quarterback

Team

Average per year

Guaranteed

Aaron Rodgers

Packers

$22,000,000

49.10%

Matt Ryan

Falcons

$20,750,000

40.50%

Joe Flacco

Ravens

$20,100,000

24.00%

Drew Brees

Saints

$20,000,000

40.00%

Peyton Manning

Broncos

$19,200,000

18.80%

Tony Romo

Cowboys

$18,000,000

37.00%

Matt Stafford

Lions

$17,666,667

78.30%

Eli Manning

Giants

$16,250,000

35.90%

Matt Schaub

Texans

$15,500,000

47.00%

Philip Rivers

Chargers

$15,300,000

41.60%

Jay Cutler

Bears

$14,668,750

68.20%

Ben Roethlisberger

Steelers

$14,664,417

37.70%

Sam Bradford

Rams

$13,000,000

64.10%

Tom Brady

Patriots

$11,400,000

57.90%

Alex Smith

Chiefs

$9,258,333

32.40%

Carson Palmer

Cardinals

$8,000,000

62.50%

Michael Vick

Eagles

$7,500,000

46.70%

Andrew Luck

Colts

$5,527,000

100.00%

Cam Newton

Panthers

$5,506,375

100.00%

Robert Griffin III

Redskins

$5,279,775

100.00%

Matt Cassel

Vikings

$3,700,000

27.00%

Chad Henne

Jaguars

$3,375,000

44.40%

Ryan Fitzpatrick

Titans

$3,250,000

26.90%

Ryan Tannehill

Dolphins

$3,167,128

100.00%

Kevin Kolb

Bills

$3,050,000

16.40%

Jason Campbell

Browns

$1,875,000

13.30%

Andy Dalton

Bengals

$1,303,550

77.30%

Colin Kaepernick

49ers

$1,281,074

74.20%

Geno Smith

Jets

$1,254,901

61.10%

Dan Orlovsky

Buccaneers

$905,000

40.30%

Russell Wilson

Seahawks

$749,193

?

Tyrell Pryor

Raiders

$686,517

?

Average

$9,505,271

Adding everyone from Tyrell Pryor (Aaron Rodgers ($22,000,000/year), the average starter is making about $9.5 million per year. About half of that looks to be guaranteed. Obviously, the rookie salary system is a big part of keeping that number so low, and there are some amazing bargains to be had. Russell Wilson is worth about $750,000 (less than $32,000 per touchdown, if he stops right now). A number of very good posts have already explained the hit-or-miss nature of relying on the draft, but it would be an option.

So, what is a quarterback worth?


This Fanpost was written by a Windy City Gridiron member and does not necessarily reflect the ideas or opinions of its staff or community.