The Miami Dolphins made headlines on July 26, 2024, by extending their franchise quarterback Tua Tagovailoa to a four-year, $212.4 million extension that includes $167.1 million guaranteed. The news was trumped a few hours later when Jordan Love signed a deal with the Green Bay Packers that, once again, reset the quarterback market.
Love signed a four-year deal worth up to $220 million, which ties Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow and Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence as the highest-paid quarterback in the NFL in terms of annual value (AAV) at $55 million.
As for Tua, his $53.1 million AAV comes in at fourth overall behind that trio of signal-callers.
Tua and Love’s new contracts have created ripple effects across the league and should continue to do so. Who are the biggest winners and losers from these new deals?
The Fallout From the Tua Tagovalioa and Jordan Love Contract Extensions
Winner | Tua Tagovailoa
Let’s start with an easy one. Signing a $200+ million contract would make anyone’s day quite a bit better, so Tagovailoa had to be riding high that afternoon.
But Tua’s new deal has to be all the more sweet, given what he’s experienced throughout his NFL tenure.
The highest-paid QBs in the #NFL after Tua Tagovailoa's massive contract extension. 💰#GoFins pic.twitter.com/xNaiUWPpgK
— Pro Football Network (@PFN365) July 26, 2024
While his early-career struggles were one thing, Tagovailoa’s 2022 concussion issues were downright scary and had the Alabama product contemplating retirement.
Two years later, Tua is fresh off leading the NFL in passing yards (4,624) and has a hefty new contract in place. Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle give Tagovailoa one of the league’s best WR duo, while Mike McDaniel is among the NFL’s top offensive schemers.
Life is good for Tua.
Winner | Jordan Love
After Tua and the Dolphins got their deal done, Love became the big winner later that day after agreeing to his record extension just a few hours later.
Love had been staging a hold-in at Packers training camp, waiting out the storm until his seemingly imminent extension was complete — which it now is.
Coming into the 2023 season with just one pro start in relief of former starter Aaron Rodgers, Love finished second in the NFL in touchdown passes (32), fifth in passing efficiency, and ninth in QBR while leading Green Bay to nine regular-season wins and a Wild Card rout of the Cowboys.
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Now, Love has exceeded Tua’s contract shortly after the ink dried, and tied Burrow and Lawrence at $55 million annually.
Winners | Miami Dolphins and Green Bay Packers
Gaining cost certainty at the NFL’s most important position is crucial, so the Dolphins and Packers are also Friday winners.
Debates about the specifics of quarterback salaries are almost irrelevant. QBs cost what they cost, and the next man up almost always moves or at least sticks within the existing market.
Tua may never be an All-Pro, but he’s been successful within Miami’s offense, and it’s not as if the Dolphins had easy access to other quarterback alternatives.
This is a win-win extension for Tagovailoa and the Dolphins, who also recently locked up Waddle.
A new — or at least, revised — contract for Hill might be in order, but Miami has its core pieces under contract.
As for the Packers, they continue their incredible run of having a franchise quarterback on the roster after Love’s breakout 2023 campaign, and they keep him in the fray for years to come.
Love and Green Bay enter 2024 with heightened expectations after a 2023 playoff run with one of the youngest rosters in the NFL, and the NFC North figures to be very competitive for the next few years with the Detroit Lions emerging as an NFC powerhouse, and the Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings adding promising rookie quarterbacks to talented roster.
Winner | Dak Prescott
It’s not as if Dak Prescott needed leverage in his negotiations with the Dallas Cowboys. He already boasts a no-trade clause, a no-franchise tag clause, and a $55+ million cap hit in 2024, giving him everything he needs to get a massive deal from Jerry Jones.
Still, every little bit helps.
If Jared Goff is worth $53 million per year, and Tua is at $53.1 million, how much will Prescott get on his next deal after he led the league with 36 passing TDs and finished second in QBR in 2023?
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A $60 million AAV looks realistic for Prescott, whether with the Cowboys or another club.
“I’m gonna say it,” Prescott said this week, per Yahoo’s Charles Robinson. “I want to be here. But when you look [it] up, all the other great quarterbacks that I watched played for other teams [than their first team]. That’s not something to fear.”
Loser | Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys
“I do not think this will be his last year with the Cowboys. At all.”
That’s what Jones said about Prescott this week, and Dallas may end up working out an extension with Dak that keeps him with the club for the rest of his career.
When I was at Eagles we thought that Cowboys plan to resign players as late as they did, provided a significant competitive advantage for us. That remains true and obvious to this day. Not sure why they have continued with this strategy.
— Joe Banner (@JoeBanner13) July 26, 2024
But that doesn’t excuse the Cowboys’ absurd delay in negotiations with Prescott.
Jones and Co. waited while a stream of other quarterbacks signed massive extensions, consistently shifting the market upward while Dak was stuck with a $40 million AAV. He’s now just the 14th-highest-paid QB in the NFL.
Dallas failed to learn from its last round of contract talks with Prescott in 2020, when the club was forced to franchise its QB before giving him a four-year deal. Wouldn’t a deal after the 2022 campaign — when Prescott’s asking price might’ve been reduced after leading the NFL in interceptions — have made more sense for the Cowboys?
Winner | Philadelphia Eagles
Jalen Hurts was the NFL’s highest-paid quarterback when he inked a five-year, $255 million extension ($51 million AAV) with the Philadelphia Eagles in April 2023. Just 15 months later, Hurts ranks seventh among signal-callers. Once Prescott and Jordan Love sign their eventual deals, Hurts will move down to ninth.
Howie Roseman is the NFL’s best general manager, and it’s not only because he adds the right free agents, drafts the top prospects, or executes the shrewdest trades.
Roseman is also a master of timing. He sees where positional markets are trending and works to get ahead of them.
By signing Philadelphia’s star players early and getting deals done before the rest of the league, Roseman can sit back and wait for his Eagles contracts to shine.
Loser | The Idea That ‘You Can’t Pay Everyone’
Roseman’s foresight helps Philadelphia retain and supplement its talent base, but the Eagles also use more aggressive salary cap techniques than any team in the league.
By consistently prorating money through void years, option bonuses, restructures, and other cap strategies, Roseman can artificially reduce current-year cap charges — allowing the Eagles to add even more players.
Almost every starting offensive player on Philadelphia’s roster is among the top 10 highest-paid players at their respective positions, including Hurts, RB Saquon Barkley, WRs A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, TE Dallas Goedert, OTs Jordan Mailata and Lane Johnson, and G Landon Dickerson.
Each one of those players will carry a league-minimum base salary in 2024; none will have a cap hit above $16 million.
Jones is trying to convince Cowboys fans with the old adage that “you can’t pay everyone.” Bengals owner Mike Brown said a version of the same thing at Cincinnati’s training camp this week while explaining why his club hasn’t extended WR Tee Higgins and is waiting to sign WR Ja’Marr Chase.
However, the Cowboys and the Bengals are two of the NFL’s most conservative organizations.
Cincinnati, for example, refuses to change its policy of not including guaranteed money beyond Year 1 of a contract (except for quarterbacks). The Bengals have never restructured a player’s contract for salary cap space, and they’ve only used void years for two players’ contracts (Burrow and OT Cordy Glenn).
The modern NFL requires more intentional salary cap and contact processes, and the league won’t slow down as younger general managers take over front offices. If teams like Dallas and Cincinnati aren’t careful, they’ll be left behind.
Winner | Brock Purdy
Purdy can’t even be extended until the 2024 regular season ends. NFL rules prevent teams from giving players new contacts until they’ve completed their third campaign.
If Purdy continues his ascent next season, he should become the league’s highest-paid QB on his next deal, potentially at a $65+ million AAV, when he’s eligible for his second contract next offseason.
Losers | Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen
Patrick Mahomes is the NFL’s best quarterback and is already in the running for the greatest player in the history of the sport.
He makes $45 million per year, which will rank 11th after Tua’s extension.
Josh Allen, depending on who you ask, is the league’s second-best QB. He’s making $43 million, one spot behind Mahomes in the signal-caller ranks.
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This is the danger of signing a lengthy contract. Mahomes’ 10-year pact remains the NFL’s most team-friendly contract, while even Allen’s six-year deal benefitted the Buffalo Bills more than it did the player.
Tagovailoa and his camp wisely insisted on a four-year pact with the Dolphins. Look for Prescott, Love, and Purdy to follow Tua’s lead.