Kirk Cousins is the greatest of all time at winning the NFL offseason
From here on out, I'll think of Kirk Cousins just about any time I hear or think of Jay-Z's classic lyric, I'm not a businessman. I'm a business, man.Fresh off a six-year, $185 million run with the Minnesota Vikings, it took the guy less than three hours to hammer out a four-year, $180 million deal with […]
From here on out, I'll think of Kirk Cousins just about any time I hear or think of Jay-Z's classic lyric, I'm not a businessman. I'm a business, man.
Fresh off a six-year, $185 million run with the Minnesota Vikings, it took the guy less than three hours to hammer out a four-year, $180 million deal with the Atlanta Falcons.
Inflation is wild as hell, but that's still damn impressive, especially for a soon-to-be 36-year-old coming off a torn Achilles. In all, he's made $231,469,288 throughout his career, per Over The Cap.
It gets even more impressive when considering Cousins not only came into the NFL riding a whopping four-year, $2,572,688 contract – he was also hit with the franchise tag for consecutive seasons after the end of his rookie deal. Those two years combined for a $43,896,600 payout, but Cousins couldn't negotiate those deals. He was forced to go with the flow.
It wasn't until his first venture into free agency, six years after the start of his NFL career, that Cousins really began to make elite money and it doesn't come as a surprise that it happened once he was allowed to have a say in things.
And yes, you read that right, if Cousins plays out the full value of his deal with the Falcons, then he will have made $364,999,400 of his $411,468,688 in career earnings over a 10-year span. That comes out to an average of a nearly $36.5 million per year.
And speaking of making $400+ million over the course of a career, Cousins would join the duo of Aaron Rodgers and Matthew Stafford as the only three players in NFL history to make that much off strictly football contracts. If they play out the duration of their current deals, of course.
Cousins wouldn't surpass either player, as Rodgers is slated to finish with more than $419 million and Stafford's on track to finish with $422 million in career earnings. But there are caveats with both guys.
For starters, they were in 2005 and 2009, respectively, which was before the NFL's new CBA placed a cap on rookie contracts. A No. 1 overall pick, like Stafford, immediately cashed in, which would derail teams if it ended up a bust. Cousins was drafted in 2012, one year after the new CBA was enacted.
Stafford's first contract was a six-year, $72 million deal that included $17.05 million in guaranteed money – yes, he eight times made more in guaranteed money than Cousins did in total salary over the first four years of his career.
Rodgers' first contract wasn't as near as much as Stafford's since he was the 24th overall pick. Still, Rodgers was given a five-year, $63,520,000 extension in 2008 – just three seasons into his career.
Both guys had head starts, whereas Cousins had to wait a lot longer for his first negotiated payday. And, ultimately, he falls $12 million short of Stafford's mark.
Cousins' career is obviously why he's able to hold his own weight like this, so to speak. He leads all NFL quarterbacks in passing yards since 2015 and only Tom Brady and Russell Wilson have thrown more touchdowns. Those two quarterbacks, along with Aaron Rodgers are the only signal-callers that have won more games and Cousins is tied with Wilson for the second-most game-winning drives, as well.
The problem is the postseason, where Cousins is 1-3. Maybe that number improves in Atlanta, but he'll still be getting paid, regardless.
With the ever-increasing dollar amount that comes with quarterback contracts, Cousins will eventually get passed up and probably even knocked out of the top-10. But the fact he was able to make as much as he did in the amount of time he had will keep him atop the list and it's going to be hard to beat him out.
