Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes became the highest-paid football player in the history of the NFL with a 10-year contract that could earn him over $500 million. With Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson following closely in Mahomes’ career path and up for a new contract as early as next offseason, the Ravens’ passer knows what he has to do to earn that type of cash.
“I gotta win me a Super Bowl,” Jackson said in an interview with ESPN’s Sage Steele. “I gotta get me what he has.”
As I noted following Mahomes’ record-breaking deal, Jackson could just as easily earn a similar deal, if not more. Though Jackson doesn’t like being compared to Mahomes, their careers follow a very similar path.
Mahomes sat most of his rookie season only to claim the starting job in his second year, winning the NFL’s MVP award in the process. In his third season, Mahomes won a Super Bowl and earned this fat contract.
Much like Mahomes, Jackson sat behind the team’s previous franchise quarterback in Joe Flacco for much of his rookie season before earning the MVP award the following year — in his first full season as the starter. If Jackson continues on the same career path, the Ravens are in line to win Super Bowl LV (they’re tied for the best odds to do so), which should make Jackson a very rich man.
“I mean, it’s a crazy number,” Jackson said when asked about the high dollar figure on Mahomes’ contract. “No one has ever dreamed about that — well probably dreamed about it but no one ever expected it, especially a half-billion dollars. That’s different but he deserved it though, he deserved it.”
As we saw with Flacco, and now with Mahomes, winning a Super Bowl is the easiest way to becoming the NFL’s highest-paid player. Jackson said he’d bring one to Baltimore on draft day but now there’s even more incentive to getting it done.
