How Much Does an NFL Player Make?

A breakdown of NFL player salaries by position, including rookies, veterans and free agents.

Introduction

In the National Football League, the average career lasts just shy of three years. And while a select few players go on to earn multimillion-dollar salaries for decades, the vast majority of gridiron professionals will find themselves out of a job and without much in the way of earnings once their playing days are over.

The average NFL salary has been rising steadily over the past few years and is now approaching $3 million per year. However, this figure is skewed upwards by a small number of highly paid stars. The median salary in the league is closer to $1 million per year, and the lower quartile of players make an average of just over $700,000 per year.

So how do these salaries compare to those in other professional sports? Here’s a look at the average salaries in a few other major leagues:

Major League Baseball: $4.38 million
National Basketball Association: $7.7 million
National Hockey League: $2.9 million
As you can see, NFL players are far from the highest-paid athletes in professional sports. However, they do earn more than their counterparts in baseball and hockey. NBA players, on the other hand, earn nearly twice as much as NFL players on average.

NFL Player Salaries

NFL players are some of the highest-paid athletes in the world. The average player salary in 2019 was $2.7 million. However, there is a wide range of salaries among players, with some players making much more than the average and some making much less. In this article, we’ll take a look at NFL player salaries and how they are determined.

Minimum Salary

In the NFL, the minimum salary for a player in 2019 is $48,000 and the league salary cap is set at $188.2 million. A player’s salary is determined by his experience level, length of service and other factors.

The minimum salary for a first-year player is $495,000 and increases to $580,000 for a second-year player. Players with three or more years of experience earn a minimum of $660,000.

Players who have been in the league for 10 or more years earn a minimum of $1 million.

Average Salary

The average salary of an NFL player was $2.7 million in 2017, according to “USA Today.” The median income for NFL players was $860,000, with the top 25 percent earning an average of $3 million or more per year. The lowest-paid 25 percent of players earned an average salary of $1 million or less per year.

Maximum Salary

The maximum salary for an NFL player is $170 million, which was given to defensive end Khalil Mack by the Chicago Bears in 2018.

NFL Player Contracts

NFL player contracts are not as simple as you might think. Players are paid a base salary, which is determined by the amount of years they have been in the league, and they also receive bonuses. The bonuses are usually based on playing time, Pro Bowl appearances, and All-Pro selections. In this article, we will take a look at how much NFL players are actually paid.

Length of Contracts

The average NFL career is less than five years. So, most NFL players only have a few years to make all the money they can. That’s why NFL contracts are usually for four or five years, with 80% of the money paid in the first two years.

However, players can sign what are called “extensions” to their contracts. An extension is just a new contract that adds on to an existing one. So, if a player has two years left on his current contract, he can sign a two-year extension that will start after those two years are up.

Extensions are common in the NFL. They give players a chance to make more money and they give teams a chance to keep players they like without having to go through the free-agency process.

Signing Bonuses

The signing bonus is the key ingredient in most contracts. It’s a guaranteed payment made to a player at the time he signs his contract. NFL contracts are not fully guaranteed, so the signing bonus is the one part of the contract that is guaranteed money.

Signing bonuses are paid out in a lump sum and are often spread out over the life of the contract to lower the team’s salary cap hit in any given year. For example, if a player signs a four-year, $20 million contract with a $10 million signing bonus, his salary cap hit for that first year will be $2.5 million (the prorated portion of the signing bonus plus his base salary). In subsequent years, his salary cap hit will be $5 million (the base salary plus any accrued bonuses).

Signing bonuses are often structured as deferred payments, meaning they are not paid out until some point after the player signs his contract. For example, a player might receive a $10 million signing bonus that is paid out in three installments of $3 million each over the first three years of his contract. In this case, the team’s salary cap hit would be lower in those first three years (since only a portion of the signing bonus would be counted against the cap each year), but higher in Year 4 when the entire bonus hits the books.

Guaranteed Money

In the NFL, player contracts are not fully guaranteed. A fully guaranteed contract in the NFL would mean that the player would receive his entire salary for the length of the contract, no matter what. However, because of the physical nature of football, and the short careers that most players have, very few players have fully guaranteed contracts. In fact, most players only have a small percentage of their contracts guaranteed. For example, if a player has a four-year contract worth $20 million, with $5 million guaranteed, that means that if he is released before the end of his contract, he will only receive $5 million. The team does not owe him any more money.

The amount of money that is guaranteed in a contract is usually determined by a number of factors, including the player’s position, experience, and performance. For example, quarterbacks and other skill position players will usually have more money guaranteed in their contracts than offensive or defensive linemen. This is because skill position players are usually more important to an offense or defense than linemen are.Experience is also a factor in how much money is guaranteed in a contract. A player who has been in the league for a long time will usually have more money guaranteed in his contract than a rookie will. This is because the team knows that the veteran player is more likely to perform well than the rookie is. Finally, performance is also a factor in how much money is guaranteed in a contract. A player who has played well in recent seasons will usually have more money guaranteed in his new contract than a player who has not played well recently will.

So how much money do NFL players actually make? The answer to this question depends on a number of factors, including the player’s position (for example, quarterbacks usually make more than offensive linemen), experience (veterans usually make more than rookies), and performance (players who have played well recently usually make more than those who have not).

NFL Player Salaries vs. Other Sports

While NFL players’ salaries are among the highest in professional sports, they are not the highest. In fact, players in a number of other professional sports leagues make more money on average than NFL players.

Here is a look at the average salaries for NFL players and some other professional athletes:

NFL: $2.1 million
MLB: $3.2 million
NBA: $5.15 million
NHL: $2.9 million

As you can see, NBA and MLB players make more on average than NFL players. However, it should be noted that the NFL has a larger player pool than either the NBA or MLB, which means that there are more players in the NFL making less money than the average player in either of those two leagues.

Conclusion

In conclusion, NFL players make a lot of money. The average salary for an NFL player is $2.1 million per year. However, the median salary is only $860,000 per year. This means that half of the NFL players make less than $860,000 per year while the other half make more than that amount. The highest-paid NFL player is Aaron Rodgers, who makes $22 million per year.