The ever-inflating status of contract values often results in some of the best athletes in the world being temporarily left behind in terms of pay. In the wake of Brock Purdy’s five-year, $265-million contract extension, it appears as if Lamar Jackson is now the one who is due for a pay increase.
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The dual-threat sensation of the Baltimore Ravens is quickly ceding ground on the Forbes list. However, the star signal caller recently declined the opportunity to give any updates on his contract talks with the franchise.
Nevertheless, the mid-tier QB of the San Francisco 49ers isn’t the only one who’s outdoing Jackson in terms of salary. Thanks to his trade speculations with Phoenix Suns being renewed, NBA icon Kevin Durant has now seemingly usurped Jackson in Forbes’ Top-10 Highest-Paid Athletes rankings.
Thanks to his $72.5-million signing bonus, Jackson managed to claim the 10th overall spot on 2024’s list. Seeing as Jackson would go on to produce an MVP winning season, it’s safe to say that the money was well spent for Baltimore.
Unfortunately, the deal doesn’t seem to have aged well. Where Jackson’s $100.5-million income for the year was enough to claim top-10 honors in 2024, it’s now good for just the 12th overall spot.
Durant’s yearly figure of $101.4 million takes the 1oth overall spot for 2025, with Oleksandr Usyk’s $101 million trailing right behind him. More surprisingly, however, is the fact that there’s another NFL quarterback who ranks inside the top five for this year’s list.
Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys have ensured that Dak Prescott will be one of the most handsomely paid men in all of sports this year. After signing a four-year, $240-million extension with America’s team in 2024, the 9-year veteran is set to earn $137 million this year.
Prescott’s contract and bonuses grant him enough to out-earn the likes of LeBron James and Lionel Messi, a pair of names that surely emphasize just how massive his deal truly is. Of course, Jackson figures to make a return towards the top of the rankings in 2026.
Jackson threw for 4,172 passing yards and 41 touchdowns in 2024, leading the league in both touchdown percentage and yards gained per pass attempt. In fact, many still believe that he was the rightful MVP winner over Josh Allen, who only managed to throw for 3,731 passing yards and 28 passing touchdowns.
Many are expecting a deal to be finalized by late summer of 2025, but should Jackson for some reason, find himself walking into Week 1 without an extension, then the Ravens will likely be getting one of the best discounts in recent memory.
The franchise doesn’t have a reputation for being greedy like their Cincinnati counterparts, so that’s likely to not happen. In the meantime, however, Jackson will officially go down as a low-end earner for the calendar year of 2025.
