NFL contracts are often very misconstrued and are very unique from player to player. Some players will be paid top dollar, such as $60 million per year in today’s day and age of football, while others, like Shedeur Sanders, will play for less than $2 million per season. Certain contracts are worth over $300 million, while some veterans may sign one-year ‘prove-it’ deals.
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But in the playoffs, players are paid the same, despite what they make in the regular season and their position.
Former New England Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman broke down playoff pay while on the Games with Names YouTube channel. Edelman revealed that players get paid a set amount of money for each round.
He also revealed how teams that got first-round byes (oftentimes the Patriots) would lose out on money because they wouldn’t get paid to play a game since they didn’t have one. Still, the Patriots had to work, practice, and prepare without the additional pay.
“For the first round you’d get like twenty grand twenty-five grand to the winner,” Edelman said. “The next round, you’d get like an additional thirty grand. We would get the first-round bye, do the same amount of work, and not get paid. It was only twenty grand, but I was making like one hundred grand at the time.”
Edelman then revealed that everyone in the organization earns the same amount of money for playoff games, stating it was a big thing for the trainers, coaches, but not the top players. He compared how Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes make millions of dollars per game while only making less than $100,00 for a playoff game.
“Tom Brady usually gets $2 million a game,” Edelman said. “. He’s going to play for $20,000. Patrick Mahomes is getting $50 million a year, and now he’s getting twenty grand, thirty grand… Same as the long snapper.”
He further noted that some teams would beat around the bush by delaying payment in certain contracts.
Edelman congratulates Brock Purdy
One of the latest big deals this off-season was the San Francisco 49ers extending quarterback Brock Purdy. Purdy and the San Francisco 49ers agreed to a five-year, $265 million deal that has him as the top-10 highest-paid quarterback in the NFL.
As a former seventh-round pick himself, Edelman praised Purdy for landing a big deal.
“As a former player, you always like to see guys get paid,” Edelman said. “Especially a guy that went his route. I was a seventh-round guy, he’s a seventh-round guy. Now he’s making $54 million per year.”
Over his first three NFL seasons, Purdy earned a total of $2.6 million, ranking as the league’s 76th-highest-paid quarterback during that period. With his new contract, which averages $53 million per year, he will now make $2.9 million each week—more than he earned in his entire first three years combined.
With his contract situation now settled, the 49ers’ quarterback can now get back to leading his team to another winning season, and putting the last season behind them.
