In the span of the last year and a half, over $1.2B worth of contract extensions have been dolled out to quarterbacks from the 2020 draft class.
At the time, many scouts believed that the 2020 rookie crop could be a special one. Fast forward four years later, and that group is now amongst the richest in NFL history.
With Jordan Love’s record setting deal with the Packers now complete, all first round QB’s from 2020 have now inked big money extensions with their respective clubs. But let’s not forget about the highly criticized (at the time) pick of Jalen Hurts in the 2nd round as well. Hurts’ deal with Philadelphia helped propel his draft class north of the billion dollar mark with his 5 year $255M pact with the Eagles.
2020 QB Extensions
No. 1: Joe Burrow: Five years, $275M
No. 5: Tua Tagovailoa: Four years, $212.4M
No. 6: Justin Herbert: Five years, $262.5M
No. 26: Jordan Love: Four years, $220M
No. 53: Jalen Hurts: Five years, $255M
When all was said and done, the quarterbacks from the 2020 Draft Class now account for 5 of the 12 richest deals in NFL history. Contrast this with how things played out with the 2021 rookie QB crop, and one can see what an outlier the 2020 group truly is.
Amongst the 2021 first round QB selections, only Trevor Lawrence was able to secure a big money extension with his club, with most of the others being either traded, released, or buried on depth charts as the 2024 NFL season begins to kick off.
Zach Wilson couldn’t find his footing in New York and is now in Denver. Trey Lance was usurped by “Mr. Irrelevant” Brock Purdy in San Francisco. Justin Fields wasn’t part of the Bears long term plans and now finds himself in a QB battle in Pittsburgh. And Mac Jones and the Patriots never seemed to be able to get on the same page, and will now back up the aforementioned Lawrence in Jacksonville.
All five signal callers from the class of 2020 have led their team to the postseason at least once, with Burrow and Hurts each having a Super Bowl appearance under their belts as well. While they may be short on individual accolades, combined the group has thrown for over 60,000 passing yards at the NFL level.
While they’ve still got a long ways to go before anyone will consider them better than the vaunted 1983 draft class which featured John Elway, Jim Kelly, and Dan Marino amongst others, or even the more recent 2004 class of Eli Manning, Philip Rivers, and Ben Roethlisberger, if they’re able to stay healthy, the 2020 group could very well be on their way to re-writing the NFL record books.
Photo: All-Pro Reels. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.