Patrick Mahomes set the mark for quarterback contracts

Patrick Mahomes got paid last summer to the tune of a 10-year contract worth over $500 million. Now, other quarterbacks want similar deals. 

The downside to having a franchise quarterback? The fact that his team is going to have a large chunk of change invested in the guy for a long period of time.

The Kansas City Chiefs hadn’t fallen into that category in a long time and the last time they did have a true franchise quarterback, he wasn’t getting paid like signal callers do now. Patrick Mahomes earned a massive contract last summer after leading the Chiefs to a Super Bowl title and other quarterbacks took notice and want to be paid handsomely as well.

The latest example of this is Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, who demanded a contract just shy of what Mahomes is making. For Mahomes, this kind of deal absolutely made sense. For Prescott, the idea that he thinks he deserves that much money is laughable.

https://twitter.com/theScore/status/1366747291391062017?s=20

Get used to quarterbacks wanting a deal like Patrick Mahomes’.

Just because players want huge contracts doesn’t mean they’ll be getting it. Prescott is a good quarterback, but why would the Cowboys pay him that much money when he hasn’t taken them to the next level? How could they get to the next level when that much money is invested in him?

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The NFL is a quarterback-driven league, but the quarterback can’t do it all. We saw that with Deshaun Watson in Houston and that’s exactly why the situation between those two has gotten so dicey. Watson is one of the best quarterbacks in the league, but the Texans won just four games last year.

Prescott has been playing well, but the Cowboys haven’t made it to the NFC Championship Game since he’s been in town. He was injured last year, but they were still just 2-3 when he was deemed out for the rest of the season.

It made sense for the Kansas City Chiefs to pay Patrick Mahomes that much money. He won league MVP in 2018 after putting up insane numbers and then followed that up by leading three miraculous comebacks in the playoffs, which culminated with a Super Bowl victory. If it weren’t for an atrocious offensive line earlier this year, Mahomes could have had two Super Bowl rings on his resumé at the young age of 25.

That’s why the Chiefs felt confident in giving Mahomes so much money. While Prescott has had some decent years, he’s not even close to being on the same level as Mahomes, but this contract is going to change the way quarterbacks are paid. First, it’ll be Prescott and then Lamar Jackson will also be itching to get paid.

It’ll be fun seeing other teams struggle with if they should pay their guy that much money or not.