The topic of the "best" and "worst" contracts in the NFL is complex because of the complexity of league's contract structure. Sure, we can take a look at Deshaun Watson's fully guaranteed five-year, $230 million deal with the Browns and throw it right into the second bucket. Complete disaster for the team. Watson was suspended for the first 11 games of the deal and hasn't been able to show consistent health or play in any of its first three years. He's injured now and could sit out the upcoming season, and the Browns still have to pay him a fully guaranteed $46 million for 2025 and again in 2026. Catastrophe.
But not all of these cases are so simple. In 2023, Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts signed a contract that briefly made him the highest-paid player in the league (until Lamar Jackson and others surpassed him in that same offseason). But the structure of Hurts' five-year, $255 million deal is very team-friendly, allowing the Eagles to continually convert option bonuses that help them spread out the salary cap hits and keep Hurts' cap number down. For example, Hurts will earn $42.5 million in cash this year while his cap hit sits a shade under $22 million.
Doing a team-friendly structure didn't necessarily cost Hurts a ton of money. And like Patrick Mahomes before him, Hurts has signaled a willingness to help the team manage its cap so it can continue to keep the roster strong around him. The Eagles having just won the Super Bowl in the second year of Hurts' extension offers support for his decision. But in terms of dollars, Hurts certainly could have held the Eagles' feet to the fire by waiting to sign his extension or insisting on more money up front. In the context of franchise QB contracts leaguewide, Hurts' is among the more team-friendly.
So that's what we want to do here. This isn't about labeling contracts as the "best" or "worst," because a lot of that depends on perspective. A contract that's "bad" for the team could be "great" for the player, and vice versa. We wanted to highlight a couple of position groups and look at the poles in each -- some of the most team-friendly deals versus some of the most player-friendly deals -- and explain why. We begin, as we always seem to, with the quarterbacks.
Jump to a position:
QB | RB | WR | Edge | CB | S
Quarterback
Team-friendly deal: Sam Darnold, Seattle Seahawks
The deal: Three years, $100.5 million with $37.5 million fully guaranteed at signing and $55 million in total guarantees
Darnold was an unrestricted free agent this offseason, when most teams believed there weren't many great quarterback options. So for Seattle to get him on this deal is impressive, especially after he threw 35 touchdown passes last season with the Vikings. The Seahawks have a longstanding policy of not guaranteeing any money in veteran contracts outside of the first year. So Darnold's full guarantee consists of his $32 million signing bonus, his $5.3 million 2025 salary and his $200,000 workout bonus. That's it. If the Seahawks want to walk away after this season, they'd owe him no more than that $37.5 million.
If Darnold is still on the Seahawks' roster five days after the Super Bowl this season, then his $15 million 2026 roster bonus becomes fully guaranteed, as does $2.5 million of his $12.3 million in 2026 salary. So if Seattle makes the Super Bowl, it would have to make a decision right after the season. (But let's be honest, if the Seahawks play in the Super Bowl this season, Darnold will probably have played well enough to stick around another year for that price.)
If Darnold plays out the first two years of this contract, he'll have made $65 million. If he plays all three, he'll get the full $100.5 million. That's still just $33.5 million per year, which makes Darnold the 18th highest-paid quarterback in the league by average annual salary. Team-friendly deal.
Player-friendly deal: Dak Prescott, Dallas Cowboys
The deal: Four years, $240 million with $129 million fully guaranteed at signing and $231 million in total guarantees
Prescott took this right out to the end. With one year left on his contract last offseason, he didn't sign this extension until literally the morning of Dallas' Week 1 game. Had the deal not been done before kickoff that day, it's possible Prescott could have played out the 2024 season and become an unrestricted free agent. After all, the previous extension he signed with Dallas in 2021 contained a clause prohibiting the Cowboys from using the franchise tag on him.
Waiting paid off for Prescott. He collected a $78,458,333 signing bonus -- technically an $80 million signing bonus that somewhat hilariously had to be prorated down because players had already been paid their Week 1 salaries by the time he signed the deal -- and another $7.8 million in cash in 2024. The deal also included a guaranteed $47.75 million for 2025, and an injury-guaranteed $40 million for 2026 that converted to a full guarantee this past March.
So what makes this deal player-friendly (other than the no-franchise clause, the no-trade clause and the massive signing bonus)? If the Cowboys were to release Prescott right now, he'd still have collected a total of $174 million for one season. Prescott's deal continues to benefit him at a high level. His $45 million 2027 salary becomes fully guaranteed if he's still on the Cowboys' roster on the fifth day of the 2026 league year (next March), and $17 million of his $55 million 2028 salary becomes fully guaranteed if he's on the roster on the fifth day of the 2027 league year. The odds of Prescott seeing the full $231 million in guarantees (no coincidence, by the way, that number is $1 million higher than Watson's $230 million) are extremely high.
One bit of consolation for the Cowboys? Because of the insurance policy they have, and because Prescott sat out the final nine games of the 2024 season because of a hamstring injury, the Cowboys were able to recoup about $6.4 million of the signing bonus. But Prescott didn't have to pay that back; the insurance company did. Player-friendly deal.
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Running back
Team-friendly deal: Josh Jacobs, Green Bay Packers
The deal: Four years, $48 million with $12.5 million fully guaranteed at signing and $12.5 million in total guarantees
Last offseason, when Saquon Barkley was cashing in big as a free agent and running backs in general were getting deals it appeared they'd never get again, the Packers signed Jacobs as a relative bargain.
Jacobs was only 26 when he signed the deal, but the reason it's a good deal for the Packers is that they made no commitment to him beyond that first year. Jacobs received a $12.5 million signing bonus, a non-guaranteed $1.2 million salary and some workout and per-game roster bonuses that pushed his total 2024 compensation up to $14.8 million. Three running backs -- Barkley, Christian McCaffrey and Derrick Henry -- currently average more than that per season, so it's good money for one season.
But Jacobs delivered, rushing for 1,329 yards and 15 touchdowns in his first season in Green Bay. And if the Packers decided they wanted or needed to move on from him this offseason, they'd only have been out that $14.8 million. Of course, they aren't doing that; he's 27 years old and just had a huge season. So they'll keep him this year and pay him another $8.2 million -- $1.17 million in base salary, a $5.93 million roster bonus, a $600,000 workout bonus and $500,000 in per-game roster bonuses as long as he plays all 17 games. (The Packers like to avoid future-year guarantees in veteran contracts.)
If the Packers cut Jacobs after this season, they'd have paid him $23 million over two years -- an average of $11.5 million per year, which ranks sixth among running backs. Totally reasonable, especially given the way he has performed. Unless the Packers reward Jacobs with an extension after his strong first season -- the way the Eagles did with Barkley and the Ravens did with Henry -- he'll continue to be one of the best values in the league at his position. And if his play falls off, Green Bay can cut him without owing him any money.
Player-friendly deal: Ashton Jeanty, Las Vegas Raiders
The deal: Four years, $35,895,812 fully guaranteed at signing, plus a fifth-year team option for 2029
We're using this deal to make a point. There's nothing the Raiders could do about this. Once they picked Jeanty at No. 6 in this year's draft, this was going to be his contract; rookie deals are slotted, and first-round picks get their deals fully guaranteed. But we use Jeanty's deal here to highlight the reasons that taking a running back this high in the draft represents poor value.
Right now, there is exactly one running back in the league whose contract contains more fully guaranteed money than Jeanty's deal: Barkley. Jeanty's average annual salary of $8,973,953 also ranks 11th among all NFL running backs. He has not yet carried the ball once in an NFL game, and yet only 10 players at his position make more money than him.
Rookie deals are player-friendly because they're fully guaranteed, but the position value makes a running back picked in the top 10 look as if he hit the lottery. Quarterback Cameron Ward, the No. 1 pick in this year's draft, will make about $12.2 million per year on his rookie deal, which ranks 23rd among quarterbacks at the moment. Mason Graham, the defensive tackle taken one spot before Jeanty, will make about $10.2 million per year, which ranks 30th among defensive tackles.
Jeanty might be a fine player for the Raiders. He might even be an outstanding one. But a rookie running back deal for a player who's the No. 6 pick offers no value whatsoever to the team and is something like free money for the player. From the Raiders' standpoint, the best-case scenario is that Jeanty plays like a top-11 running back in the league for three or four years while earning top-11 running back money and then they end up having to pay him even more.
Wide receiver
Team-friendly deal: DK Metcalf, Pittsburgh Steelers
The deal: Four years, $132 million with $60 million fully guaranteed at signing and $60 million in total guarantees
This looks like a pretty sweet deal for Metcalf, who has averaged 73 catches per season in his six-year NFL career and has caught 90 balls in a season only once. But in the current galaxy of top wide receiver contracts, this one isn't so bad for the team. The Steelers will pay the 27-year-old Metcalf $35 million this year -- a $30 million signing bonus and a $5 million salary -- and $25 million in 2026. After that, it's completely up to them. His 2027 salary of $20 million never becomes guaranteed, against injury or otherwise.
Metcalf does have a little bit of roster bonus protection. If he's still on the roster on the third day of the 2027 league year, the Steelers will pay him a $6.5 million roster bonus. On the third day of the 2028 and 2029 league years would come a $5 million roster bonus in each. So if they wanted to cut him after 2026, they'd have to do it by the third day of the league year in March 2027 to avoid paying him another $6.5 million.
But that's not likely to be much of a deterrent if they go in that direction, and it appears Metcalf is aware of that being a potential tipping point. Looking at a copy of his contract, he signed the page about the 2027 roster bonus with a smiley face next to his name. He didn't do that on any other page of the contract. So this is really a two-year commitment, and both sides seem to know it. Given what top wideouts are making these days, how badly the Steelers needed one and Metcalf's relatively young age, it's a nice deal for Pittsburgh.
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Player-friendly deal: Ja'Marr Chase, Cincinnati Bengals
The deal: Four years, $161 million with $73.9 million fully guaranteed at signing and $112 million in total guarantees
Chase leveraged his brilliant first four seasons (5,425 receiving yards and 46 TD catches) and the endorsement of quarterback Joe Burrow into a contract that right now makes him the league's highest-paid non-quarterback. He also got the Bengals, who until Burrow had never guaranteed money outside of the signing bonus in a veteran contract, to include future-year guarantees. Chase will receive:
$8.07 million in 2025 salary
Separate 2025 roster bonuses of $22 million and $10 million
$1 million in per-game roster bonuses that were guaranteed at signing
A $100,000 offseason workout bonus
That's a total of $41.17 million fully guaranteed in the first year of the deal. This replaced the $21.8 million he was set to make this season on the fifth-year option from his rookie deal. He also gets $32.73 million in 2026 salary and bonuses, which were fully guaranteed at signing. His 2027 salary of $28.9 million is guaranteed against injury and becomes fully guaranteed if he's on the Bengals' roster on the fifth day of the 2026 league year (along with his $1 million in 2026 per-game roster bonuses). His 2028 salary is $31.9 million, of which $7 million is already guaranteed against injury and becomes fully guaranteed if he's on the roster on the fifth day of the 2027 league year.
So ... if the Bengals wanted to cut Chase after this season, they'd have paid him $73.9 million for one season. If they wanted to cut him after 2026, they'd have paid him $73.9 million for two seasons. If they wanted to cut him after 2027, they'd have paid him $103.8 million for three seasons -- which is still $34.6 million per year. The fact that Chase and his agent got the Bengals -- who loathe future-year guarantees like poison -- to do this deal is a triumph that contract historians are likely to study for years to come.
Edge rusher
Team-friendly deal: Maxx Crosby, Las Vegas Raiders
The deal: Three years, $106.5 million with $62.5 million guaranteed at signing and $91.5 million in total guarantees
Crosby had two years left on his previous contract when he and the Raiders agreed on a new deal this past spring. The new deal effectively extended his contract through 2029 but also made some alterations to the final two years of his previous deal. His previous extension (signed in the spring of 2024) included $23.118 million in salary and bonuses for 2025 and $19.722 million in salary and bonuses for 2026, none of which was guaranteed. The new deal guarantees him $32.5 million in 2025 and $30 million in 2026. So it's a nice raise and improved security over what he signed the year before.
There are two ways to look at this. Crosby is now scheduled to make $149.34 million over the next five years -- an average of $29.868 million, which would rank him fifth among edge rushers. But if you take just the new money -- the $106.5 million -- and divide it by the three new years, that's an average of $35.5 million per year, which ranks him third behind only Myles Garrett and Danielle Hunter.
The deal is team-friendly because the Raiders (who don't put signing bonuses in their veteran deals and therefore don't have dead-money problems when they decide to release a player) aren't committed to Crosby beyond 2026. His $29 million 2027 salary becomes fully guaranteed if he's still on the roster in March 2026, but that still means they'd end up paying him a little more than $29 million per year over 2024-27.
Crosby is only 27 years old. And given his production (59.5 sacks over six seasons), he probably could have squeezed the Raiders for more. He loves being a Raider and has said he wanted to structure his deal to help the organization manage its cap around him. That's to the team's benefit, which is why this qualifies as a team-friendly deal.
Player-friendly deal: Danielle Hunter, Houston Texans
The deal: Two years, $49 million with $48 million fully guaranteed -- plus a one-year, $35.6 million extension
Follow along with me, if you will. As an unrestricted free agent in 2024, Hunter signed with Houston for $49 million over two years. Of that $49 million, $48 million was fully guaranteed at signing (in case you're wondering just how averse NFL team owners are to fully guaranteed deals). Hunter received a $21 million signing bonus and $8.5 million in salary and bonuses in the first year of the deal, so he collected $29.5 million in cash in 2024. (This included $500,000 in per-game roster bonuses that were not guaranteed, but he played all 17 games so he got them all.) His original deal also guaranteed him $19 million in 2025 salary (plus another non-guaranteed $500,000 in per-game roster bonuses).
So the Texans got to this offseason and were looking at having Hunter under contract for one year and $19.5 million. Nice deal for them if they did nothing. But Hunter was coming off a 12-sack season and deserved a raise. With only one year left on the deal, the Texans didn't want to risk letting him play out the deal and leave as a free agent next year, so they did an extension. The new deal increases his 2025 pay from $19.5 million to $32 million (of which $31.5 million is guaranteed) and adds a 2026 season that includes $22.6 million fully guaranteed.
All told, Hunter will end up making $61.5 million in his first two years in Houston and a fully guaranteed $84.1 million over his first three. And because he was extended for only one year, another strong season by him would put Houston in the same boat next offseason of having to extend him again or let him play out the final year of his contract.
Cornerback
Team-friendly deal: Pat Surtain II, Denver Broncos
The deal: Four years, $96 million with $40,688,565 fully guaranteed at signing and $77.5 million in total guarantees
Surtain signed this deal just before the start of the 2024 season, which would prove to be a massive season for him and earn him the Defensive Player of the Year award. Maybe he should have waited until after the season and after the Jaycee Horn and Derek Stingley Jr. deals came in, and asked the Broncos if either of them has ever won DPOY. Though Surtain's deal is strong, it shouldn't rank behind those two players.
Surtain received a $15 million signing bonus, a fully guaranteed $3.519 million in 2024 and a fully guaranteed $22.17 million in 2025. His $17.632 million in 2026 compensation was injury-guaranteed at signing and became fully guaranteed this past March, so he's sure to have earned $58.321 million over the first three years of the deal. That's an average of $19.44 million per year. Contrast that with Horn, who will earn $64.472 million over the first three years of his deal in Carolina, and it looks as if the Broncos got a bargain (more on Horn's deal in a moment).
You could make the case that Surtain did his deal too early or that Horn was smart to wait, but looking at the two deals next to each other makes you scratch your head. The better player at the same position got $6 million less in total guarantees. And sure, Surtain landed $11 million more in injury guarantees, but he has never been injured. And Horn has been a lot.
Surtain's deal turned out to be great for the Broncos, who probably confront a need to give him a raise if he keeps playing the way he has been playing and the cornerback market continues to race past him.
Player-friendly deal: Jaycee Horn, Carolina Panthers
The deal: Four years, $100 million with $46.707 million fully guaranteed at signing and $72 million in total guarantees
Horn signed his extension in March, six months after Surtain signed his extension with the Broncos. Horn got a $28.402 million signing bonus, a fully guaranteed $1.67 million in 2025 and a fully guaranteed $16.635 million in 2026. His average annual salary of $25 million is the second highest of any corner in the league, surpassed only by Stingley, who signed about a week later and could also have been the example here.
The reason we picked Horn is because he managed to get a top-two CB deal after four years in the league, during which he has played only 37 of a possible 68 games. Horn is a nice player, still only 25 years old and coming off a largely healthy season that landed him his first Pro Bowl nod. But he has been inconsistent in terms of health throughout his career and now has a deal that fully guarantees him money in 2026 and includes almost $23 million in total injury guarantees in 2027 and 2028.
Basically, Horn and his agent got the Panthers to bet big that the injury issues will stay behind him and that he'll blossom into the player they believed they were getting with the No. 8 pick in the 2021 draft. But that's a pretty big bet in a risk-averse league, and the fact that Horn was able to top Surtain makes this contract a big, big win.
Safety
Team-friendly deal: Kerby Joseph, Detroit Lions
The deal: Four years, $86 million with $24.381 million fully guaranteed at signing and $36.121 million in total guarantees
Joseph received a $10.011 million signing bonus and a fully guaranteed $1.61 million in 2025, a fully guaranteed $11.5 million in 2026 and a fully guaranteed $1.26 million in 2027. It's always good to get any fully guaranteed money in the third year, so we're not sneezing at that. But overall, Joseph's deal seems to fall short of other players at his position who've signed recently. Camryn Bynum's free agent deal with the Colts this offseason, for example, includes an $18 million signing bonus and $26 million in full guarantees.
If Joseph sticks around, he stands to make $18.5 million in 2027, $21 million in 2028 and $26 million in 2029. But those years are a long way off, and the only guarantees they include are that $1.26 million in 2027. If the Lions want to, they can get out of this deal after the 2026 season having paid Joseph a total of $24.381 million. And Joseph's deal should be quite helpful for the Lions, whose list of extension-eligible players over the next calendar year and a half includes Aidan Hutchinson, Jameson Williams, Jahmyr Gibbs, Sam LaPorta, Jack Campbell and Brian Branch.
Player-friendly deal: Antoine Winfield Jr., Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The deal: Four years, $84.1 million with $45 million fully guaranteed at signing and $45 million in total guarantees
Winfield is the league's second-highest paid safety by average annual salary, just slightly behind Joseph. But the rest of the deal is great for Winfield in comparison.
Winfield got a $20 million roster bonus in 2024 and fully guaranteed salaries of $4 million in 2024 and $21 million in 2025. He's sure to make $45 million over the first two years of the deal and would make $64.5 million over the first three if he stays in Tampa Bay. It's strong money, given the rest of the safety market.