Lamar Should Borrow From Brady, Mahomes

Tom Brady will always be remembered for his massive accomplishments as an NFL quarterback for both the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Generally referred to as “The GOAT”, Brady will also evoke memories of accepting wages that bely his virtuoso career.

Brady wanted to win and willingly showed up for work fully committed, despite a W-2 that was inferior to that of many of his less decorated contemporaries. Brady set a standard for excellence and successfully gleaned the most from his skillset for the benefit of his team. Today, there’s a quarterback playing in Kansas City whose young career is tracking with that of the 199th pick of the 2000 NFL Draft.

Patrick Mahomes has been with the Kansas City Chiefs dating back to the day when Andy Reid & Co. made him the 10th overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft. Since then, Mahomes has won two Super Bowls and has played in three. He’s generally regarded as the heir apparent to Brady and widely considered to be the best modern day signal caller. But the comparisons to Brady don’t stop there.

Per OverTheCap.com, Mahomes signed a 10 year, $450 million contract extension with the Chiefs on July 6, 2020. At the time of the signing, Mahomes’ deal shattered NFL contract records. But a look beneath the surface finds that much like Brady, Mahomes accepted a deal that didn’t choke Kansas City’s salary cap, enabling the Chiefs’ player personnel department to surround the All Pro QB with skillful complementary talent.

It has been nearly three years since Mahomes signed his massive, albeit team-friendly deal and given the contractual stalemate that the Ravens find themselves in with Lamar Jackson, I wondered what a similar deal for Baltimore’s franchise-tagged player might look today. To do this, I consulted with RSR’s capologist, Brian McFarland.

When Mahomes agreed to his deal in 2020, the salary cap per team was $198.2M. Today, team caps are set at $224.8M, an increase of 13.4%. So to shape a Mahomes-like deal for Lamar, let’s first examine the particulars of the Mahomes’ deal with the Chiefs.

• Term: 10 Years
• Contract Total Amount: $450M
• Fully Guaranteed: $63M
• Total Guarantees: $141M

You may be wondering what the difference is between “fully guaranteed” and “total guarantees”. “Fully” guaranteed means the player is entitled to receive that amount no matter what. So, short of retiring, if the player is hurt or plays well below his pay grade, he still receives that amount. “Total” guarantees include the fully guaranteed amount as well as money that is, at least at signing, only guaranteed for injury. So, if the player gets hurt and can no longer play, he would still receive that total guaranteed money.

So with all of this in mind, if the Ravens were to simply emulate the deal for Mahomes and extend that to Lamar with a 13.4% increase to reflect the rise in team cap numbers since 2020, such a deal would look like this:

• Term: 10 Years
• Contract Total Amount: $510M
• Fully Guaranteed: $71M
• Total Guarantees: $160M

If the structure of the deal was identical to that of Mahomes’ deal, Jackson’s cap number for 2023 would be $6.063M. SIX. MILLION. DOLLARS.

This would allow the Ravens to be players in free agency – to entertain signing Odell Beckham, Jr. and/or trading for DeAndre Hopkins. It may have helped them persuade Darius Slay to play opposite Marlon Humphrey; to keep Calais Campbell; to not kick the can down the road with voidable option years with players like Gus Edwards and Geno Stone.

Adding to the team-friendliness of Mahomes’ deal is the relatively small signing bonus and the term of 10 years. This allows for low cap numbers early during the term of the deal and it allows the Chiefs to continually restructure. Keep in mind that once a deal is restructured, it can only be spread out over the remain original term of the deal.

So for example, let’s say after 3 seasons the Chiefs are looking to create more cap space in order to remain a Super Bowl contender. They restructure Mahomes’ deal by converting scheduled salary into a bonus which can then be spread out over years 4 through 8 of the original 10-year deal. On a shorter-term deal, the proration of that bonus would only be spread out of over the remaining years of the deal, which provides less Cap relief. So, if the deal was for only 5 years, that restructure would only be prorated over the 4th and 5th years of the deal.

The game’s best quarterback agreed to such a deal so that his team could always compete. Eventually he’ll earn his $450M and probably more as his deal is adjusted in a way that is commensurate with his contemporaries. The same could be said and done for Lamar.

Prior to the 2022 season, Lamar was a guest on LeBron James’ podcast called “The Shop”. During the podcast Jackson shared that, “What I’ve been thinking about since I was a little kid, is being a champion and being a billionaire.”

Such a deal would get Lamar more than halfway to billionaire status. As for being a champion, a team-friendly deal goes a long way towards attaining the coveted hardware.

Just ask Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes.

[Related Article: A Bearish Market For Lamar]

Russell Street Report’s Brian McFarland contributed to this article

The post Lamar Should Borrow From Brady, Mahomes appeared first on Russell Street Report.