It’s a done deal. On Friday, the Bills signed Josh Allen to a six-year contract extension. The deal is worth $258MM in total with $150MM guaranteed (Twitter link via Adam Schefter of ESPN.com). That includes $100M fully guaranteed upon signing, the largest in the history of the sport (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport).
Allen is now signed through the 2028 season with a deal to reflect his performance. Last year, the 25-year-old set the Bills’ single-season franchise records for touchdown passes (37), completions (396), completion rate (69.2), passing yards (4,544), and total TDs (46). If not for Aaron Rodgers‘ even more impressive season, Allen would have been the NFL’s 2020 MVP.
The forthcoming details of the deal will reveal Allen’s true standing among the league’s highest-paid QBs. However, it’s expected that the deal will include a team-friendly structure to help the Bills’ cap situation in the short term. He seems to have leapfrogged Cowboys star Dak Prescott in both average annual value and guarantees — Prescott’s four-year, $160MM pact puts him at $40MM per year with $126MM in guaranteed cash.
The Bills did well to lock up Allen before other QBs got their deals. Of the three quarterbacks who have landed on the extension radar this offseason — Allen, Lamar Jackson, Baker Mayfield — Allen is coming off the best season. He didn’t start his pro career quite like Jackson or Mayfield, but he has steadily improved, leading up to last year’s dominant showing.
Allen, fresh off Second Team All-Pro and Pro Bowl selections, now ranks as one of the highest-paid players in NFL history.
Go Bills!
Don’t you mean STAY Bills?
As a Patriots fan, I have to admit: I love this guy.
Honestly, seems like a bargain. Love it!
Honest question, how does $43 million AAV seem like a bargain? It seems like an overpayment to me.
One thing that sets Allen apart from other gifted QB’s is his personality and the very attributes which make him extremely good
He has embraced Buffalo and the Community has done the same
Whether it is showing respect by donating over a million dollars to the Children’s hospital in his grandmother’s honor or the sincere connection shown by thousands waiting in freezing weather at 3am to welcome him and team home after AFC Championship lost
This is the going rate, it’s absurd compared to other ppl’s salaries who actually paid for his but that’s the unfortunate reality of these salaries in sports
His humble life will continue to be a driving force in his success
None of that has to do with winning on the field.
It’s an overpay until other get paid more. Two years in, it will be a bargain. Dak has already been leapfrogged.
That was a massive overpayment for an avg QB
Dak is an average QB…Josh is legit.
That was what I typed
“Josh is legit.” Says this after 1 good year.
Three years for those who haven’t paid attention, with massive improvements every year.
I agree improvements every year, but when you’re at bottom all you can go is up.
I think he’s a Top 5 QB but I don’t want to pay him like a Top 5 QB when he was a Top 20 QB a year prior.
I look forward (to the hopefully not too distant future) to the Cowboys playing the Bills in the SB. The Bills are known for their “legit” SB performances.
Very true statement
It’s not over paid or under paid. It’s all relative till the next league contract. Justin hit it right.
A bargain for a player with ONE season of performance that wasn’t sub par? The Bills took a big chance on this. Shoulda waited until after this year in my opinion, cost them a heck of a lot either way.
And a similar year to the last one would raise the price tag past Mahomes. The structure of this contract, from early reports, is cap-friendly and makes it fair for both sides.
ONE season that wasn’t sub par? That’s either disingenuous or just idiotic because it’s clearly false.
That’s feels like a crap ton of money for Allen
In terms of QB contracts as a whole, the situation is crazy you draft a QB, hope he’s all pro by year 3 and then spend 20% of your cap on him! I would love to see a QB salary cap at let’s say 30MM max, and the pay raise would be performance based. Anyone agree or disagree?
Agree, but will never happen. The players association wouldn’t allow it.
I disagree if the QB only took up 15% of the cap it would leave more room to sign other players.
The most important player should be paid for it. Quarterbacks are the most important position
Not if you are playing baseball.
The NFLPA might be split on the topic. As it was, the new collective bargaining agreement faced a lot of opposition from the upper tier of the players because it addressed a lot of concerns that impacted all of the players or the majority of them (non-star starters, back-ups, journeymen) while ignoring issues like the franchise tag that are very important to the stars and highest paid players. I have a feeling that most back-ups and journeyman-level starters might be very interested in a position-by-position salary cap that especially clamped down on the QB’s.
You could do this or say the same about other positions. The problem is if someone is benched, playing time is reduced or pick another reason, you could end up with the union coming after an organization or coach with grievances of why someone lost out on money.
I get where you’re going with it but the league will point to agents and teams to create their own escalators for performance or games played like they already do in contracts. “We’ve put the cap in place and our hands are tied.” 🙂
That doesn’t sound very flexible. I’m an advocate for free markets in the NFL. If a team wishes to invest that much in a player, that’s their decision. No reason to cap someone’s earning potential
I favor free markets too but I’d be surprised if you could find even one GM who wishes to invest 20% of the cap on a single player. Problem is the game model is constructed in such a way that GMs really don’t have another option. No elite QB = next to no chance of winning a championship. It’s time to fix the model.
Four of the last 10 Super Bowls have been won by teams without elite QB’s, the Giants, Ravens, Broncos and Eagles (great playoff runs do not all of a sudden turn a QB into an elite QB).
About the only way you can win a title without an elite QB is to have a defense that can dominate opponents. GMs recognize that constructing such a defense can be very time consuming, which is why they almost always go for the quick fix by drafting a QB prospect.
You would have to do it with every position and at that point it would get ugly because on player could have a better yr or the other could fall off then your looking at a bunch of babies crying they deserve more
America should not have salary caps, save that for China
Then American should have a much higher salary floor. The minimum wage peaked relative to inflation and productivity back in the late 60’s, and has been losing ground ever since.
it’s all because the World Football League , had they not screwed themselves as well as the NFL over by giving millions and millions of money away to lure NFL players away from the NFL it might not be as bad as it is today . but 50yrs of this I really don’t want to imagine what they will be making in the next 30 yrs let alone the next 10 .
I don’t think players should make that much money in my opinion but they do and it will only get worse, all while NFL teams try to force cities into paying all of the bill for building or renovations to stadiums or they will leave to get more money . it’s not just a player making all that money that’s a issue it’s the entire NFL structure and the Players Association is a problem as well. just my opinions
I think the USFL had a longer-term effect on the NFL salary structure than the WFL did. It attracted more players in their prime than the WFL had, as well as more rookies, including highly drafted ones.
I have a much bigger problem with corporate CEO’s and managers making hundreds and thousands times more in compensation than their line workers make than I do with professional athletes and entertainers. Ditto for investors who pay less in taxes for capital gains than people do for working.
Ditto, just my opinions.
Screw the billionaire owners, if Josh Allen made 1 million instead of 200 million, the owners would still beg cities for free stadiums and tickets would still cost exactly the same amount. Cutting salary has never led to a decrease in ticket prices.
If the Bills wanted a maximum salary for quarterbacks, they wouldn’t have paid Josh Allen this much.
No one should be limited to how much money they should earn; if they didn’t wanna pay him that much, they could tag him or let him walk. (I hate max salaries in the NBA for this same reason.)
U can’t allow him or any high caliber QB to walk, but what happens is u now have to hit on 75% of ur draft to be competitive, which doesn’t happen. And when was the last time a top 5 paid QB (this side of Tom Brady) won the super bowl.
Ok. If you can’t afford to surround your quarterback with a quality team, then don’t pay up. If the quarterback is good enough that the surrounding unit is negligible, then there isn’t a problem. That’s the challenge of team-building; you need to find that fine line. I don’t see why the league should be regulating these sorts of decisions
It makes trying create a quality team exponentially harder, which leads to a subpar play, which nobody wants.
@despicable_you
Then don’t pay up for the quarterback. If it’s really not worth it, then other teams will learn and quarterbacks will be forced to lower their asking prices. It’s called supply and demand.
@crosseyedlemon
I do agree the NFL is at least partly responsible for facilitating this sort of behavior with recent rules certainly favoring the passing game. On the other hand, I think we’ve also seen an uptick in talent at the position in recent years, making the passing game the easiest way to win football games. Therefore, the value of quarterbacks has correspondingly risen.
Ultimately, I really don’t think the NFL should be meddling in something like this. I’m fine with a salary cap, but the league doesn’t need to dictate how teams spend their money IMO
The problem with your analogy is if the Bills didn’t pay him now, someone else would offer more later. The supply of hardworking, respectful, and always improving quarterbacks is infinitely smaller than the demand
In any business you can only spend money if you have a strong customer base. Payroll expenses ultimately get passed on to customers in some form. Earlier this week arty commented that owners are gradually pricing the game out of reach of the average fan and that comment drew several up votes.
I’ve stated before on here that it’s quite clear that the game model is broken. QB payrolls are out of whack with the other positions for the simple reason that the game model has everything centered on passing to achieve success. This came about as a result of rule changes that make it more attractive for teams to pass than ever before. Rule changes can also reverse this situation resulting in a model where there is no advantage by either focusing on running or passing. If the NFL is smart they will go in that direction and in time you will see the absurd payroll gap between the QB position and other positions shrink to a level that is much more manageable for GMs.
That’ll never because the passing game favors fantasy football and gambling which the nfl is in bed with.
I imagine fantasy football can easily adapt to a model where rushing and passing occur equally. Fans have been avid gamblers since 1920 through every evolution of the sport so they won’t stop because of another model modification.
Agree. I personally think most of it should be performance pay
You can structure contracts based on performance: it’s called incentives. Quarterbacks may not agree, but it’s not beyond the realm of possibility. It’s up to management to structure contracts without harming the quality of their team. The NFL should not be determining these sorts of things
should’ve waited
Would lobe to see Sam Darnold’s reaction!
would love to see…
It’s amazing what one season can do for a player we’ll have to see if it’s worth it or not I hope so seems like a good kid even from a pats fan
It’s been more than one season. He is progressing every year as they give him more tools to work with. The Bills offense was depleted when he was drafted, and his work ethic is among the best in the NFL. He’s the perfect fit for a blue-collar town.
Until the Bills leave said blue-collar town because the owner gets a better deal to build his stadium elsewhere.
Just so you know, I’m not saying that to troll. Just the ugly reality of NFL ownership (any major league team ownership really) and cities willing to give into their demands.
True, but NY will never let that happen. Erie county already said the new stadium deal will happen (the state forked over more for the baseball stadiums).
Why should the public be on the hook to pay for the playpen of a professional sports league or the team’s billionaire owner? Time for the public and the government to put the NFL in its place. The NFL runs a nice profit and can afford to pay for its own stadiums.
Never said the Public should float the bill…
Erie County can’t afford it. Pegula is asking for $1.5 billion. I don’t know where you’re getting your figures from, but the state did not ‘[fork] over more for the baseball stadiums’.
Citifield – subsidies paid for $615 million of it, but they’re to be repaid with interest by the Mets. However, the repayments offset property taxes.
Yankee Stadium – $1.2 billion in subsidies, also no property taxes.
That’s around $1.8 billion total, and that’s both state and city contributions. The Bills would not enjoy any city contributions. I live in CNY, there’s no way we can or would afford $1.5 billion for a stadium.
It’s sad to see loyal fans who’ve stuck with a franchise for sixty years screwed by greedy ownership soils the game. O’Malley saw gold in LA and left Brooklyn; Kroenke found his loophole to escape St. Louis for California; Pegula envisions massive profits in low tax Austin. Bye bye Buffalo.
@Sherminator, those stadiums were also built before a pandemic put most cities and states on an economical hold. They cannot afford to be buying new stadiums or arenas as luxury items for residents anymore.
This is why teams need to sign guys quickly as contracts expire. The next one is always higher and teams just end up paying more.
Wrong. We just came off a year where free agent veterans could be had for half of what they would have gone for a year ago. Many more veterans would have been cut but for the guaranteed money.
Let’s be real! He will never see all of this money. The Bills will ask him every season going forward to restructure his contract to free up cap space.
Great player both NY football teams should of drafted this guy.
Buffalo is the only NY team…
Worth ever penny
Says the guy with all his wealth in bitcoin?
Kid is a stud QB. One slight step behind Mahomes but darn close. I would take him over Dak any day and not the crybaby Rogers is.
The people running their mouths about Josh Allen being average, or having only one good year, obviously haven’t watched him. They saw him in the playoffs two years ago against the Texans and decided they knew everything about him. How about you just admit to us that you aren’t a football fan in general and only follow your favorite team? Josh Allen is the real deal. He has made huge leaps every single year of his career, and all the while without a competent run game. This was a good deal, and will be an even better one over the course of it.
Too much money, but it’s nice to see him throw it in the face of the analysts who thumbed their nose at him during the 2018 draft.