MARCH 11: The contract includes $147MM fully guaranteed, SI.com’s Albert Breer notes. This does not rival Watson’s $230MM number — one achieved under historically unusual circumstances — but it does eclipse every other player’s full guarantee figure. Classifying this as a $90MM raise, Breer adds Allen will see $220MM over the next four years.
MARCH 9: Josh Allen completed an MVP season but had seen his contract drop outside the top 10 at quarterback. That is no longer the case. As the Bills finish a stream of extensions, they have reached a new deal with Allen.
Despite four seasons remaining on Allen’s $43MM-per-year extension, the Bills are doing right by their superstar. Allen agreed to a six-year, $330MM contract, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports. Allen will see a whopping $250MM guaranteed. While that may not be the full guarantee, the overall total tops Deshaun Watson for the most ever guaranteed to an NFL player.
This does not add six more years to Allen’s term length, as NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero classifies this as a top-up deal. The contract will, however, add two more years — and an astonishing $200MM — to Allen’s overall outlay.
The new number settling in at $330MM over the next six seasons, Allen will be tied to $55MM per year. The guarantee figure is more important here, and it will be interesting to see if the Bills actually topped the Browns’ Watson windfall in terms of full guarantees. But Allen is obviously not going anywhere. His Hall of Fame course will be charted in Buffalo.
Allen’s AAV does not exceed Dak Prescott‘s NFL-record $60MM number, but it does check in on the second-place tier Joe Burrow, Trevor Lawrence and Jordan Love populate. Allen already earned $174MM through seven seasons, rising from raw super-prospect to arguably the NFL’s best active quarterback. Allen certainly does not have Patrick Mahomes‘ resume, but he has outplayed the Chiefs megastar over the past two seasons. This has not resulted in the Bills conquering the Chiefs in the playoffs, as they are now 0-4 against their rivals in January, but Buffalo is certainly betting that is on tap.
Prescott also landed his monster Cowboys re-up thanks to extraordinary leverage stemming from no-trade and no-tag clauses, and Dallas also faced a steep void years penalty if it did not pay its quarterback. That deal occurred hours before the team’s Week 1 game; the Bills are checking this off their to-do list years in advance. Allen, however, had slipped to 14th in QB AAV. The Bills had one of the best bargains in football, even with Allen at $43MM per annum, and it will be interesting to see how the massive adjustment changes their numbers moving forward.
Allen, 28, is coming off his best season, reaching that perch despite the Bills trading Stefon Diggs last April. Allen also played through a left hand fracture last season. Three times a top-five MVP finisher previously, Allen won the award after dragging a Bills team believed to be retooling — after moving on from several starters — to a 13-4 record and a third straight AFC No. 2 seed.
Allen sported a 28-6 TD-INT ratio and added 531 rushing yards and 12 scores. The do-it-all QB did not beat out Lamar Jackson‘s statistically superior season for first-team All-Pro honors but edged him for MVP, as voters either recognized the Bills having fewer All-Pros compared to the Ravens and/or punished Jackson for previous playoff shortcomings. The Bills defeated the Ravens in the divisional round this year, making Allen 2-0 against the two-time MVP in the playoffs. Matters have not gone as well against Allen’s other top rival, however.
A contract update was on the radar for Allen, though this is a bit more than a mere update. It both adds years and considerable guarantees to his deal. Allen joins Mahomes and Lawrence as being the only current NFLers signed into the 2030s. Mahomes, who received a reworking after his second Super Bowl MVP award in 2023, is still signed through 2031 on a Chiefs-friendly deal. Allen was the only QB to follow Mahomes’ lead and help his team in term length, as no other passers since have signed for more than five years. Allen adding two years to his deal will help the Bills, should they choose to keep restructuring it. The Chiefs have gone to this well with Mahomes three times and will likely keep doing so.
The Bills traded up twice to land Allen in the 2018 draft, and by 2020, the No. 7 overall pick had become one of the league’s best QBs. Allen’s carry workload probably needs to be a bigger talking point, as he has taken plenty of hits during his career on run plays. The Wyoming alum has already compiled 759 carries to go with 112 more in the playoffs. A controversial call on an Allen QB sneak helped sink the Bills in their latest Chiefs matchup, and Kansas City’s latest playoff win keeps bringing the Buffalo timeline into focus.
While the big-bodied QB’s run-game skills may run the risk of seeing his prime end early, the Bills have him at his absolute best right now. They are also loading up their roster to keep a new core intact. Buffalo has extended Khalil Shakir, Terrel Bernard and Gregory Rousseau over the past two weeks. Future Allen restructures will help the Bills afford those payments, though none of the performers received top-market money. James Cook might, and he is certainly pushing for it. Cook is Allen’s top skill-position weapon now, but the Bills are betting on their QB playing long enough he will thrive with another wave of skill players down the road.
The franchise will hope an elusive Super Bowl, perhaps more than one, emerges during this contract. The team must keep contending with an AFC gauntlet that features Mahomes, Jackson and Burrow. As Allen keeps proving he is squarely on that tier, the Bills no longer will need to worry about his contract for the foreseeable future.
