[UPDATE: New details are coming out. The contract might be 4/$186m. I don’t want to change it before I know for sure though.]
The battle for Micah Parsons’ soul has finally ended with the star pass rusher being traded to the Green Bay Packers and signing a 4/$188m contract, making him the new Non-QB King. It’s not even close. Parsons gains the throne in every way, basically a standard deviation from the previous small jumps up the ladder. He has also closed the gap on the QBs. Sure, there are still 11 QBs ahead of him on the AAV list, but yesterday at this time it was 16. This was clearly his intention. Let’s break the list down.
There are 3 main fields that NFL players look to in terms of contracts: Average Annual Value (“AAV”), Total Value (“TV”), and Total Guarantee (“TG”). AAV is usually considered as the title of highest paid1 even though it might not be the most money someone receives in a season due to signing bonuses. You would think TV is the one to look at but since most NFL contracts are not completely guaranteed, that number may not mean anything in the end. Most people have come around to that deception. TG is what matters most to the players even if it doesn’t get the same publicity as the other two. What is a player actually going to see of the contract if things go wrong? Thats the guarantee.
Average Annual Value
| Name | Pos | AAV | Year |
| Micah Parsons | EDGE | $47m | 2025 |
| TJ Watt | EDGE | $41m | 2025 |
| Ja’Marr Chase | WR | $40.25m | 2025 |
| Myles Garrett | EDGE | $40m | 2025 |
| Danielle Hunter | EDGE | $35.6m | 2025 |
| Maxx Crosby | EDGE | $35.5m | 2025 |
| Justin Jefferson | WR | $35m | 2024 |
| Nick Bosa | EDGE | $34m | 2023 |
| CeeDee Lamb | WR | $34m | 2024 |
| DK Metcalf | WR | $33m | 2025 |
The way this market was going, I had Parsons pegged at $164m over 4 years. $42m seemed like a reasonable next step in the evolution of highest paid non-QB. The arms race started with the (at the time) mammoth extension signed by Nick Bosa of 5/$170m. Coming off a DPOY season, a lot of other pass rushers like Brian Burns and Josh Hines-Allen were content to stay under that mark since they didn’t have the hardware and accolades. If the best EDGE is getting paid that much though, why not the best receiver? Justin Jefferson naturally wanted his deal for his body of work in Minnesota. That set the stage for the next level.
For over a year, both Chase and Parsons were up for an extension. Neither seemed to want to sign first and risk quickly losing the title of highest paid to the other guy.2 Myles Garrett and his incredibly stupid saga in Cleveland ended up beating both to the punch by securing $40m from the desperate Browns. That title was good enough for Chase who signed on his own $40m+ AAV line soon after. The thing was, Garrett was still 2 years away from free agency when he got his deal, meaning he jumped the line. TJ Watt saw this and must have thought “What the hell? I’m a year away from free agency and I’m better than him.” He ended up sacrificing a year, but predictably topped Garrett at $41mAAV.
Micah Parsons probably would have taken much less money from Dallas a year ago, topping Jefferson at around 4/$150m. Jerry didn’t want to do that though. Even now, my predicted 4/$164m number would have been plausible. How did it get to $188m? Leverage. Apparently, Dallas had agreed to the trade with Green Bay a few days ago, but they still needed to work out an extension. Essentially, Micah’s agent had the Packers by the balls, and he squeezed them all the way up to $188m. The son of a bitch probably started at 4/$200m!
Total Value
| Name | Pos | TV | Years | Year |
| Micah Parsons | EDGE | $188m | 4 | 2025 |
| Nick Bosa | EDGE | $170m | 5 | 2023 |
| Ja’Marr Chase | WR | $161m | 4 | 2025 |
| Myles Garrett | EDGE | $160m | 4 | 2025 |
| Chris Jones | DT | $158.75m | 5 | 2024 |
| Josh Hines-Allen | EDGE | $141.25m | 5 | 2024 |
| Brian Burns | EDGE | $141m | 5 | 2024 |
| Tristan Wirfs | LT | $140.6m | 5 | 2024 |
| Justin Jefferson | WR | $140m | 4 | 2024 |
| CeeDee Lamb | WR | $136m | 4 | 2024 |
Micah Parsons got more in 4 years than what Nick Bosa got in 5. The market has grown that much in just 2 years. The trend I’m seeing is that guys do not seem to be interested in 5-year deals anymore, at least not for their first extension. Most of the big deals in 2024 were of the 5-year variety while nothing from this year morphed into the monster $200m+ extension we want to see. Why is that?
The current generation of players probably realizes that it’s more important to get a second bite of the apple rather than the biggest first bite. By signing a 4 year deal, it locks them in for a decent amount of time without risking moving past their prime. This way they can cash in again before hitting the dreaded 30. Chase is 25 and Parsons is 26. Right when they turn 28 and 29 they will be ready to move the needle again. Maybe with an extra year they start to slow down or get one less year on their next contract? Plus, with a 5-year deal, that 5th year is not going to be guaranteed anyway. They’ve realized that final year is just a useless bargaining chip dangled by owners.
Total Guarantee
| Name | Pos | TG | Years | Year |
| Micah Parsons | EDGE | $136m | 4 | 2025 |
| Myles Garrett | EDGE | $123.6m | 4 | 2025 |
| Nick Bosa | EDGE | $122.5m | 5 | 2023 |
| Ja’Marr Chase | WR | $112m | 4 | 2025 |
| Justin Jefferson | WR | $110m | 4 | 2024 |
| TJ Watt | EDGE | $108m | 3 | 2025 |
| CeeDee Lamb | WR | $100m | 4 | 2024 |
| Chris Jones | DT | $95m | 5 | 2024 |
| Rashawn Slater | LT | $92m | 4 | 2025 |
| Maxx Crosby | EDGE | $91.5m | 3 | 2025 |
I get annoyed when people try to manipulate a narrative based on things they know are deceptive. Last week Jerry Jones said that he offered Micah Parsons a contract in March with the highest non-QB guarantee ever. That may well have been true, but that only means he was topping Nick Bosa’s guarantee from 2023 which was for a 5-year contract. There’s a reason he chose that specific language and not “biggest contract ever.” Hell, it means he could have offered him 5/$122.5m with all of it guaranteed. Would that have been a fair deal?
The guarantee itself is probably the most important part of the contract. You used to see it more often, that a player would sign what seemed like a huge deal only to get cut a year later. A non-guaranteed contract is the easiest piece to move for a team to get cap compliant. Players are finally very aware of this. This is another reason for shorter deals. A team will have less of a problem guaranteeing more of a shorter contract. Look at Maxx Crosby above. He didn’t get the biggest deal or the highest AAV, but he’s basically getting every dollar of the contract he signed. I’m sure Crosby could have asked for an unguaranteed 4th year that would have given him a higher status, but why?
What’s Next?
The big take away from the Parsons contract was just how far he blew the top off the market. Ironically, this isn’t unlike what the Cowboys did with Dak Prescott. At the time Dak signed his contract, $55m was the lead in AAV. Then Jerry gave Dak $60m per year. It’s been 2 years and no one has topped it, including Josh Allen’s new contract. How long will it be before someone beats $47m? Next up on the list are Aiden Hutchinson, Will Anderson, and… Jalen Carter. My old Carter mega-contract article looks like it needs an update.
All salary numbers courtesy of Spotrac
Philly Front Office 
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