LNBS: Quarterback salary as a percentage of the cap

[RealSNR]

I can already see people going, "Why isn't this in the Mahomes thread?" or "Why start a thread about this when we're not even allowed to negotiate for a Mahomes extension?" Because it's the offseason, dipshits. And the Russell Wilson thread got me thinking.

Also, sorry if this comes as general knowledge to a lot of fans. It wasn't general knowledge to me, so... well, here it is anyway.

I was wondering what the highest percentage of the salary cap the starting QB earned when he won a Super Bowl. And that led me to this blog on a Packers site written prior to Rodgers' most recent extension. Apparently the mark is 13.1%, set by Steve Young in 1994.

https://cheeseheadtv.com/blog/the-nf...is-it-true-515

So then I wondered: Since the QB salary percentage has exploded in recent years, what the likelihood of us seeing that mark continually reset as more and more new QBs start getting paid ginormous contracts?

Check out the tables on that blog for some of the salary information going back to when the salary cap was first established. I don't really want to comment or spoon feed that data in this thread. It's a super short read, so I recommend checking it out. However, I will repost this little nugget:

Several times a team at least appeared in the super bowl despite paying a player in excess of the bugaboo amount. In 2016, Atlanta with Ryan at quarterback got to the big game despite paying Ryan 15.44 percent of the cap. Absent the furious comeback staged by NE, the 13.1 percent bugaboo would already have been broken.

In 2015, Carolina paid Charles Johnson, a DE, 13.78 percent of the cap. In 2013, Denver paid Manning 13.15 percent, which beats Young’s record. In 2009, Indianapolis got to the super bowl despite paying Peyton Manning a staggering 17.2 percent of the cap. There may be other players who at least appeared in a super bowl while earning more than 13.1 percent of the cap who I did not run across due to limitations in the various databases.

Mahomes is going to get paid. He's just going to. Maybe the NFL will wisen up and teams will stop paying shitty game manager QBs like Flacco, Tannehill, Dalton, Eli Manning, and Garrapolo all of these record-setting contracts based on AAV. But if a QB truly is top of the league, he's going to get and deserve that money. The question is can the team win with that much cap space devoted to one player.

Well, it's going to be more difficult. Way more difficult. But the good news is seeing what Peyton did in the league with his high salary cap percentages. He cracked 13.1% 8 times in his career, and while none of those 8 seasons won him a Super Bowl, he still did kept the Colts/Donks always in the picture. And that was also with a franchise that couldn't seem to draft good defense to save its life (or at least had a GM that didn't make it a very strong focus).

Mahomes is the kind of player who can set the league on fire like Manning did in his prime. Perhaps more than Peyton. And while we have yet to see any real success in adding cheap defensive playmakers during the brief Veach regime, you can at least tell that he's got a plan, and he and Reid aren't afraid to make big decisions instead of staying the course in spite of all the mediocrity.

Plus... (and **** you to Jared Goff, because nobody gives a shit about him) Mahomes is just different. We have that going for us. You weren't supposed to draft air raid/Hal Mumme spread QBs, especially not in the 1st round. No team was supposed to do that. Mahomes was the first real QB to get people to re-think how the NFL should do offense and work with young passers coming out of college. Granted, none of them are going to be Mahomes (we definitely got the best one) but teams are going to start seeing more success from dipping into that well of college QBs. He's been a trendsetter and a record breaker before. And if there's any guy who's going to beat 13.1%, I'm putting that money on Pat.