NFL Top 10 Player Salaries of 2020

2020 was a tough year all around. Job losses and bankruptcy of many along with a worldwide pandemic, left many individuals waiting for small stimulus checks and unemployment benefits to make it through their days. With all the loss 2020 has brought, the NFL’s loss was minimal as hundreds of millions of dollars have gone towards their player’s salaries.

Dak Prescott is currently the highest paid player in the NFL with a whopping $31 million dollar paycheck in 2020. His paycheck of $31 million dollars is far above the national income average in the U.S., which in 2019 was reported to be $68,000, a $30 million dollar difference. Prescott’s $31 million dollar franchise deal is far above his 2019 salary of $2 million dollars. However, his deal was just for 2020 and is subject to change for the 2021 season.

Jimmy Garoppolo comes in second with a paycheck of just under $24 million dollars, a $23 million dollar difference from the national average. Garoppolo signed a 5-year contract of $138,000,000 million dollars, which averages to around $27,000,000 million dollars a year.

The total of just the top ten players of the NFL is just under $200 million dollars, more than enough money to have jumpstarted much of the research needed to design and eventually create the COVID vaccine. The NFL saw delays and cancellations of many games, along with the loss of audience and crowd supporters, but there still managed to be hundreds of millions of dollars dedicated to the salaries of their players.

Football is one of the most difficult sports to go pro in. Less than 5% of draft eligible players make it into the NFL, and much hard work is put into becoming a professional player, but what are the justifications for paying athletes in just 1 year, more than the average person will see in their entire lifetime? The NFL saw many salaries drop during 2020, and will continue to see drops until the end of the pandemic, yet the NFL players have enough money to last many individuals a lifetime.