Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes on Monday signed the richest deal in American sports history. His contract spans 10 years and is worth $450 million plus incentives. Those numbers are almost comically large, especially in the NFL during a time of such salary cap uncertainty.
To get a grip on just how much money $450 million is, we took a look at the career earnings of eight 49ers greats. None of the 49ers’ all-time greats even scratch the surface that touches the $450 million mark. No player in NFL history has. Eli Manning is the NFL’s all-time leader in career earnings at $252,280,004.
Instead, we picked out some 49ers greats from a few different eras according to data available on Spotrac and Over the Cap, and combined them to see if it came close to Mahomes’ 10-year contract.
It took the current career earnings of nine 49ers greats to come within shouting distance of Mahomes’ $450 million deal:
George Kittle: $4,096,287
Joe Montana: $25,555,000
Patrick Willis: $42,566,330
Jerry Rice: $42,653,529
NaVorro Bowman: $44,005,662
Steve Young: $49,372,000
Frank Gore: $63,296,439
Terrell Owens: $79,628,334
Joe Staley: $84,407,638
Those nine players, including four Hall of Famers and a couple future Hall of Famers, have combined to make $435,581,219 in their NFL careers — about $14.5 million short of Mahomes’ single contract value.
There are a slew of factors at play here, including inflation and the value of contracts when Montana and Rice played vs. the value of contracts in 2020 and beyond. Kittle’s low dollar figure will also be changing when he inks his pending extension.
However, it works as a good illustrator for just how much contracts have changed, and how remarkable the dollar figure is on Mahomes’ deal. Even stacking up more modern 49ers contracts would take four or five players to equal the Chiefs’ QB.
San Francisco witnessed his value first hand in Super Bowl LIV when he helped lead the Chiefs back from 10 points down in the fourth quarter. While Mahomes has passed the likes of Montana and Rice in career earnings, he’ll need to keep winning Super Bowls to reach their tier among all-time greats.