Every new quarterback contract that is signed between July and next offseason will be of at least some interest to the 49ers and QB Brock Purdy. The latest deal was reported Friday afternoon between the Dolphins and Tua Tagovailoa. Miami inked their QB to a four-year extension worth $212.4 million and $167 million guaranteed per ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
While this is a massive deal that Purdy’s camp will surely have circled entering negotiations after the 2025 season, it’s not one that completely reset the market which sets a good precedent for the 49ers.
The structure of the deal hasn’t come out yet, but let’s roll with just the average annual value and guarantees for now.
Tagovailoa’s average annual value of $53.1 million comes in just ahead of Lions QB Jared Goff for the third-highest AAV in the league. Trevor Lawrence of the Jaguars and Joe Burrow of the Bengals both pace the position in that category at $55 million.
His $167 million is the highest non-fully guaranteed mark among quarterbacks.
Purdy’s contract will surely come in ahead of Tagovailoa’s number. What’s important for the 49ers is that the Dolphins’ QB didn’t completely reset the market. There’s been speculation that Purdy would be earning upwards of $60 million on his next deal. Tagovailoa’s deal is an indication that won’t necessarily be the case.
Purdy could change that if he wins an MVP and/or a Super Bowl. That would alter the stratosphere in which he’s operating where he’d have cause to ask to be the highest-paid signal caller in the league. For now the Tagovailoa deal is overall good news for San Francisco since even a deal to reset the market would only need to come in a tick above the Lawrence and Burrow contracts from an AAV standpoint.
Next up on the QB market is Packers signal caller Jordan Love, who is entering the final year of his rookie deal and holding in while he waits for an extension from Green Bay. Cowboys signal caller Dak Prescott is also entering the final year of his contract and he may get a new deal at some point that lifts him back toward the top of the market. The 49ers will keep a close eye on those deals as well.
For now the Tagovailoa contract offers another benchmark for contracts that aren’t going to completely reset the market. That’s where the 49ers will likely want to play with Purdy. If he winds up commanding a deal in a different tier than that it means he was either an MVP or a Super Bowl winner, and that’s a bridge San Francisco would be happy to have to cross if they get to it.
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