The new Patrick Mahomes contract covers eight seasons and averages, from signing, a payout of $63.093 million per year. That pushes the market to unprecedented heights. And it brings into focus the next wave of quarterback deals.
So let’s take a look at the quarterbacks who’ll use the Mahomes contract as a key data point for ongoing or upcoming negotiations.
Lamar Jackson, Ravens.
Jackson has wanted a new deal for more than a year. His current contract averaged $52.5 million per year from signing. At the time it was finalized, he was the highest paid player in the league. He has now slid down to the bottom of the top 10. Mahomes getting to $63.09 million, especially while still recovering from a torn ACL, will only strengthen Lamar’s resolve.
Jackson currently has $104 million remaining on his current contract, over the next two years. With a no-tag clause, he can kick the can through the next two seasons and become an unrestricted free agent. It gives him significant leverage, and Mahomes’s contract likely nudges Lamar’s reasonable expectations from at least $60.1 million per year (based on Dak Prescott’s latest deal) to at least $63.1 million annually.
Joe Burrow, Bengals.
In 2023, after his first three NFL seasons, Burrow agreed to a seven-year deal with an average from signing of $44.28 million per year and a new-money average of $55 million. He has four years left with a total payout of $163.539 million, an average of $40.88 million.
His recent restructuring was a cap-creation device, with no new money. The Bengals, who are extremely careful with money, may not be inclined to tear up the current deal and replace it with a new contract.
For his part, Burrow may not be inclined to extend his commitment to the team. His discontent after three straight non-playoff seasons has become more obvious. As he enters his seventh season in Cincinnati, Burrow could be thinking about reaching the same conclusion Carson Palmer did after his eighth.
Baker Mayfield, Buccaneers.
He has said talks on a deal that would extend his $33.3 million per year contract are nowhere close to where he thought they’d be. The Buccaneers could tag him in 2027, or they could let him hit the open market.
Some think the Bucs wouldn’t use the franchise tag; with a 2026 cap number of $39.975 million, Mayfield’s 2027 franchise tender would be at least $47.97 million. There’s a sense in some circles that the Bucs believe they’ll ultimately offer him more than anyone would in free agency, if a new deal isn’t done before Mayfield’s self-imposed deadline of the start of training camp.
C.J. Stroud.
The Texans repeatedly have proclaimed that he’s their guy. But they have yet to do for him what they’d done for cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. and defensive end Will Anderson — sign the first-round pick to a new deal before his fourth season.
The challenge at this point comes from putting a number on his second contract. There’s a broad range when it comes to veteran quarterback pay. Where would Stroud fit?
Currently, the number would be lower than it could be for Stroud, if he has a strong fourth season. Since the Texans realize that, at this point, they’d be only bidding against themselves, there’s no reason to rush the process.
Caleb Williams, Bears.
The first overall pick in the 2024 draft becomes eligible for a new deal after the 2026 regular season. And Williams has been very focused on the business realities of the NFL, from even before he was drafted.
When the time comes for Williams to get a new deal, the Mahomes number will drive the discussion. Especially if Williams continues to be on a trajectory that could put him among the top four or five quarterbacks in football.
We’ve already heard talk of Williams having expectations that would be more than eye-popping. And we also expect that Williams will make it known that he wants his contract not after the 2026 postseason ends, but promptly upon the opening of the window for a new deal after the Bears face the Vikings in Week 18.
Why carry the injury risk into the 2026 postseason? No quarterback on his rookie deal has tried to do that, even though the CBA wrinkle has been hiding in plain sight since 2011.
Jayden Daniels, Commanders.
Like Williams, Daniels becomes eligible for a new deal after the 2026 regular season. His main goal should be to reestablish himself after a disappointing and injury-plagued second season, during which he played only seven of 17 games.
If Daniels returns to his rookie form, he’ll be joining Williams as a quarterback looking for a second contract.
Drake Maye, Patriots.
The player who finished second in the MVP voting to cap his second season also has his window open after the 2026 regular season. And the Patriots will be hoping that, like Tom Brady before him, Maye will be less inclined to break the bank and more inclined to ensure that there will be cap space to have a quality team around him.
Brady, who entered the league as the 199th overall pick, had naturally lower expectations early in his career. Maye, the third overall pick who was denied the commensurate reward due to the rookie wage scale, may not be as charitable as Brady was.
Bo Nix, Broncos.
Nix’s window likewise opens after the 2026 regular season. He’ll need to show he has fully recovered from the foot injury suffered late in the AFC playoff win over the Bills. And he’ll need to do even more in Sean Payton’s offense to unlock a major deal.
Regardless, there’s a new high bar — and his contemporaries from the 2024 draft could add more data points.
That raises another question, as to Williams, Daniels, Maye, and Nix. Who goes first? There will be a competition among the agents to emerge with the best deal. This could prompt some of them to wait until the others jump in the pool first.
Sam Darnold, Seahawks.
Darnold’s three-year, $100.5 million contract from 2025 was structured to give the Seahawks an escape hatch after one year. It wasn’t structured to force the team back to the table if Darnold leads the team to a Super Bowl win.
With $27.5 million in base pay and up to $5 million in available incentives, Darnold would be justified to seek a new deal. The Seahawks may want to wait until 2027.
Regardless, Mahomes’s new contract will be a factor, whenever it’s time to sit down and work out a new contract.
Ravens Clips
Learning a new offense isn’t the only adjustment that Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson is making this offseason.
The departure of Tyler Linderbaum as a free agent leaves the Ravens without an established starter at center heading into the 2026 season. Danny Pinter and Jovaughn Gwyn have each gotten chances with the first team during minicamp practices and Jackson said on Wednesday that he likes how the options are shaping up.
“Those guys are competing well. They’re doing a pretty good job to me,” Jackson said, via the team’s website. “I’m liking our choices, for sure.”
Ravens head coach Jesse Minter called it a “balanced competition” and said that Corey Bullock could still work his way into the mix after missing time in the spring with an injury, so there’s still some time to go before the Ravens settle on who will be snapping the ball.
Lamar Jackson has a new offensive coordinator and a new offense.
He’s had that before but not like this. In previous coordinator transitions, the offense had some carryover in schemes, concepts and terminology.
Declan Doyle, who worked under Ben Johnson last season, is installing things that wide receiver Zay Flowers says he’s “never seen before.”
That has Jackson working as hard as he has in any offseason since his rookie year.
“I’m being challenged right now,” Jackson said, via The Baltimore Banner. “It’s a new system [with] a lot of terminology within this system. Nothing really transitioned over from the last system.”
Doyle is coaching Jackson hard, sometimes using expletives with his quarterback to make his point. That, Jackson said, is something he “wasn’t used to.”
“I’m a coachable player,” Jackson said. “Sometimes he sees things that I don’t see. Sometimes I see things that he might have not thought of. And it’s just great to have. We piggyback off of each other.”
Jackson was 6-7 last season, the first time he has had a losing record. He had 21 touchdowns and seven interceptions and ran for a career-low 349 yards and two touchdowns.L
Ravens kicker Tyler Loop had a chance to send his team to the playoffs in Week 18, but he missed a field goal at the final whistle in a 26-24 loss to the Steelers that set off an offseason of change in Baltimore that included the departure of head coach John Harbaugh.
Loop was more successful at the end of Wednesday’s minicamp practice when he hit a 40-yarder that caused new head coach Jesse Minter to call off post-practice meetings for the team’s players. While that made plenty of Ravens happy, there was a little less pressure than his miss against the Steelers but Loop said that his belief in his ability to make his next big kick hasn’t been shaken.
“I would say that the biggest thing I did was acknowledge and accept it,” Loop said, via the team’s website. “Moving on from the kick itself was pretty easy. I’d say the biggest part moving on was just letting the people that I care about, and that care about me, know that I’m good. Nothing’s changed for me. I still feel confident in my abilities.”
Loop was 30-of-34 on field goals after being drafted in the sixth round last year and the Ravens will be hoping any future misses come at less significant moments than his fourth one of the 2025 season.
Calais Campbell returned to the Ravens for his 19th NFL season and the defensive lineman isn’t looking past this year when it comes to his playing future.
Campbell told reporters on Tuesday that he expects the 2026 campaign to be his final one in professional football. Campbell did offer the caveat that he has thought that in the past and his answer to why he has continued to play explains why the door hasn’t been slammed shut at this point.
“Everybody asks ‘why do you keeping doing this?’ The only answer I can really say is that I love this game,” Campbell said. “I love it, I’m still fairly good at it and they still want me to play, so why not?”
Campbell played for the Ravens from 2020-2022 and said that the chance to play for defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver again factored into his decision to make Baltimore the final projected stop in his NFL career.
The Ravens backed out of a trade for Maxx Crosby in March after the edge rusher failed their physical. The team reportedly was concerned about Crosby’s durability because of a degenerative issue in his knee.
Crosby and the Raiders don’t share those concerns.
He is back with the Raiders and still rehabbing from a January surgery to repair a torn meniscus on Jan. 7. Crosby jogged and stretched with teammates at Wednesday’s OTA before going inside to continue his physical therapy.
Crosby expects to be back soon.
“I’m at the point where I’m almost there, but I forget that I need to relax a little bit, so that’s kind of been the biggest battle right now,” Crosby said, via Ryan McFadden of ESPN.
Crosby played through the left knee injury from Week 7 last season before going on injured reserve on Dec. 27.
“Ultimately, it has probably been the best [rehab] by far, and we’re not even to the finish line,” Crosby said. “It’s been better because I’ve been able to focus on other things. Whether that’s being in the weight room, like I’m moving more weight than I ever have, and doing things in a different way, and being able to get my body the proper rest that it actually needs.
“This has forced me to have to take a step back in certain areas and not run 8,000 yards on the field every single day.”
The Browns added a little extra protection for themselves to complete the Myles Garrett trade to the Rams this week.
While Cleveland received edge rusher Jared Verse, a 2027 first-round pick, a 2028 second-round pick, and a 2029 third-round pick from Los Angeles in exchange for Garrett, the league’s daily transaction wire noted that the final pick was conditional.
According to Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com, the condition on that 2029 third-round pick is that it will become a first-round pick in the event that the Rams trade Garrett to a team in the AFC North.
It doesn’t seem likely that the Rams would even want to trade Garrett at any point in the future.
But just in case they do, the Browns have at least made it unlikely that they’ll ever see Garrett twice a year on the opposing sideline.
Ravens wide receiver Rashod Bateman is absent from organized team activities, and offensive coordinator Declan Doyle said some “personal things” have kept Bateman away.
Bateman, though, has been in the building for much of the offseason.
“Yeah, Bate’s been around,” Doyle said, via video from Giana Han of the Baltimore Banner. “He’s dealing with some personal things, so he hasn’t been here for a little bit. He was here that first week, and we were able to work him in quite a bit. Then, he was here pretty much the whole offseason, every day. He’s an early morning guy, so a lot of times I’d be going to work out, and he’s in there doing stuff by himself at times. I’ve been pleased with him. Obviously, . . . we’re working with the guys who are here, and guys who aren’t, we’re expecting them to be working kind of on their own. But I’m excited for him to get back in here at training camp and keep rolling.”
Bateman dealt with a high right ankle sprain last season, and caught only 19 passes for a career-low 224 yards and two touchdowns in 13 games.
The Colts have announced that Hall of Fame receiver Raymond Berry, who won two NFL titles with the Colts and later coached the Patriots to their first Super Bowl appearance, has died. He was 93.
In 13 NFL seasons after arriving in Baltimore as a 20th-round draft pick in 1954, Berry caught 631 passes for 9,275 yards and 68 touchdowns in 154 regular-season games. He was named to the NFL’s All-Decade Team of the 1950s, the NFL’s 75th Anniversary All-Time Team, and the NFL 100 All-Time Team.
The Colts won the NFL championship in 1958 and 1959. In the epic 1958 title game (known as the Greatest Game Ever Played), Berry caught 12 passes for 148 yards and a touchdown in a 23-17 overtime victory against the Giants.
Berry was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1973.
Immediately after his playing career ended, Berry went into coaching. After serving as a receivers coach with the Cowboys (1968-69), the University of Arkansas (1970-72), the Lions (1973-75), the Browns (1976-77), and the Patriots (1978-81), he returned to New England as the head coach in 1984.
In his second season, the Patriots advanced to Super Bowl XX against the Bears.
Berry coached the Patriots through 1989, generating a record of 51-41. He worked as quarterbacks coach for the Lions in 1991 and the Broncos in 1992.
Berry is a member of the Baltimore Ravens’ Ring of Honor, along with seven other Baltimore Colts players. His No. 82 was retired by the Colts.
We extend our condolences to Berry’s family, friends, and colleagues.
A report last month indicated that Ravens defensive lineman Nnamdi Madubuike plans to play this season after missing most of last year with a neck injury, but he has not been taking part in any of the team’s practices this spring.
During a Wednesday press conference, Ravens head coach Jesse Minter was asked about Madubuike’s status and said that he has been with the team during the offseason program. Minter did not provide any specifics about when Madubuike might be ready to make a full return to action.
“I think Nnamdi is here a lot,” Minter said, via a transcript from the team. “He’s working. He’s doing some certain parts of our program. I’ll probably, again, leave that up to him of when it’s really to the point where he may be out there, but he’s definitely getting a lot of work in. He’s trending in a great direction, I would say.”
Madubuike’s return would be a significant development for Minter’s defense, but any plans for him will be written in pencil until there are some surer signs that he’ll be playing this fall.
