Tom Brady’s Salary & Current Contract Details

Tom Brady salary

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Quarterback Tom Brady and his New England Patriots fell to the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LII on Sunday, February 4, losing 41-33.

Brady’s previous contract, a three-year deal worth $27 million, was set to expire at the end of the 2017 season. However, Brady signed a two-year extension in February 2016, according to ESPN, setting him up to be an unrestricted free agent after the 2019 season.

“Tom Brady signed a 2 year, $41,000,000 contract with the New England Patriots, including a $28,000,000 signing bonus, $28,000,000 guaranteed, and an average annual salary of $20,500,000. In 2018, Brady will earn a base salary of $14,000,000 and a roster bonus of $1,000,000, while carrying a cap hit of $22,000,000 and a dead cap value of $14,000,000,” according to Spotrac, a website that bills itself as “the largest online sports team, and player contract resource on the internet.”

That $20.5 million annual average value ranks Brady at the top of the heap among Patriots players, $7.5 million above the next closest player, cornerback Stephon Gilmore, whose contract carries an average value of $13 million a year. His total contract value of $41 million ranks fourth among Patriots players, behind Gilmore ($65 million), tight end Rob Gronkowski ($54 million), and free safety Devin McCourty ($47.5 million).

Positionally, Brady’s contract value makes him the 16th-highest-paid quarterback in the National Football League, well behind the top contract of the Detroit Lions’ Matthew Stafford, whose five-year deal is worth $135 million. Brady moves up a few spots to fourteenth when looking at average value among quarterbacks; Stafford still leads the pack with an average annual value of $27 million.

In 2016, Brady came in at 54th among Forbes’ list of highest-paid celebrities. The outlet also listed him as the 15th-highest-paid athlete in the world.

Fans might be surprised to learn that Brady doesn’t rank first among NFL quarterbacks for total or annual value. That may be due to some clever maneuvering by the Patriots’ front office. According to the New York Daily News, Brady’s contracts are the key to the franchise’s continued success.

“Brady has been playing at a discount for nearly a decade, providing the Patriots with the salary-cap freedom to build a competitive roster around their Hall of Fame quarterback year after year,” the report reads.

The Daily News invokes the Baltimore Ravens roster moves following their victory in Super Bowl XLVII. A month after winning, the team signed quarterback Joe Flacco to “a gargantuan six-year, $120.6 million contract,” despite his 86.3 career passer rating. Flacco’s deal gave him the highest annual value among NFL players at the time. In the seasons since, the Ravens have had a .500 record and made the playoffs a single time (2014, in which they were eliminated by the Patriots). The Daily News concludes the Ravens have been “hamstrung by Flacco’s massive cap hits” and unable to sign elite players to build a winning roster.

By contrast, Brady has never ranked higher than fifth among quarterbacks, despite earning Super Bowl rings for each finger on his throwing hand and being named the game’s Most Valuable Player in all but one of those campaigns.

“Brady is the unanimous best player at the most important position in professional sports. Yet he’s played on below-market-value contracts for the past seven seasons, which has afforded the Patriots salary cap relief and spending opportunities that other franchises only dream of,” the Daily News states.