Veteran quarterback Sam Darnold has two years remaining on his current contract with the Seattle Seahawks. But if he continues on his current path, Darnold will earn a major pay raise with his next deal.
That’s what NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah argued while appearing on Brock & Sock on Seattle Sports Radio.
During the appearance, Jeremiah suggested the annual price tag for Darnold with his next contract will exceed $50 million.
“I think he’s heading in that direction,” said Jeremiah. “If [the Seahawks are] going to stick to their guns on their policy and he comes out and has a year that approaches what he did last year, I would say he’s going to land in that ballpark.
“I think he’s also going to get the benefit of who he is as a person. It’s like, ‘OK, I don’t feel super comfortable paying this, but he’s going to allow me to feel a little more comfortable because of who he is and how he’s viewed.’”
If he signs a contract that exceeds $50 million on an average annual basis, Darnold will join a group of 12 quarterbacks already making more than that amount.
Dak Prescott, Matthew Stafford, Jordan Love, Trevor Lawrence, Joe Burrow and Josh Allen all have an average annual salary of at least $55 million. Prescott leads all quarterbacks with $60 million in annual average pay.
Tua Tagovailoa, Jared Goff, Brock Purdy, Justin Herbert, Lamar Jackson and Jalen Hurts all make between $51-$53.1 million on an average annual basis.
Darnold signed a 3-year, $100.5 million contract to join the Seahawks last offseason. That gave him an average annual salary of $33.5 million.
Projecting Sam Darnold’s Next Contract
Jeremiah isn’t the only one to have Darnold’s value above $50 million per season.
Spotrac calculated the quarterback’s market value at $52.5 million on an average annual basis. Overall, Spotrac projected Darnold to get a 2-year, $105.96 million deal.
Darnold’s likely to pursue a 3-year contract again as he did last offseason. But if the Seahawks inked Darnold to an extension before his contract expires, then a new 2-year agreement could work.
It’s possible, though, that the longer the Seahawks wait, the more expensive Darnold could become. The quarterback just experienced the best two seasons of his career and led his team to the Super Bowl last year.
In the regular season, Darnold posted terrific overall numbers. His 14 interceptions were on the high side, but he completed 67.7% of his passes for an average of 8.5 yards per attempt. Darnold finished 2025 with 4,048 passing yards and 25 touchdowns to earn his second straight Pro Bowl nomination.
Darnold’s Value Clearly More Than $50 Million
$50 million per season is such a big number that it’s still a little hard to comprehend why a quarterback should be so expensive. But based on the market, that’s how much the elite signal-callers make.
Even non-elite quarterbacks, such as Tagovailoa, earn that amount.
Besides Darnold, every quarterback who has won the Super Bowl since 2021 has an average annual pay of at least $45 million. Interestingly, Patrick Mahomes is the cheapest (other than Darnold), but Mahomes’s leads the NFL in total contract value at $450 million (on a 10-year deal).
Darnold isn’t going to get a record-setting years amount in his next contract. But it makes that he would receive pay similar to Hurts, who led the Eagles to the Super Bowl a year before Darnold accomplished the feat.
Hurts signed a five-year, $255 million deal with his last extension.
Early in his career, it didn’t appear Darnold was ever going to reach that kind of pay day. He struggled for years with the New York Jets and Carolina Panthers before becoming a backup with the San Francisco 49ers.
But Darnold is 31-7, including the playoffs, the past two years. Barring a significant setback in 2026, he is well on his way to a big pay day.
Seahawks Get Huge Price Tag Projection for Sam Darnold’s Next Contract