Within the past 16 days, Jalen Hurts and Lamar Jackson have agreed to new, massive long-term contracts that reset the top of the quarterback market.
The assumption is that Justin Herbert and Joe Burrow will eventually leapfrog Jackson ($52 million per year) as the top-paid quarterback.
While there are some slight differences in QB contracts -- four versus five years, cash flow, etc. -- for the most part, with a quarterback's first extension, we see the latest signee get a similar deal to previous ones with a few million sprinkled on top to make him the highest-paid at the position. While all the Jackson contract details haven't yet been reported, the early figures suggest it was similar to Hurts' deal, with a boost in the figures along the way.
With that logic, we could presume that the Chargers and Bengals would use the Hurts and Jackson contracts as a blueprint for getting deals done with Herbert and Burrow, respectively.
Asked Tuesday on SiriusXM NFL Radio about how those recent deals affected his negotiations with Herbert's reps, Chargers general manager Tom Telesco suggested not much.
"Any time there is a contract signed at that position it's going to come up in conversation," Telesco said. "I wouldn't say there is any quarterback contract out there that is a blueprint -- I wouldn't say that at all. But like anything else, there'll be contracts that'll be talked about, and we'll cherry-pick some things out of that contract we like. The agent will cherry-pick some things out of that contract that he likes. But in the end, we'll get to a compromise at some point. Something that works for everybody."
Generally, new long-term deals for quarterbacks come later in the summer, before training camps kick off. The timing aligns with the soft deadline before the QB begins the hefty work to prepare for the season (i.e., injury risk comes into play).
Telesco said he doesn't have a timetable to get a deal done with Herbert but isn't fretting a deadline.
"I don't know when it will get done," he said. "I don't really have a timeframe for it, to be honest with you. But we'll get there."
Herbert is entering the fourth year of his rookie contract, woefully underpaid at a $1.01 million base salary. The Chargers picked up his fifth-year option for 2024, worth $29.504 million. It's possible with two years of contract control plus at least two additional years of franchise tag capability, L.A. could play hardball, knowing it has four years of leverage. However, that path would be silly for any organization. The Chargers found their franchise QB. Don't mess around with that luxury.
