$180,000,000 QB Kirk Cousins gives reality check on NFL contracts in comparison to NBA: "It's all fake money"

Pro Bowl quarterback Kirk Cousins will play for a third NFL team after signing a four-year, $180 million contract with the Atlanta Falcons. But while that amount is massive, he shed some light on the true nature of his deal, which is a constant fixture among most NFL contracts.

Cousins compared NFL and NBA contracts during the April 3 episode of “The Big Podcast with Shaq,” saying:

“I’ve always been about structure [of the contract]. Because in basketball, I think the contracts are guaranteed. Football it’s not the case. No [there’s no guarantee]. It’s all fake money... You basically sign one-to-two-year deals, a nice, nice contract. But then there’s these fake numbers afterwards.”

The fake numbers Cousins referred to include contract restructuring, wherein a team converts a player’s base salary to a signing bonus to save cap space. Teams can also add void years to a contract to distribute the cap hit into more seasons.

Likewise, NFL contracts contain incentives based on workouts attended, roster position, and in-game performance. Therefore, a player on a down year might not earn these bonuses.

Kirk Cousins added:

“What it does is it makes everybody come into work and grind their tails off because even the highest paid guys are like, ‘If I don't deliver, I’m gone.’ So there’s like a healthiness to that... But at the same time, you know, it’s not player friendly.”

In his case, the Atlanta Falcons guaranteed $100 million of his $180 million deal. That includes a $50 million signing bonus, a $12.5 million salary in 2024, and a $27.5 million base salary in 2025. He will get an additional $10 million roster bonus if he’s still with the team by the fifth day of the 2025 league year.

Meanwhile, some of his bonuses include $10 million roster incentives in 2026 and 2027. As a saving grace, Kirk Cousins’ contract with Atlanta has a no-trade clause. Of course, his earnings are subject to taxes and other fees, further watering down his take-home pay.

Conversely, NBA players get fully guaranteed contracts, with Jaylen Brown leading the way with a five-year, $286.23 million deal with the Boston Celtics. His deal unseated Nikola Jokic’s five-year, $276.1 million deal at the top of the NBA contracts list.

That disparity had Kirk Cousins sharing his desire to have NFL contracts structured like their NBA counterparts.

“The NBA stuff we wish was true of ours is that if you play 10 years in the NBA, lifetime medical. For us, it's basically no matter how long you play, you'll get medical insurance for like five years after I'm done playing this over.”

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Kirk Cousins, a rare recipient of a fully guaranteed NFL contract

In March 2018, Kirk Cousins signed a three-year, $84 million fully guaranteed contract with the Minnesota Vikings. It was the first NFL contract of its nature and the most lucrative of all deals at that time. Cousins signed a one-year, $35 million fully guaranteed deal in 2022.

However, that occurrence became more of the exception, not the rule. Deshaun Watson was the second player among quarterbacks to receive a straight-up contract with no contingencies. He signed a five-year, $230 million contract extension with the Cleveland Browns after his trade from the Houston Texans.

Finally, getting a fully guaranteed contract was one of Lamar Jackson’s demands for his extension with the Baltimore Ravens. While he didn’t get his wish, the Ravens gave him $185 million in total guarantees from his five-year, $260 million contract.

It was the NFL’s richest contract in terms of annual average value until Justin Herbert and Joe Burrow signed extensions with their respective squads.