It’s not easy to be an NFL general manager in the modern era.
These front-office leaders must perform the unenviable balancing act of acquiring and signing elite, highly paid talent capable of lifting a franchise to Super Bowl contention while also leaving enough money available to round out a competitive roster that fits under the salary cap.
While there are plenty of different approaches a GM can take to achieve this goal, one of the simplest ways to maximize the ability of a 53-man roster is to sign as many players as possible to team-friendly deals.
Having at least a handful of names under contract who fare as well as, if not better than, their peers while counting for far less against the cap can go a long way toward crafting a championship squad.
Rookie contracts are an obvious way for clubs to get team-friendly deals and a major reason why the draft is so important to sustained success in the NFL, but these contracts are locked in at a rate that scales based on draft position.
Discounting rookie deals, here is a look at the league’s six most team-friendly contracts, which have been ranked mainly with consideration to recent production and projected contributions this coming season, ahead of the 2024 campaign.
Contract Average Annual Value: $2.3 million
Latest Contract: 2 years, $4.6 million (expires after 2024 season)
Hjalte Froholdt appeared to be closer to being on his way out of the league than to signing a major contract extension as recently as the 2022 season.
The Danish center had bounced around the NFL since being selected in the fourth round of the 2019 draft, playing with three different teams before catching on with the Arizona Cardinals last season.
That pairing has turned out great for both parties, as Froholdt unexpectedly made a leap to become of the NFL’s better players at the position last year.
Froholdt had logged just six starts in his career—all with the Cleveland Browns in 2022—prior to joining the Cardinals on a two-year, $4.6 million deal last offseason. He went on to start all 17 games for them in 2023, logging 1,123 offensive snaps (the fifth-most of any center last season) and allowed a mere three sacks, per Pro Football Focus.
While the 27-year-old’s PFF grade of 64.1 doesn’t jump off the page and the eight penalties he was flagged for could be improved upon, he more than earned his affordable pay last season.
Considering Froholdt is only commanding $2.3 million in average annual value, which ranks No. 17 among centers, he’s already on one of the most team-friendly deals of the 2024 season.
He hasn’t even had a chance to show further improvement yet, either, something that would provide the Cardinals an incredible return on their meager investment and set Froholdt up to sign a major deal next spring.
Contract Average Annual Value: $5 million
Latest Contract: 3 years, $15 million (expires after 2027 season)
The New England Patriots may have reached their lowest point in decades during an abysmal four-win 2023 season, but there’s reason to believe they could soon exit their rebuild and become a factor again.
One of those reasons is the development of Jahlani Tavai, a linebacker who is establishing himself as one of the NFL’s most promising players at the position.
The 27-year-old joined the Patriots in 2021 after being cut by the Detroit Lions, the franchise that selected him in the second round of the 2019 draft.
After a short stint on New England’s practice squad, Tavai worked his way onto the active roster—spending a year as a backup before earning a starting role early in the 2022 campaign.
The decision to insert the Hawaii product into the starting lineup has been a shrewd one for the Pats, especially after he was one of the team’s few bright spots in 2023. While playing on a budget two-year, $4.4 million extension he signed the prior season, he appeared in all 17 games while recording 110 tackles, five pass defenses, two interceptions, two forced fumbles and a sack.
A cap-flush New England front office recently elected to reward Tavai for those efforts, inking him to another extension—this time for three years with a base value of $15 million with incentives that could take it up to $21 million—earlier this month.
Tavai may now be in line to make quite a bit more than his current base salary of $1.63 million, but he should remain fantastic value for the Pats going forward if he continues on his upward trajectory.
Contract Average Annual Value: $20.63 million
Latest Contract: 3 years, $61.89 million (expires after 2025 season)
DJ Moore isn’t as decorated as some of the league’s other elite receivers, but there is little doubt the Chicago Bears pass-catcher should be considered one of the NFL’s best.
Despite playing alongside a string of poor quarterbacks during his six professional seasons, the 27-year-old has still managed to rack up 6,565 yards and 29 touchdowns on 460 receptions.
There’s a good chance Moore’s best is yet to come. Now that the Bears have a strong-armed signal-caller in Caleb Williams, the pairing’s potential success could highlight just how severely underpaid the wideout really is.
Moore is making only a shade over $20 million per season after signing a three-year, $61.9 million extension that runs through the 2025 campaign back in 2022. He accepted that deal from the Carolina Panthers—his former employer that traded him as part of a package to acquire the No. 1 overall pick in 2023—and has yet to get an extension offer from the Bears despite his strong debut in the Windy City.
Considering the Maryland product’s outstanding production last year (1,364 yards and eight touchdowns on 96 catches, all career highs) with a limited Justin Fields running the offense, it’s obvious he is underpaid compared to his contemporaries.
Moore is making less than receivers such as Calvin Ridley ($23 million AAV) and Michael Pittman Jr. ($23.3 million AAV) despite consistently outperforming them.
While he may not be able to net as much as the game-changing talents such as Justin Jefferson ($35 million AAV) and Amon-Ra St. Brown ($30 million AAV) recently earned on their new deals, a raise that brings him into the top 10 of the position with an AAV of at least $25 million would be a strong starting point in negotiations.
Contract Average Annual Value: $7 million
Latest Contract: 1 year, $7 million (expires after 2024 season)
The Kansas City Chiefs’ incredible run of success has made it easier for them to sign ring-hungry veterans to below-market deals.
The team has been making the most of its perennial contender status in negotiations and leveraged it again this offseason by signing Marquise Brown to an incentive-laden one-year contract that will cap out a still-reasonable $11 million if the wideout reaches them all.
The 27-year-old was one of the biggest steals of the 2024 free-agency signing period. He could have cashed in with a long-term contract worth up to $15 million per season elsewhere, but he opted to take a short-term deal to help Patrick Mahomes and Co. chase an unprecedented third consecutive Super Bowl.
While Brown is coming off a rocky two-year tenure with the Arizona Cardinals—the team the Baltimore Ravens traded him to after he posted his first and, so far, only 1,000-yard receiving campaign—he looks poised to re-emerge as one of the league’s top pass-catching talents and parlay that into a huge contract next spring.
JuJu Smith-Schuster experienced a similar career revitalization in Kansas City two years ago, inking an incentivized one-year contract that ultimately paid him $10.2 million for the 2022 season. He responded with his best performance since his breakout sophomore campaign and went on to earn a three-year deal from the New England Patriots after winning a ring with the Chiefs.
Brown should follow in Smith-Schuster’s footsteps, returning an immense amount of value on what will likely be a one-year, $11 million contract before going on to net a long-term deal from a more cap-flush squad in 2025.
Contract Average Annual Value: $4.13 million
Latest Contract: 1 year, $4.13 million (expires after 2025 season)
Raheem Mostert has been a revelation for the Miami Dolphins.
After a strong first year with the club in 2022, the veteran running back emerged as one of the NFL’s very best at his position last season, finishing the campaign with 1,012 rushing yards and a league-high 18 touchdowns on 209 totes.
While Mostert has been instrumental in Miami’s emergence as a contender, he’s being vastly underpaid for those efforts.
Despite just signing a new contract extension on the heels of some impressive 2023 contributions, including his first Pro Bowl nod in his ninth professional season, the 32-year-old still only ranks No. 19 among running backs in terms of average annual value .
Mostert banked a meager $3.8 million last year and didn’t earn much of a raise on a new deal that will keep him in Miami through the 2025 season. His $4.1 million AAV places him behind players who have contributed far less in recent years such as Miles Sanders ($6.4 million AAV) and Devin Singletary ($5.5 million AAV).
Mostert is commanding just half of what backs like D’Andre Swift ($8 million AAV) and Joe Mixon ($8.5 million AAV) are raking in on a yearly basis and is well off the top-end contracts like those Christian McCaffrey ($19 million AAV) and Alvin Kamara ($15 million AAV) are playing on.
Mostert’s advanced age and history of injuries almost certainly worked against him in negotiations as the Dolphins came out well ahead here.
The club will clearly have the best running back contract in football if he can stay on the field and continue contributing at a similar level over the next two years.
Contract Average Annual Value: $45 Million
Latest Contract: 10 years, $450 million (expires after 2031 season)
Nearly four years ago, Patrick Mahomes broke a record that still stands when he signed a historic 10-year, $450 million contract extension.
Even though the Kansas City Chiefs superstar set himself up to earn nearly a half-billion dollars in salary alone with the stroke of a pen, he’s clearly the most underpaid player in the NFL right now.
At the time of that signing, Mahomes had already earned an NFL MVP award and was coming off his first Super Bowl title with the expectations of many more to come. He’s lived up to those lofty expectations, having gone on to nab another MVP award and two more rings before the age of 29.
Because of the six-time Pro Bowler, the Chiefs became the first team since the 2004-05 New England Patriots to capture back-to-back championships and are the clear favorites to win Super Bowl LIX. Doing so would complete an unprecedented three-peat and give the signal-caller a valid argument to challenge Tom Brady as the greatest player of all time.
All of this is because of a player who is earning just $45 million annually, a figure that ties Mahomes with Kirk Cousins for the No. 9 spot among QBs (and all NFL players) in AAV. It’s only $10 million more than Justin Jefferson is earning per year after the Minnesota Vikings wideout set a non-QB record with his four-year, $140 million extension.
No player ranked ahead of Mahomes on the AAV list—including Joe Burrow and Trevor Lawrence, who are tied for the highest contract AAV in history at $55 million—has a single Super Bowl ring to their name.
Burrow, Jared Goff ($53 million AAV) and Jalen Hurts ($51 million AAV) are the only ones to have even reached the big game, but both fell short in their lone appearance.
The Chiefs may decide to up their quarterback’s salary to distinguish him among his peers at some point, but there’s almost no chance the future first-ballot Hall of Famer will have anything but the most team-friendly deal in the league even after earning a significant raise.
Mahomes’ contributions simply can’t be rewarded properly in the salary-cap era.
All contract data courtesy of Spotrac.