How Much Drew Brees, Tom Brady and Other QBs Make Per Career TD Thrown
Andrew Lisa
6 min read
NFL quarterbacks don’t get paid by the touchdown, but perhaps they should. No end-zone bomb would be possible without linemen blocking, tight ends running decoy routes and running backs selling play-action fakes. But in the end, it’s touchdowns that run up scores, win games, sell jerseys and keep televisions tuned into the game and their big-dollar advertisers.
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Using player salary and statistical data, GOBankingRates determined how much money each of the NFL’s 32 starting quarterbacks make per touchdown based on their career earnings divided by their total combined passing touchdowns.
Readers might assume that giants of the sport like Tom Brady and Drew Brees are shoo-ins for the top spots, but they’re actually in the bottom third of the list. That’s because those veterans have their 1,000-plus combined touchdowns spread out across salaries paid out over two decades each. Some young guns in the league landed massive salaries and bonuses just a year or two and a handful of touchdowns into their careers, which comes out to much more cash per end zone toss. Here’s a look at what the NFL’s quarterbacks earn per touchdown, from emerging superstars to iconic Hall of Famers with money to burn.
Methodology: GOBankingRates used ESPN’s 2020 NFL depth charts for all 32 teams to find the starting quarterback for every NFL team in order to find how much each quarterback has made per career touchdown thrown. Once the 32 starting quarterbacks were found, GOBankingRates found the following factors for each: (1) seasons played as sourced from Spotrac; (2) total career earnings as sourced from Spotrac; (3) total career passing touchdowns as sourced from Pro Football Reference; and (4) dollar ($) per passing touchdown found by dividing factor (2) by (3). All data were collected on and up to date as of Aug. 24, 2020.
