Super Bowl LVII is nearly upon us. The Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles have won championships within the past six seasons, though they've taken different paths to get back to the Super Bowl. The Chiefs, behind coach Andy Reid and stars Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, have had consistent postseason success. The Eagles revamped their 2017 championship team, swapping out Carson Wentz and Nick Foles for Jalen Hurts, who's already one of the best dual-threat quarterbacks the league has ever seen.
Because he's still on his rookie deal, Hurts has been an absolute steal for the Eagles.
This season, Hurts made $1,506,293. That makes him the 35th-highest quarterback in terms of 2022 salary. He's behind backups including Arizona's Colt McCoy, Green Bay's Jordan Love, and Chicago's Trevor Siemian. He also made significantly less than starters who ultimately got benched by their teams, including Las Vegas's Derek Carr ($40.5 million), Washington's Wentz ($32 million), and Indianapolis's Matt Ryan ($30 million).
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If the Eagles do pull off the victory, Hurts will be among the lowest-paid Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks. But he won't be the lowest. That honor goes to Kurt Warner, who made about $440,000 during the 1999 season before leading the then-St. Louis Rams to victory in Super Bowl XXXIV. Warner went from working at a grocery store to winning the Super Bowl, capping the game off with an MVP award.
No matter what, Hurts will get a bonus from playing in the Super Bowl. The winning team receives $157,000 — and, often, a trip to Disneyland — while the losers get $82,000 (it's hard to reach the Super Bowl, after all).
Based on the Eagles' relative youth, this could be a team that regularly contends for titles over the next decade. And Hurts will certainly get multiple raises along the way. He's only earning a modest amount of money — just over $6 million across four years — because there's a rookie scale for new players in the league. Once he hits free agency in 2024, he'll score a deal that's likely north of a quarter of a billion dollars.
For now, the Eagles should enjoy having a star who's still a bargain. That time will be fleeting.
