Kyler Murray’s contract extension slightly beats Deshaun Watson

Kyler Murray has received a massive contract extension from the Arizona Cardinals, just barely edging out the Deshaun Watson deal in total money.

The Arizona Cardinals have finally done it. They’ve given quarterback Kyler Murray a contract extension.

A big one.

Five years, $230.5 million.

It’s clear that the Deshaun Watson contract was the starting point here, but the Arizona Cardinals obviously weren’t going to be budging all that much off of that overall figure.

They beat it by $500,000.

For Kyler Murray, this deal explains why he went from unfollowing the Cardinals on social media earlier this offseason and creating a bunch of public drama to just basically completely changing his tune overnight.

It wasn’t just the Hollywood Brown trade that appeased Murray.

He was likely made aware that the Cardinals were willing to go at least this far, and now the deal is done.

As Ian Rapoport reported, the total guaranteed money going Murray’s way in this deal is $160 million. That’s no small chunk of change but it’s a whopping $70 million off of what Deshaun Watson received from the Cleveland Browns.

In addition to the new $160 million guaranteed for Murray, he’ll also receive $35.2 million in 2022 and 2023 with the Cardinals on his original rookie contract.

At $46.1 million per season, Murray now ranks second among all NFL players in average annual salary.

• Aaron Rodgers: $50.3 million/year
• Kyler Murray: $46.1 million/year
• Deshaun Watson: $46 million/year
• Patrick Mahomes: $45 million/year
• Josh Allen: $43 million/year

This is such a fascinating contract because it wasn’t long ago that there were many debates floating around on Twitter what the professional sports future of Murray might hold.

So many people felt like he was making a mistake pursuing professional football given how much “more money” he could have made playing baseball as opposed to playing football.

Well, how about that?

Of course, there’s really no telling what kind of money Kyler Murray could have made as a professional baseball player if he had a 15-year career in the majors or something like that.

Let’s take a gander at Murray’s new contract by comparison to another former pro football prospect who chose baseball, Jeff Samardzija, formerly of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Samardzija wouldn’t likely have made over $116 million as a pro football player, not in the era he played, but he did make that as a Major League Baseball pitcher.

Samardzija had a nice career in the majors as a starter, but Murray’s rookie contract as an NFL player already put him at about half of what Samardzija made in his entire MLB career.

By the time Murray is 30, he will have had the opportunity to make nearly $300 million.

Only three baseball players in history have exceeded $300 million in career earnings.

There may have been more longevity on paper for Murray to play baseball, but the smart money has always been watching the rise in pay of top-tier NFL quarterbacks.

Murray has now reached a historic figure in league history and he will be guaranteed to see at least $225 million by the time he’s 30 years of age.