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NFL · 7 ROUNDS

NFL career earnings by draft round

A first-round pick has earned $68,408,120 across a career. A seventh-round pick has earned $8,164,051, off the same game.

1,279 of the 1,924 careers on record carry a draft round. The rookie contract is slotted by pick, so the first four years of a career are settled on draft night. What the gradient below shows is that the gap does not close afterwards.

FIRST ROUND, PER CAREER $68.4m
SEVENTH ROUND, PER CAREER $8.2m
DRAFTED CAREERS 1,279
FIRST ROUND HOLDS 43.9%
STILL CONTRACTED $3.68bn

What a career is worth, by the round it started in

Career earnings per player

8.4 times, first round to seventh

Round 1 $68m Round 2 $34m Round 3 $23m Round 4 $19m Round 5 $12m Round 6 $8.8m Round 7 $8.2m

Every round pays less per career than the one before it, without a single exception across the seven. This is the chart the rest of the page argues with: the rookie deal explains the first four years of it and nothing like all of the rest.

Every round ranked

Careers, money, and the richest man out of each one

1,279 careers

# Round Careers Per career Richest Share of drafted money Earned
01 Round 1 229 $68.4m Aaron Rodgers 43.9% $15,665,459,488$15.67bn
02 Round 2 213 $33.7m Derek Carr 20.1% $7,171,650,344$7.17bn
03 Round 3 232 $22.6m Russell Wilson 14.7% $5,251,647,656$5.25bn
04 Round 4 182 $18.9m Kirk Cousins 9.6% $3,440,564,778$3.44bn
05 Round 5 178 $11.6m Tyreek Hill 5.8% $2,060,349,167$2.06bn
06 Round 6 155 $8.8m Tyrod Taylor 3.8% $1,358,293,176$1.36bn
07 Round 7 90 $8.2m Jordan Mailata 2.1% $734,764,581$734.8m

The first round holds 43.9% of the money off 17.9% of the careers. Rounds two and three hold 445 careers between them against the first round's 229, and have still earned $3,242,161,488 less than it.

Inside the first round

The same round, split by where in it the pick came

182 careers with a pick number

Picks 1 to 5 $90m
Picks 6 to 10 $79m
Picks 11 to 20 $61m
Picks 21 to 32 $52m
Pick range Careers Per career Richest Earned
Picks 1 to 5 26 $89.8m Trent Williams $2,334,578,054$2.33bn
Picks 6 to 10 31 $79.0m Patrick Mahomes $2,450,031,314$2.45bn
Picks 11 to 20 59 $61.2m Deshaun Watson $3,609,062,542$3.61bn
Picks 21 to 32 66 $51.6m Aaron Rodgers $3,402,904,110$3.40bn

The gradient runs inside the round as well as between rounds. A top-five pick and a pick in the twenties are both first-rounders, and the two groups do not earn the same money over a career.

Where each round's money goes

The position taking the biggest share of every round

18 positions ranked

# Round Biggest position Its careers Share of the round That position's earnings
01 Round 1 Quarterback 27 22.5% $3,520,783,654$3.52bn
02 Round 2 Wide Receiver 31 14.4% $1,029,673,394$1.03bn
03 Round 3 Wide Receiver 26 14.0% $737,198,721$737.2m
04 Round 4 Quarterback 5 21.1% $725,808,319$725.8m
05 Round 5 Defensive Tackle 13 17.2% $353,621,949$353.6m
06 Round 6 Safety 15 14.6% $198,434,056$198.4m
07 Round 7 Left Tackle 2 14.8% $109,058,433$109.1m

A round is not a neutral sample of the league. Clubs spend early picks on the positions they pay most, which is half the reason the first round's per-career figure is what it is. Every position is ranked by what it pays here.

How a round's money is paid

Signing and option bonus against everything else

33.0% across the league

# Round Base salary Signing bonus Roster bonus Signing and option Itemised
01 Round 1 45.4% 30.8% 8.1% 37.5% $17,924,587,468$17.92bn
02 Round 2 52.9% 26.9% 6.4% 33.0% $7,698,838,735$7.70bn
03 Round 3 56.2% 27.5% 7.8% 30.2% $5,431,191,811$5.43bn
04 Round 4 60.7% 26.2% 5.6% 27.6% $3,683,880,722$3.68bn
05 Round 5 62.3% 22.8% 5.9% 26.2% $2,075,254,009$2.08bn
06 Round 6 68.8% 21.6% 3.5% 22.6% $1,417,918,488$1.42bn
07 Round 7 66.4% 15.2% 2.9% 24.1% $777,235,781$777.2m

Signing bonus and option bonus are paid up front and cannot be taken back when a player is cut, so the column before the total is the one that says how safe a round's money actually is. The signing bonus page ranks every career by that part alone.

What drafted players are paid each season

Every year of every drafted career, added together

22 seasons

Frequently asked questions

How much does a first-round NFL pick earn?

$68,408,120 across a career, on 229 first-round careers on record. Aaron Rodgers is the highest of them on $418,158,010.

How much more does a first-round pick earn than a seventh-round pick?

8.4 times as much per career: $68,408,120 against $8,164,051. The first round holds 43.9% of everything drafted players have earned, off 17.9% of the careers.

Does the draft round still matter after the rookie contract?

The rookie deal is slotted by pick, so the first four or five years are decided on draft night. What the gradient here shows is that the effect outlives it: a high pick gets more starts, more time to develop and a second contract the club has already invested in, and the totals stay apart for the whole career.

Which late-round pick has earned the most in the NFL?

Tyreek Hill, $183,489,171, taken in the fifth round. 219 of the 229 first-round careers on record have earned less than he has.

Do early picks get more guaranteed money?

37.5% of a first-round career is signing or option bonus against 24.1% in the seventh. Those are the parts a club pays up front and cannot recover, so an early pick is paid more and paid it earlier.

How many careers here have a draft round on record?

1,279 of the 1,924 on record, worth $35,682,729,190. The rest are counted everywhere else on the site and simply carry no round on their file, so they are left off this page rather than filed as undrafted.

Where to next

The rounds, the men who came out of them, and the rest of the money

Round 1 · Round 2 · Round 3 · Round 4 · Round 5 · Round 6 · Round 7 · NFL career earnings

Every round

The fifty richest careers

By position

By season

Elsewhere in American football