LET’S PAY BALL!

Matthew Stafford just signed the biggest contract in NFL history. For anyone who has been paying attention to economic trends in the league, all that really means is he is the most recent better-than-competent quarterback to sign a long-term deal.

The details might seem outlandish for a quarterback who hasn’t won a playoff game, and has won one road game in his entire career against a team that finished the season with a winning record. Stafford received the largest signing bonus ($50 million), the most paid out in Year 1 ($51 million) and the most guaranteed by the start of the second year of the deal ($86 million) in league history, per ProFootballTalk.

The highest-paid players in the league are all quarterbacks, and the contracts can be grouped into two categories.

Obvious extensions for quarterbacks in their prime who have proven they can consistently be top-16 guys in the league. This includes Aaron Rodgers in 2013, Russell Wilson in 2015, Andrew Luck last season and now Derek Carr and Stafford in 2017. Rodgers, Luck, Carr and Stafford all set a new NFL record for contracts.

Aging veterans who are franchise staples and still capable of being top-16 guys in the league. Most of these deals are shorter but still have an average of $20-plus million per year. The 2004 draft class (Eli Manning, Ben Roethlisberger and Philip Rivers) all signed four-year deals in 2015. Joe Flacco got three years and a little more than $66 million last year. Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Carson Palmer have signed shorter pacts in the past two seasons. Kirk Cousins is the exception, playing under the franchise tag this year. Here’s a look at this year’s top-10 highest paid players: