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Way back in March, the Minnesota Vikings made the decision to give former Washington Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins a fully-guaranteed $84 million contract. That deal has put him on the short list of the highest-paid athletes not only in the National Football League, but any athlete anywhere in the world.
According to the list put out by Forbes Magazine, Kirk Cousins is the 55th-highest paid athlete in the world. Given the amount of money that’s thrown around in European soccer and other sports, that’s kind of impressive.
Cousins is slated to make a total of $28.4 million this year, according to Forbes, with $26.9 million of that coming from salary and $1.5 million from endorsements. I had no idea that Cousins was actually endorsing anything, to be honest, but obviously he is.
Going down the list, Cousins is the ninth-highest American football player on the list. Two NFL quarterbacks are in the Top Ten, with Matt Ryan of the Atlanta Falcons (who signed the deal that knocked Cousins out of the “NFL’s highest-paid player” spot) coming in at #9 and Matthew Stafford of the Detroit Lions at #10.
(Yes, Matthew Stafford is the tenth-highest paid athlete in the entire world.)
Also ahead of Cousins from the world of the NFL are
- New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees (#17)
- Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr (#19)
- Alex Smith, the man that replaced Cousins in Washington (T-#20)
- New York Jets cornerback Trumaine Johnson (#27)
- Miami Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill (#32)
- Denver Broncos linebacker Von Miller (#33)
Our old friend Sam Bradford makes the list at #80 because the Arizona Cardinals gave him a ton of money, too. Case Keenum did not make the list, which I thought was strange until I saw that #100 on the list is at $22.9 million for 2018, which is quite a bit more than Keenum’s deal with the Denver Broncos.
Kirk Cousins has made himself a lot of money over the past couple of years by being patient and betting on himself. Here’s hoping that he can do enough in the three years he’s signed with the Vikings for to make lists like these well into the future.