The Khalil Mack trade is a reminder of the incredible value of having a quarterback on a rookie contract. The Chargers have Justin Herbert, giving them the ability to bolster other areas of their team with veterans like Mack.

The league re-worked the labor deal back in 2011, controlling the cost of incoming players. Gone are the days of handing out mega contracts to No. 1 overall picks like Sam Bradford and Matthew Stafford. Nowadays, rookies – even the first-rounders – are handed modest, slotted four-year deals.

So if a team can hit on a quarterback in the first round – Herbert, Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen – it then gets a window where it can avoid paying much for the game’s most valuable position. That creates the opportunity to build a contender by using that money on other players. Like Mack.

Herbert is one of these guys. He accounted for only 3.2 percent of the Chargers’ cap space last year, and he’s still got two years left on that original four-year contract. That represents tremendous value, and that’s part of today’s game.

Consider, for example, Russell Wilson, who’s also now in the AFC West. You might argue that Wilson is as good or better than Herbert. But Wilson last year took up over 5 times as much cap space as Herbert. When you compare those guys, it’s not Wilson versus Herbert, it’s Wilson versus Herbert and the additional opportunities created by that rookie contract – Herbert comes with some extra notable players to help him out.

Mahomes and Allen have now signed big extensions, so they’re now moving out of the cost-controlled cap window. So you could argue that for the 2022 season, some or many teams would prefer to have Herbert – he’s also really good and comes with that extra cap space.

Seven quarterbacks last year accounted for over 11 percent of their team’s cap space last year, and none of them won playoff games. Four of them didn’t make the postseason. In fairness, Matthew Stafford (at 10.7 percent) won the whole thing.

QUARTERBACKS: 2021 CAP SPACE
PlayerPct
Russell Wilson17.5%
Kirk Cousins16.6%
Aaron Rodgers14.9%
Matt Ryan14.6%
Ben Roethlisberger13.9%
Derek Carr11.7%
Carson Wentz11.2%
Matthew Stafford10.7%
Dak Prescott8.2%
Tom Brady5.8%
Ryan Tannehill5.8%
Josh Allen5.4%
Jared Goff5.4%
Kyler Murray5.1%
Baker Mayfield5.0%
Joe Burrow4.2%
Patrick Mahomes4.0%
Daniel Jones3.9%
Justin Herbert3.2%
Trevor Lawrence3.2%
Justin Fields1.8%
Lamar Jackson1.7%
Mac Jones1.4%
Jalen Hurts0.7%

The numbers in the charts here come from the website OverTheCap.com. With the salary cap changing each year, I went with percentage of the cap numbers rather than salary amounts.

In each of the last five years, a team benefitting from a rookie quarterback contract has made it to the Super Bowl. The Chargers are now one of the teams in that window of opportunity – hence the deal for Mack.

In the chart below, Matt Ryan stands out – by far the highest cap figure of these 22 quarterbacks. You can reasonably wonder if the Falcons would have won that game (which they lost in overtime) had his contract been structured differently, allowing them to obtain one more notable contributor.

When Seattle went to its last two Super Bowls, it was with Wilson not only on a rookie contract, but also being just a third-round pick – he cost essentially nothing. The Broncos aren’t getting that version of Wilson; they’re going to be paying him, and he’ll need a new deal next year.

SUPER BOWL QUARTERBACKS
YearPlayerPct
2011Tom Brady11.0%
2011Eli Manning11.7%
2012Colin Kaepernick1.0%
2012Joe Flacco6.6%
2013Russell Wilson.5%
2013Peyton Manning12.5%
2014Russell Wilson.6%
2014Tom Brady10.6%
2015Cam Newton8.7%
2015Peyton Manning11.7%
2016Tom Brady8.6%
2016Matt Ryan15.0%
2017• Wentz + Foles4.3%
2017Tom Brady8.3%
2018• Jared Goff4.2%
2018Tom Brady12.2%
2019• Patrick Mahomes2.4%
2019Jimmy Garoppolo8.6%
2020• Patrick Mahomes2.4%
2020Tom Brady12.2%
2021• Joe Burrow4.2%
2021Matthew Stafford10.7%

—Ian Allan