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Breaking Down Andrew Luck’s History Making 6-Year, $140M Mega-Deal

By Luke Schultheis

Oct 25, 2015; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck (12) runs onto the field during player introductions prior to the game against the New Orleans Saints at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 25, 2015; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck (12) runs onto the field during player introductions prior to the game against the New Orleans Saints at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Indianapolis Colts and their star quarterback Andrew Luck agreed to a 6-year, $140 million deal on Wednesday including $87 million guaranteed, which will effectively make him the highest paid player in the NFL.

Here’s what we know:

1) The deal will pay him $75 million in the first 3 years of the contract, which places him at roughly $25 million annually during that span:

This also means that if the deal pays him $75 million annually in the first 3 years that leaves $65 million over the remaining 3 years of the deal–which equates to roughly $21.67 million annually over the final 3 years.

That’s Joe Flacco-esque money, which goes without saying but is a good deal for the Colts.

2) Luck received a $32 million signing bonus and $44 million guaranteed at signing, which means #12 now has 44 more million dollars to put in his piggy bank upon inking his new deal:

3) Luck gets $87 million guaranteed within the first 4 years of the contract, which is good for him as the contract is clearly frontloaded. Yet, it also means that the final two years should contain no guaranteed dollars:

So big picture, what does it mean?

Well using additional details from ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio, we get something like this:

Obviously, it’s a lot of money, as Luck is not only the highest paid player in today’s NFL, but also in the league’s history.

Unprecedented contract value aside, it seems rather cap friendly for the Colts all things considered.

Luck could’ve really pushed the envelope Jim Irsay‘s checkbook. Instead, the highly coveted Colts quarterback went for a rather reasonable team deal, which puts the Colts in a much better position to build a solid supporting cast around him in order to win a Super Bowl(s)

More than anything, that speaks to Luck’s character and what he’s really about: winning.

Putting Luck’s contract in perspective with some of his highly paid quarterback counterparts, and it’s easy to see that he’s right in-line with other star quarterbacks:

Specifically, Luck will make roughly only $1.2M more annually than the league’s highest paid in that regard, Joe Flacco, over the life of his new contract. Additionally, he’ll make just $1.33M more than Aaron Rodgers.

Given the inflation of NFL contracts–particularly at the quarterback position, Luck’s contract could’ve been a lot worse for the Colts from a salary cap perspective.

That being said, the $87M guaranteed is really the most impressive number for Luck’s contract, as no quarterback had received more than $61M guaranteed prior to this point. Nevertheless, it still fell short of the $100M guaranteed benchmark that many were projecting.

So while Luck got paid and made NFL history, it was still a rather team friendly deal for the Colts and the damage from a salary cap perspective could’ve been a lot worse.

Most importantly; however, the Colts got their franchise player Luck locked up for the foreseeable future.

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