This Former Michigan Quarterback is Still Among Highest Paid Athletes Worldwide

The popularity of sports worldwide has made some incredibly talented individuals very, very rich over the years. Many people, whether they are sports fans or not, often question if these athletes are worthy of the coin they demand. But at the end of the day, someone decided they were worth the pricetag.

Interestingly enough, the market of a professional sports league can inflate the value of some players beyond what you might expect. These days, an average NFL quarterback can command a yearly salary of over $20 million, even if he isn't necessarily expected to be the team's best option to make a championship run.

Arguably no quarterback in NFL history has quite as much controversy (save for Deshaun Watson, for obvious and unrelated reasons) surrounding his pay than a former Michigan State star who, despite a rather mundane career, is still among the top 25 highest-paid athletes in the world.

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Kirk Cousins, who was a Spartan from 2007-2011 out of Holland Christian High School in Michigan, has enjoyed a lucrative 13-year career in the NFL. Last year, Forbes listed the top 50 highest-paid athletes around the globe. Cousins, with $62.5 million banked from 2023-2024, ranked as the 24th highest-paid player in the world. His NFL contract paid a whopping $60 million of that total. Only two athletes who earned more, Lamar Jackson and Nick Bosa, were paid less for off-the-field obligations.

Cousins has long been the example of a player who doesn't need postseason success to have a "successful" NFL career. Despite winning just one of his four playoff appearances in his career, Cousins has banked $293,969,288 in his NFL career.

Cousins is currently signed with the Atlanta Falcons, but, after a rough series of games last season that led to him leading the NFL in interceptions and fumbles, he was benched for rookie Michael Penix. He recently attributed the struggles to lingering injuries. While his future in Atlanta is in doubt, he does want to continue to play football.

Only five players in NFL history have earned more money than Cousins: Russell Wilson, Matt Ryan, Tom Brady, Matthew Stafford, and Aaron Rodgers. Among that group, only Ryan failed to win a Super Bowl, though he did at least win league MVP and reach the Super Bowl once. If Cousins continues to play, there's a possibility he will become one of the top-5 highest-paid players in league history without much to show for it on his resume.

Cousins is still owed the bulk of the 4-year, $110 million contract he signed with Atlanta last offseason, though only $27.5 is guaranteed after drawing $12.5 million in his first season with the franchise. Assuming Wilson signs somewhere for the 2025 season, Cousins would still pass Ryan to move into the top 5 highest-paid players in league history.

Cousins was never a highly sought-after player until his NFL career got started. He was barely a 3-star recruit out of high school and was a 7th-round pick in the 2012 NFL Draft for a Washington team that selected a quarterback, Robert Griffin III, No. 2 overall.

Of course, after six frustrating seasons in Washington (which included getting franchise-tagged twice for over $42 million total) he signed a sizeable contract in Minnesota where he played another six seasons.

There have been plenty of jokes across the internet for years about Cousins's ability to draw large paychecks, but it's not as if he gamed the system. At the end of the day, he earned his pay and was valued at an elite level for his abilities by three NFL franchises. That's more than a lot of (i.e., nearly all) quarterbacks in league history can say.