NFL Exec Talks 'Pay-Me-or-Else Mentality' on Franchise QBs Leverage with Contracts

It is extremely difficult, if not downright impossible, to be a contending team in the NFL without an elite—or at least very good—starting quarterback.

And that, more than anything else, is why players at the position continue signing extremely lucrative contracts, as Lindsey Thiry of ESPN noted:

"That alone gives quarterbacks leverage when negotiating an extension, because when a team has a good quarterback, let alone a great one who has made the playoffs and had success, he will command record-breaking money."

"It's known as the 'pay-me-or-else mentality,' one AFC executive said. It dares the organization to attempt the alternative and find a new quarterback, knowing there's zero guarantee how that will turn out."

It's why quarterback extensions continue to reset the market. Patrick Mahomes' 10-year, $450 million deal has the longest duration and most overall money in NFL history. Deshaun Watson leads in guaranteed money (his $230 million deal is fully guaranteed). Lamar Jackson's average annual value on his new extension ($52 million) is tops in the NFL.

And with extensions for Justin Herbert and Joe Burrow looming, those figures will only go up.

The math is simple: You may not need Mahomes to win a Super Bowl, but you won't be winning titles with Carson Wentz, so you pay the guy you have to avoid that scenario.