Top Earning Players Across All NFL Positions: Gardner and Smith Set Records

An examination of the highest-paid players in each NFL position heading into the 2025 season, featuring notable contract extensions for Sauce Gardner and Trey Smith.

The New York Jets were determined to spend money this week, signing wide receiver Garrett Wilson and cornerback Sauce Gardner to lucrative contract extensions on consecutive days. Wilson’s $130 million deal ties him to New York through 2030, making him one of the NFL’s top 10 highest-paid pass catchers. Gardner’s $120.4 million agreement is equally massive, making him the league’s highest-paid cover man in terms of average annual value ($30.1 million) going into the 2025 season.

There are all kinds of ways to evaluate NFL contracts. Guaranteed money often means much more than surface-level extension numbers, given that teams often terminate or renegotiate deals early. And only new-money averages tend to be factored into widespread conversations around “highest-paid players,” even though existing portions of contracts are factored into how players are actually paid over the life of their respective deals.

Even so, we can get a general sense of each position’s market by examining the latest per-year averages in free-agent contracts and actual extensions. So here’s a look at the highest-paid players according to that metric: