It’s official: Andrew Luck is no longer the NFL’s highest-paid player

It was reported yesterday that it was close to happening, and now it’s official: Andrew Luck is no longer the NFL’s highest-paid player.

The Oakland Raiders and quarterback Derek Carr agreed to a massive extension that reportedly will pay Carr $125 million over five years, an average of $25 million per year - which eclipses the mark the Colts set by giving Luck an average of $24.6 million a year.

While that’s the part that will make the headlines - including our own - there’s something interesting when comparing the deals that Carr and Luck signed. While Carr passed Luck in terms of average salary, he didn’t pass Luck in terms of guaranteed money. Carr’s deal reportedly gave him $40 million guaranteed at signing and has $70 million in total guarantees. Luck’s deal signed last year included $44 million guaranteed at signing and $87 million overall guaranteed for injury.

In all likelihood, neither Carr nor Luck will have to worry about how much is guaranteed because they’ll almost certainly be playing for the duration of the deal. But some have speculated that we could see a shift toward more guaranteed money in deals for star quarterbacks, which might mean taking slightly less in average salary but making up for it in the money that’s guaranteed. Carr still got a very significant amount of guaranteed money in his contract, but it’s not as much as the Colts gave Luck a year ago.