Chargers News: Justin Herbert's Contract Inspiring Owners to Cap QB Salaries?

The Los Angeles Pro Bowler is making some serious coin.

Jun 13, 2024; Costa Mesa, CA, USA; Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert (10) throws the ball during minicamp at the Hoag Performance Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports / Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

One-time Los Angeles Chargers Pro Bowl quarterback Justin Herbert is making some serious coin thanks to his new contract extension. His lucrative new deal, inked last summer, will pay him $262.5 million over five seasons, and will ultimately keep him under Bolts control through the 2029 season, when he'll be just 31. That age may be over-the-hill for running backs (and, heck, running quarterbacks), but for pass-first signal callers with size it's now part of their extended primes.

Now, it seems like Herbert's lucrative new deal, along with those of select others, could be part of the reason league owners were looking to add a maximum salary cap for individual players into the most recent Collective Bargaining Agreement — an element that was briskly dashed by the NFL Players Association.

Per NFL Network Tom Pelissero in an interview for "The Rich Eisen Show," NFL owners are also talking about a limit on the upper echelons of salaries for quarterbacks specifically. This has been something of a non-starter for the NFLPA even still, Pelissero notes.

Given that quarterbacks are the most valued players in the league, capping their earnings (presumably by tying them into being a certain allocated percentage of team salaries for a given year, which is basically how the NBA's pay structure works, though that league also has an overall spending cap for each team) would effectively create a limit on other players' contracts at other positions, too.

Herbert was one of four star quarterbacks— along with Cincinatti Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, Philadelphia Eagles passer Jalen Hurts, and Baltimore Ravens MVP Lamar Jackson — who inked deals that paid north of $50 million annually. Clearly, that kind of coin perturbed owners. Given how much the league rakes in, it hardly seems fair for anyone to kvetch about this kind of money.

More Chargers: Asante Samuel Jr. Reveals What He Worked on This Offseason