How Much Super Bowl Players Are Paid by Position

For NFL players, the total value of the contract is what matters. To the leaders in teams’ front offices, it’s all about the salary cap.

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The league sets the salary cap each season, and for 2021, the number totaled $182.5 million. Roughly, that means the total salaries of all the players on the team can’t total more than that. While the figure sounds enormous, it isn’t when you consider that pay has to cover a roster of 50-plus players – including a few with mega contracts.

It takes an expert in the salary cap to figure out just how to juggle the contracts to get them all to fit under the salary cap. Here’s how the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Rams – the teams playing in Super Bowl LVI – divided up the salary cap by position this year, ranked by average pay per player in terms of salary cap hit. Read on to see all the positions, including the most expensive.

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15. Kicker

Number of players looked at: 2
Total 2020 cap hit for position: $1,595,928
Average per player: $797,964
Top-earning kicker on Cincinnati: Evan McPherson, $745,928 (0.38% of salary cap)
Top-earning kicker on Los Angeles: Matt Gay, $850,000 (0.45% of salary cap)

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14. Long Snapper

Number of players looked at: 2
Total 2020 cap hit for position: $2,062,500
Average per player: $1,031,250
Top-earning long snapper on Cincinnati: Clark Harris, $1,212,500 (0.62% of salary cap)
Top-earning long snapper on Los Angeles: Matthew Orzech, $850,000 (0.45% of salary cap)

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13. Linebacker

Number of players looked at: 13
Total 2020 cap hit for position: $13,917,711
Average per player: $1,070,593
Top-earning linebacker on Cincinnati: Germaine Pratt, $1,126,221 (0.58% of salary cap)
Top-earning linebacker on Los Angeles: Leonard Floyd, $5,500,000 (2.94% of salary cap)

12. Guard

Number of players looked at: 9
Total 2020 cap hit for position: $10,754,625
Average per player: $1,194,958
Top-earning guard on Cincinnati: Xavier Su’a-Filo, $3,103,921 (1.59% of salary cap)
Top-earning guard on Los Angeles: Austin Corbett, $1,505,235 (0.8% of salary cap)

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11. Safety

Number of players looked at: 10
Total 2020 cap hit for position: $14,359,001
Average per player: $1,435,900
Top-earning safety on Cincinnati: Vonn Bell, $5,488,235 (2.81% of salary cap)
Top-earning safety on Los Angeles: Taylor Rapp, $1,274,644 (0.68% of salary cap)

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10. Center

Number of players looked at: 5
Total 2020 cap hit for position: $9,260,279
Average per player: $1,852,056
Top-earning center on Cincinnati: Trey Hopkins, $6,563,235 (3.36% of salary cap)
Top-earning center on Los Angeles: Brian Allen, $1,091,734 (0.58% of salary cap)

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9. Running Back

Number of players looked at: 8
Total 2020 cap hit for position: $14,936,601
Average per player: $1,867,075
Top-earning running back on Cincinnati: Joe Mixon, $8,126,471 (4.16% of salary cap)
Top-earning running back on Los Angeles: Sony Michel, $1,792,731 (0.96 % of salary cap)

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8. Wide Receiver

Number of players looked at: 12
Total 2020 cap hit for position: $27,970,085
Average per player: $2,330,840
Top-earning wide receiver on Cincinnati: Tyler Boyd, $9,835,294 (5.04% of salary cap)
Top-earning wide receiver on Los Angeles: Cooper Kupp, $5,300,000 (2.83% of salary cap)

7. Punter

Number of players looked at: 2
Total 2020 cap hit for position: $4,899,500
Average per player: $2,449,750
Top-earning punter on Cincinnati: Kevin Huber, $1,212,500 (0.62% of salary cap)
Top-earning punter on Los Angeles: Johnny Hekker, $3,687,000 (1.97% of salary cap)

6. Tackle

Number of players looked at: 8
Total 2020 cap hit for position: $19,906,138
Average per player: $2,488,267
Top-earning tackle on Cincinnati: Jonah Williams, $4,808,227 (2.46% of salary cap)
Top-earning tackle on Los Angeles: Andrew Whitworth, $5,666,666 (3.03% of salary cap)

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5. Tight End

Number of players looked at: 6
Total 2020 cap hit for position: $15,563,526
Average per player: $2,593,921
Top-earning tight end on Cincinnati: C.J. Uzomah, $6,156,863 (3.16% of salary cap)
Top-earning tight end on Los Angeles: Tyler Higbee, $5,825,000 (3.11% of salary cap)

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4. Defensive End

Number of players looked at: 7
Total 2020 cap hit for position: $19,008,906
Average per player: $2,715,558
Top-earning defensive end on Cincinnati: Trey Hendrickson, $12,476,471 (6.39% of salary cap)
Top-earning defensive end on Los Angeles: Chris Garrett, $680,530 (0.36% of salary cap)

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3. Defensive Tackle

Number of players looked at: 13
Total 2020 cap hit for position: $42,441,078
Average per player: $3,264,698
Top-earning defensive tackle on Cincinnati: D.J. Reader, $13,562,500 (6.95% of salary cap)
Top-earning defensive tackle on Los Angeles: Aaron Donald, $14,392,000 (7.69% of salary cap)

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2. Cornerback

Number of players looked at: 12
Total 2020 cap hit for position: $48,204,341
Average per player: $4,017,028
Top-earning cornerback on Cincinnati: Trae Waynes, $15,800,000 (8.1% of salary cap)
Top-earning cornerback on Los Angeles: Jalen Ramsey, $9,700,000 (5.28% of salary cap)

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1. Quarterback

Number of players looked at: 6
Total 2020 cap hit for position: $31,276,697
Average per player: $5,212,783
Top-earning quarterback on Cincinnati: Joe Burrow, $8,225,031 (4.21% of salary cap)
Top-earning quarterback on Los Angeles: Matthew Stafford, $20,000,000 (10.69 % of salary cap)

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Methodology: To find out how much the players in this year’s Super Bowl (LVI) are paid by position, GOBankingRates used Spotrac’s team cap tracker for the 2021 season for both the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals. GOBankingRates then combined the two team’s active rosters and sorted by position. For each position GOBankingRates found (1) number of players on both rosters within that position; (2) total cap hit for that position; and (3) the average cap hit for each player at that position. GOBankingRates also found supplementary salary info for each player, also sourced from Spotrac. All data was collected on and up to date as of Feb. 1, 2022.