15 Highest-Paid NFL Players Who Have Never Won a Super Bowl
15 Highest-Paid NFL Players Who Have Never Won a Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the pinnacle of an NFL player’s career, the ultimate destination and goal each season. It’s what players get paid for.
But for every well-paid sucess story such as Tom Brady, there are plenty of players raking in big money who have never won it all.
GOBankingRates used Spotrac and Pro Football Reference data to find the 15 highest-paid players in 2022 who have never played on a team that has won the Super Bowl.
15. Taylor Decker
Team: Detroit Lions
Position: Left tackle
Total 2022 pay: $18,900,000
Decker has played his entire six-year career with the Lions and hasn’t come close to a Super Bowl.
He made the playoffs his rookie season, 2016, when Detroit lost in the wild-card round to Seattle.
13 (tie). Keenan Allen
Team: Los Angeles Chargers
Position: Wide receiver
Total 2022 pay: $19,200,000
The 30-year-old receiver has been in the NFL for nine seasons, making the postseason twice. In 2013 and 2018, the Chargers reached the AFC divisional playoffs before falling short.
Allen has made the Pro Bowl the past five seasons, averaging 102 receptions per season. He’s the No. 11-paid NFL receiver by average salary, having signed a four-year, $80 million extension in September 2020.
13 (tie). Bud Dupree
Team: Tennessee Titans
Position: Defensive end
Total 2022 pay: $19,200,000
Dupree has played seven seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Titans, highlighted by an 11.5-sack season with the Steelers in 2019. Dupree came one game short of the Super Bowl in the 2016 playoffs, losing 36-17 to the New England Patriots. In 2021, he signed a five-year, $82.5 million deal with Tennessee.
12. Derek Carr
Team: Las Vegas Raiders
Position: Quarterback
Total 2022 pay: $19,352,519
The Raiders have been to the playoffs twice with Carr at quarterback, although he was injured in 2016 and couldn’t play. He and the Raiders lost 26-19 to the Cincinnati Bengals in an AFC wild-card game.
Carr heads into the 2022 season having signed a three-year, $121.5 million extension. He is among nine quarterbacks averaging $40 million or more per year.
11. Dak Prescott
Team: Dallas Cowboys
Position: Quarterback
Total 2022 pay: $19,730,000
The Cowboys haven’t been to a Super Bowl since a 27-17 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1996, and Prescott has only one playoff victory in his career.
He signed a four-year, $160 million contract in 2021 and received $95 million fully guaranteed at signing.
10. Deion Jones
Team: Atlanta Falcons
Position: Linebacker
Total 2022 pay: $20,018,431
Jones came oh-so-close to winning a ring in his rookie season in 2016, when the Falcons reached the Super Bowl but fell 34-28 in overtime to the New England Patriots. Atlanta made the playoffs the next season but lost in the divisional round to the Eagles, and Jones hasn’t been back to the postseason since.
At $14.25 million a year, the 27-year-old is the fifth-highest-paid off-ball linebacker in the NFL.
9. Garett Bolles
Team: Denver Broncos
Position: Left tackle
Total 2022 pay: $21,000,000
Bolles came into the NFL in 2017 and has yet to make the playoffs, although the Broncos and their fans are hoping this is the year for a breakthrough with new QB Russell Wilson.
Bolles signed a four-year, $68 million extension in 2020 and is tied for eighth in the NFL’s left tackle pay hierarchy, at $17 million a year.
8. Kenny Golladay
Team: New York Giants
Position: Wide receiver
Total 2022 pay: $21,150,000
Golladay has the unfortunate experience of never getting close to the playoffs, as he has played for the Detroit Lions and Giants in his five-year career. The Lions reached the postseason the year before he was drafted, and the Giants are picked to finish last in the NFC East again.
Golladay joined the Giants in 2021 on a four-year, $72 million deal; the $18 million average is good enough only for a tie for 18th in the skyrocketing NFL receiver pay ranks.
7. Lamar Jackson
Team: Baltimore Ravens
Position: Quarterback
Total 2022 pay: $23,016,000
Jackson is a perennial MVP candidate and one of the best offensive threats in the NFL today, but he and the Ravens haven’t gotten to the AFC Championship yet. The closest the Ravens came was a 17-3 loss to the Bills in the 2020 playoffs.
As of Sept. 2, Jackson was still awaiting an extension from the Ravens and was set to play on the fifth-year option in 2022, at $23 million.
6. Leonard Williams
Team: New York Giants
Position: Defensive end
Total 2022 pay: $27,300,000
In seven seasons between the New York Jets and Giants, Williams hasn’t come close to the postseason. Because he’s on the Giants and picked to finish last in the NFC East, he probably won’t end that streak this season, either.
Williams signed a three-year, $63 million contract with the Giants in 2021, and his $21 million annual average is second only to the Rams’ Aaron Donald ($31.2 million) among interior defensive linemen.
5. Joey Bosa
Team: Los Angeles Chargers
Position: Defensive end
Total 2022 pay: $28,250,000
Bosa, considered one of the best pass rushers in the NFL, has made the playoffs only once, when the Chargers lost 41-28 to the New England Patriots in the 2018-2019 divisional round.
Bosa, 27, is playing on a five-year, $135 million extension that ranks him behind only Pittsburgh’s T.J. Watt ($28 million) in annual compensation for edge rushers.
4. T.J. Watt
Team: Pittsburgh Steelers
Position: Linebacker
Total 2022 pay: $31,118,694
Watt, the reigning NFL defensive player of the year, has reached the playoffs three times but has yet to win a postseason game.
In 2021, Watt became the highest-paid edge rusher when he signed a four-year contract extension worth $112 million.
3. Jared Goff
Team: Detroit Lions
Position: Quarterback
Total 2022 pay: $31,150,000
Goff helped the Los Angeles Rams reach Super Bowl LIII after the 2018 season, but he fell short of a title when the Rams lost 13-3 to the New England Patriots. Now with the Lions, Goff is far away from an elusive championship.
He has three years left on a $134 million extension he signed with the Rams in 2019, before they traded him to Detroit in 2021.
2. Kirk Cousins
Team: Minnesota Vikings
Position: Quarterback
Total 2022 pay: $31,416,668
Cousins and the Vikings missed the playoffs the past two seasons. Under the QB, Minnesota reached the NFC divisional round in 2019 but lost 27-10 to the San Francisco 49ers.
1. Ryan Tannehill
Team: Tennessee Titans
Position: Quarterback
Total 2022 pay: $38,600,000
Tannehill has yet to play in a Super Bowl, but he led the Titans to the AFC Championship Game in the 2019 season; they lost 35-24 to the Kansas City Chiefs. Tennessee lost to Baltimore in a wild-card game the next season, then fell 19-16 to the Cincinnati Bengals in the divisional round last season.
Tannehill signed a four-year, $118 million contract with the Titans in 2020.
Methodology: GOBankingRates used Spotrac and Pro Football Reference data to find the 15 highest-paid players (in terms of 2022 cap hit) who have never played on a team that has won the Super Bowl. For the top 15 highest-paid players who have never won a Super Bowl, GOBankingRates found (where applicable) each player’s (1) 2022 cap hit; (2) 2022 base salary; (3) 2022 signing bonuses; (4) 2022 roster bonuses; and (5) 2022 miscellaneous pay including restructuring, contract incentives and workout bonuses. All data was collected and is up to date as of Aug. 22.