So I was sitting there watching the Bears game last Sunday, you know? Justin Fields scrambles for another first down and my buddy goes, “Man, how much dough is this guy even pulling in?” Honestly, I had zero clue. Just knew he was the QB. Got me curious, like how much is he really making? So yeah, decided to figure it out myself.
Starting With the Basic Stuff
First thing, I just straight up typed “Justin Fields salary” into Google. No surprise there. Got flooded with headlines about contracts and rankings, all that noise. Clicked a couple. Most said the same basic thing – he was drafted first round by Chicago back in 2021. Cool, starting point.
Problem was, none of the first few pages gave me the nitty-gritty. Lots of “see the incredible figures!” clickbait. Wanted actual numbers, year by year, guarantees, all that boring contract stuff. Needed to dig deeper.
Hitting the Sports Nerds
Remembered that sports websites have dedicated contract pages. Went straight to a few big ones. Spotrac, Over The Cap – sites that crunch the numbers hardcore.
Typed “Justin Fields” into Spotrac’s NFL player search. Bam, whole contract breakdown right there. His rookie deal stared me in the face.
- Total Contract Value: Over $18 million for four years. Whoa.
- Signing Bonus: Almost $12 million just for signing! Crazy.
- Salary Year-by-Year: Here we go. 2021: around $700k. 2022: $1.1 million. 2023: jumps to $1.8 million. 2024: gotta see it. Yeah, about $1.8 million again base salary.
- Cap Hit Each Year: Spotrac showed this too. Starts lower, rises each year as bonus gets spread.
Cross-checked on Over The Cap. Same numbers. Felt solid.
The Guaranteed Money Maze
Okay, base salary is one thing. Everyone talks about guarantees – the cash they definitely get. Back to Spotrac.
Saw the big “Total Guarantees” number: $18.9 million. Almost the whole contract guaranteed! Typical for first round QBs.
Scrolled down. Breakdown time:
- Signing Bonus: That huge $12 million chunk.
- 2021 Salary: Guaranteed.
- 2022 Salary: Guaranteed.
- 2023 Salary: Guaranteed.
- 2024 Salary: Not guaranteed yet. Future stuff.
Made sense. That fifth-year option decision is the next big contract headache for Chicago.
Putting It Together
After bouncing around Spotrac and Over The Cap for maybe 20 minutes, it clicked. Fields isn’t making Tom Brady money yet. Solid first-round pick pay.
His real earnings right now come from that upfront bonus. This year? Base salary around $1.8 mil.
Took a screenshot of the Spotrac breakdown tab just so I could see it all summarized. Looked clean.
Felt pretty satisfied. Went from knowing zip to having the actual contract structure down. Just shows you, gotta go beyond the headlines and dig into those sports database sites to get the real salary dirt. Now I can tell my buddy exactly where that Fields money landed.