$5M in the bank at the end of your career should set you up for a lifetime draw of $200k a year. Very very few of these guys will achieve that from an NFL career.
I don’t know how many “very, very” few is but the following players already have or are very likely to be able to bank $5M by the end of their careers: Aaron Rodgers, Clay Matthews, Tramon Williams, Josh Sitton, AJ Hawk, Morgan Burnett, Jordy Nelson, BJ Raji, Julius Peppers, Jermichael Finley, Sam Shields and Matt Flynn.
TJ Lang received about $1.68M from ’09 through 2011 and then signed a $22M deal through 2016.
Bryan Bulaga‘s rookie deal is worth $12.2M plus and is a UFA after this season.
Mike Neal just signed a 2 year, $8M contract. His rookie contract was worth $2.95M and he’s about to turn 27. I couldn’t find the terms of
Mason Crosby’s rookie deal but after 4 years of receiving it he signed a 5-year $14.75M contract in 2011. He agreed to restructure last season’s compensation but I believe he achieved the incentives to regain the comp from his 2011 deal. And the last two years of his deal weren’t changed.
Even a player like
Brad Jones has a chance to amass $5M in savings. Jones' four-year contract as a seventh-round draft choice in 2009 averaged $452,564. That’s about $1.8M. Last spring he signed a deal paying him a $3M bonus + $1.5M in salary, roster and workout bonuses. That’s $6.3M. If he makes the team this season his total compensation will be about $3M. That’s $9.3M and if he plays out the last year of his contract in 2015 his total compensation with the Packers would be a little more than $13M. If his average combined Fed and state tax rate is 45%, that leaves more than $7M. I don’t expect Jones to play out his current contract, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility. And he just turned 28.
Of course there are payments to agents and living expenses for all these players and even if all 17 players listed don’t have the chance to save $5M, all but a couple certainly do. And that’s just one NFL team. Of course most NFL players don’t become financially secure from their NFL compensation but I think it’s more than very, very few.