Josh Allen vs Lamar Jackson contract details (Getty Images)
Josh Allen has $250 million in guaranteed money. Lamar Jackson has $185 million and no new contract. Allen’s six-year, $330 million extension with the Bills runs through 2030, while Jackson’s five-year, $260 million deal with the Ravens expires after 2027. Allen signed in March 2025, Jackson in April 2023. Allen’s guarantee alone beats Jackson’s by $65 million. The Bills gave him a six-year, $330 million extension, with $250 million guaranteed, in March 2025, after his MVP season. The deal averages $55 million a year. He agreed to five years and $260 million, a $52 million average that was the highest in the league then. The contract carried a $72.5 million signing bonus and $185 million in guarantees. But only $135 million was fully guaranteed at signing. Allen’s guarantee is $65 million bigger, and it sits on a contract that runs three years longer. Allen’s signing bonus was $56.7 million, smaller than the $72.5 million Jackson received. His cap hit is still heavy, listed at $61.4 million for 2026 and $86.1 million in 2029. His 2021 extension was worth $258 million and carried a then-record $150 million in guarantees. The 2025 deal lifted that guarantee by $100 million. He will be 34 when the final season begins. The move cleared nearly $40 million in 2026 cap space, but it pushed a large chunk of money into 2027. Jackson’s 2023 deal ended more than two years of fraught talks, and he reportedly wanted a fully guaranteed contract like the $230 million Deshaun Watson received from Cleveland.
Buffalo has its quarterback signed three seasons longer than Baltimore has Jackson.
General manager Eric DeCosta said the Ravens “ran out of time,” so they restructured Jackson’s contract instead. Both are former MVPs, and both are paid like it. The Ravens, meanwhile, face a cap spike and an unfinished negotiation. Allen’s contract is the newer and larger of the two. At the time, that lifted him from 14th among quarterbacks in average annual value to a tie for second. Jackson’s deal came first, and it was built differently. Jackson represents himself and has never had an agent. This is Allen’s second major payday in Buffalo. Baltimore wanted a new deal done before free agency this spring and did not get one. The Ravens have been through this before. Baltimore balked at going that far.