Who is the Highest Paid BYU Alum in NFL History?
Over the last 100 years BYU has seen 159 players drafted into the NFL. That works out to about 1.5 draft picks every year: a fairly decent rate for a non-Power 5 program. However, this rate used to be much, much higher (e.g. BYU Football 1981 and 1986, when 7 Cougars were drafted).
One hundred and fifty-nine young men playing a game they love and—assumingly—getting paid millions to do so. What a dream!
Let’s put things in perspective. According to NCAA filings, the University of Utah had 123 players (including Red Shirts) on their football team during the 2022 season. Assuming that BYU rosters a similar number of players:
(123 players) * (100 years) / (4 years to graduate) = 3,075 BYU Football Alumni
This is obviously a very rough approximation (it doesn’t take into account transfers or injuries), but I think it gets us in the ballpark. Approximately 3,075 students have had the privilege to play BYU football over the past century. This means that only 5% of all BYU players can expect to get a call from the NFL come draft day.
So, to the 5% of BYU athletes that have gotten paid to play football on television, I say you’re already a success story.
But… still, I’d like to know who is the most successful, at least monetarily. So I did some digging and reviewed the NFL contracts (past and present) for all BYU draftees during the last 25 years (plus some notable 80’s Alumni).
And here’s the answer: Ezekiel Ansah.
No other BYU alumni has more career earnings than the former 2013 first-round draft pick. Between base salary, signing bonuses, roster bonuses, and other incentives Ansah’s career earnings over 8 years in the NFL total $58,005,156. He secured these earnings by living up to the very high on-field expectations that were placed on him by the Detroit Lion’s organization.
Unfortunately not all highly touted draft picks are able to live up the hype (or price tag) that are given them. We call these “Busts.”
Kyle Van Noy: 11 seasons, $40,404,849 total career earnings
Taysom Hill: 8 seasons, $42,670,000 total career earnings
Fred Warner: 6 seasons, $45,106,325 total career earnings
Jamaal Williams: 7 seasons, $15,504,868 total career earnings
Sione Takitaki: 5 seasons, $6,375,876 total career earnings
Brady Christensen: 3 seasons, $3,799,192 total career earnings
Khyiris Tonga: 3 seasons, $2,371,315 total career earnings
Chris Wilcox: 3 seasons, $526,339 total career earnings
Tyler Allgeier: 2 seasons, $1,908,896 total career earnings
Puka Nacua: 1 season, $994,976 total career earnings
Blake Freeland: 1 season, $1,565,000 total career earnings
Zach Wilson: 3 seasons, $29,697,406 total career earnings
Steve Young: 15 seasons, $49,372,000 total career earnings
Brett Keisel: 13 seasons, $32,033,750 total career earnings
Ezekiel Ansah: 8 seasons, $58,005,156 total career earnings
Dennis Pitta: 8 seasons, $24,204,000 total career earnings
Jim McMahon: 15 seasons, $9,653,000.00 total career earnings
Ty Detmer: 14 seasons, $10,341,000.00 total career earnings
John Tait: 10 seasons, $9,400,000.00 total career earnings
Ryan Denney: 9 seasons, $2,700,000.00 total career earnings
Bronson Kaufusi: 9 seasons, $3,054,304.00 total career earnings
Rob Morris: 8 seasons, $6,565,000.00 total career earnings
Brady Poppinga: 8 seasons, $11,657,438.00 total career earnings
Bryan Kehl: 6 seasons, $3,623,235.00 total career earnings
John Beck: 6 seasons, $2,890,000.00 total career earnings
Austin Collie: 5 seasons, $3,399,966.00 total career earnings
Scott Young: 4 years, $1,661,000.00 total career earnings
Harvey Unga: 4 seasons, $720,124.00 total career earnings
Shaun Nua: 3 seasons, $1,005,200.00 total career earnings
Todd Watkins: 2 seasons, $440,064.00 total career earnings
In my opinion, and according to my analysis, should Zach Wilson continue to struggle in New York to the point where he loses his job, he will be the only official BYU “Bust” in the last 20 years or so. This is because, in my mind, in order for you to be eligible for “Bust” status, the front office must believe in you. And they must believe in you to the tune of millions of dollars. You’ll notice that the horizontal dotted line on the above visuals represents the average career earnings of all BYU players in the NFL. If a player is paid more than this amount in the first few years of their career, than the belief is there and they must perform.
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