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NFL Contracts vs NBA Contracts: The Big Differences

Richard Janvrin by Richard Janvrin, April 15, 2025

NFL vs NBA

While they’re two of the four most prominent sports leagues in North America, NFL contracts vs NBA contracts are quite different.

Below, we’ll explore those differences, including NBA-guaranteed money, free agency, trades, and more.

NBA Guaranteed Contracts vs NFL

The first major difference in NFL contracts vs NBA contracts is how the guaranteed money is arranged.

In the NFL, almost every contract, except for incumbent Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson, has a portion of money guaranteed, but not the entire thing.

Again, the only exception is Watson, who’s signed to a five-year, $230 million deal.

Conversely, in the NBA, almost all contracts are fully guaranteed. The only exceptions are those signed to two-way deals (split time between the NBA and G-League) and league minimum salaries. Sometimes, a portion of their contracts won’t be fully guaranteed.

So, if you’re a prospective athlete looking to make the most money, the NBA might be for you.

NBA vs NFL Contracts: Contract Length

Contract lengths are always determined on a player-by-player basis in each sport, but even with the top stars, NBA contracts are usually a bit short.

For example, superstar Luka Doncic, currently on the Los Angeles Lakers, signed a five-year, $215.16 million extension from his rookie deal with the Dallas Mavericks.

Meanwhile, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes signed a 10-year contract worth $450 million in the NFL.

Despite Mahomes having more years and more money and because of NBA guaranteed contracts vs the NFL, Doncic will still make plenty more over less time.

It’s also worth noting that in the NFL, teams sometimes add void years on the back end of contracts to give them salary cap flexibility. Void years are a term for prorated signing bonus funds.

Salary Cap

Speaking of the salary cap in NBA vs NFL contracts, the NFL has a yearly hard cap, while the NBA has a more flexible cap.

For example, the NFL’s 2025 salary cap is $279.2 million. That means that teams cannot spend more than that on their entire roster, which has more than 50 players.

The NBA’s salary cap for the 2024-25 season is $140.588 million. However, there are a number of exceptions that allow teams to exceed it, such as Bird Rights and Mid-Level Exceptions.

Bird Rights allows teams to re-sign players on their own team, even if it exceeds the salary cap, so long as they’ve played there for three consecutive seasons or more.

Mid-Level Exceptions allow teams to sign free agents or acquire players via trade or waivers. The value of said exception varies based on a team’s salary cap situation. There are several types of exceptions teams can utilize.

Additionally, the NBA has a luxury tax. So, if a team does use the Bird Rights rule to sign players, the team will have to pay a bit extra “tax” for doing so.

Overall, the NBA’s salary cap can be manipulated in multiple ways, while the NFL has a hard cap that teams cannot exceed.

Incentives and Bonuses

Incentives and bonuses exist in both the NBA and NFL, but they’re far more complex and not as straightforward in the NFL.

In the NBA, bonuses are related to going to an All-Star game, winning awards, or winning the playoffs.

While these also exist in the NFL, there could be performance metrics such as playing a specific number of snaps or, for players like punters, your net punting yard average.

This creates more financial risk, whereas the NBA is more predictable and understandable.

Rookie Contracts

While both leagues have standardized contracts for rookies, their terms are quite different.

For a first-round pick in the NFL, a team holds a player’s rights for up to five years. For the first four years, the team holds the rights, and then there’s a fifth-year team option that a team can choose to pick up and have them for a fifth season or decline and then become a free agent after four seasons.

As for the NBA, the player has a two-year guaranteed contract on a fixed amount, and then there’s a team option over the next two seasons. Second-round picks in the NBA negotiate their contracts individually.

Player Trades

Trades in the NFL can be quite complicated, not only because of the complex offenses and defenses but also because of the salary cap.

There are times when a player is traded or released, dead money could be left on the deal, which still counts toward the salary cap. This is another complicating factor when comparing NBA contracts vs NFL.

In the NBA, trades are much easier to accomplish due to matching salaries and other more straightforward salary cap rules.

Due to how easy trades can happen, wagering at NBA betting sites can be quite exciting during the trade deadline with so much change occurring.

Free Agency

Free agency exists in both the NFL and NBA, but the NFL has a few more layers than the NBA.

There are unrestricted and restricted free agents in the NBA, which makes it more streamlined.

There are unrestricted and restricted free agents in the NFL, but there’s also the franchise tag that a team can use on a player at least twice. These moves can impact how you bet on the NFL online, especially in futures betting markets, as keeping an eye on players can help make the team better or keep them intact from one season to the next.

A player could hold out and not return to the team until a new deal is struck.

So, when they’re a rookie, a team could, hypothetically, have seven years of control over a player’s rights.

NFL’s Franchise Tag

As mentioned, the franchise tag allows a team to keep a player on their roster. This is a one-year contract worth the average of the top five players in the league at that position. A team can do this on a player twice, but it is often not something players like due to football’s physical nature, making one-year deals riskier than other sports.

This is a massive difference when comparing NFL contracts vs NBA contracts.

NBA’s Supermax Contract

A “supermax deal” in the NBA allows teams to pay veteran players with eight or nine years of service up to 35% of their salary cap.

In addition to service time, a player must have been named to an All-NBA Team, won Defensive Player of the Year in one of the three most recent seasons, or named NBA MVP in any of the three most recent seasons.

These contracts run for five years and have an 8% increase each year based on the first year of the deal.

A recent example of this was Boston Celtics player Jaylen Brown, who signed a five-year, $304 million deal, the largest deal in NBA history.

That money is all guaranteed, making the NFL vs NBA salary almost not even comparable.

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