Teams Are Getting Robbed: The 5 Most Overpaid Athletes in the World

Illustration by Connor Phillips

Celebrities make lots and lots of money. Sports athletes make a really, really, really lot of money. They are our modern-day gladiators, they are typically taller than most of us, they typically weigh more than most of us, and they are able to perform physical feats that not many of us could dream of, let alone are capable of.

They should get paid for these unique abilities. And in many cases, they are paid more than handsomely for these abilities. The minimum salary in the NFL is $795,000, the NBA is $1.157 million, and the MLB is $760,000. These numbers are for the least experienced and worst players in the league.

The top earners are what comprise the most well-paid athletes in the world. But do these top earners deserve these astronomic sums of money? Of course, they should receive whatever someone is willing to pay. Sometimes it is also hard to distinguish whether a player is getting paid for future accomplishments (Shohei Ohtani) or making up for past accomplishments (Stephen Curry).

However, it is impossible to believe that no owner, general manager, or executive does not have buyers’ remorse from time to time.

Based on the Forbes 50 highest paid athletes in the world, championships, statistics, and awards, here are the top five most overpaid players in the world.

Note: The Forbes methodology identifies the current year as May 1, 2024 to May 1, 2025. Consequently, signing bonuses in 2024 could be allocated to the current year.

1 – Dak Prescott Dallas Cowboys QB

In 2025, Dak Prescott will make $137 million, $10 million in endorsements and $127 million on the field. This makes him the fourth highest paid athlete in 2025 behind Saudi soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo, Boxing champion Tyson Fury, and Golden State Warrior Stephen Curry. This ranking makes Prescott the highest paid player in the NFL.

Yes, there is a small quirk to his 2025 haul in that he restructured his contract that signed in 2024 in March to convert $45.7 million in salary (he makes $60 million a year, $231 million guaranteed through 2028) to a signing bonus, front loading some of his payments from 2026. But nonetheless, the numbers are the numbers.

Speaking of numbers, here are some of Prescott’s:

• In 2024, he played only 8 games before he was hurt so we can’t look at any cumulative stats like yards. Within those 8 games, though, he had a quarterback rating of 86 which we can compare. That was fourth worst among starters.

• 2023 was a very different year. He was third in passing yards, first in completion percentage, and second in rating. Good reasons for a major extension.

• In 2022, he only played 12 games so we can’t compare the main stats again. He had a 91.1 rating, good for the middle of the field for starting quarterbacks.

• In 2021, he had an impressive year with 4,449 passing yards and a 104.2 rating.

The point is, he is inconsistent, and you never know what you’ll get year to year. Maybe the numbers that really matter are the following:

In 2023, the Cowboys lost in the Wild Card round, in 2022, they lost the divisional round, in 2021 they lost in the wild card round, and they didn’t make the playoffs in 2020 or 2019.

Prescott hasn’t been a routine winner, hasn’t progressed that deep in the playoffs, and it is hard to call him better than Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrough, or Josh Allen, let alone Ja’Marr Chase, Justin Jefferson, TJ Watt, Saquon Barkley or Derrick Henry.

2 – Juan Soto, New York Mets, Right Fielder

In 2025, Juan Soto signed a 15-year, $765 million deal with the New York Mets. In 2025, he’ll make $109 million a year on the field with $5 million a year in endorsements. His $75 million signing bonus helps juice his 2025 earnings.

Like Dak Prescott, Soto is a good player, that is not in question. The question is whether he is worth his huge contract that makes him the highest paid player in the MLB this year, the third highest annual MLB salary, and the sixth highest paid in the world on the Forbes list.

Unlike Prescott, Soto is consistent. On base percentage is his specialty: he was second to Aaron Judge in 2024, third in 2023, sixth in 2022, and he is sixth this year. In OPS, which takes into consideration slugging multi-base hits, he was third behind Judge and Ohtani in 2024, eighth in 2023, 15^th in 2022, and 12^th this year.

In all sports, whether we like it or not, you are typically paid based on your last year. Prescott was and Soto was as well. You can make a case that he is a top five hitter easily, maybe even top three behind Judge and Ohtani based on the last several years. Twelfth in OPS this year is disappointing though the numbers are still good (.886 OPS, 31 home runs, 72 RBI’s and the year isn’t over yet). 

The problem comes when we start looking at WAR which is typically a more well-rounded look at a player’s overall contribution. After all, the best excels at all facets of the game like a Patrick Mahomes, a Michael Jordan, a Saquon Barkley, or a Nikola Jokic. Ohtani may be the epitome of excelling at all facets of the game as the league’s only two-way player.

Judge was the WAR leader in 2024 while Soto was 6^th (that is how Soto got paid), in 2023 he was 14, in 2022 he was 26 (a steady improvement each year), but this year he is 18^th, tied with the Cubs Nico Hoerner.

These WAR numbers reflect that Soto is an OK defender and baserunner, but not great, and definitely not elite. Nico Hoener is a great contact hitter with very little slugging but has a high WAR because of his defense. This year, Soto is considered a much less than average defender (-.6 to Hoerner’s +2).

Though his lower WAR doesn’t negate that you might pay real money for Soto’s bat and fan draw (the Mets obviously did), he doesn’t belong in this elite crowd of nine-figure take home payouts like a Ronaldo, Ohtani, Curry, or Lebron James.

3 – Deshaun Watson, QB, Cleveland Browns

Deshaun Watson is 15^th on the Forbes list and the second highest NFL player on the list. Watson is set to make $90 million on the field next year (signing bonus plus salary) and he isn’t really in the conversation for the starting job in Cleveland.

Currently, Cleveland has veterans Joe Flacco (named starter) and Kenny Pickett on the roster and they drafted two rookies, Shedeur Sanders and Dillon Gabriel. Watson is recovering from two Achilles injuries from last year and is unlikely to play this year, though his money is fully guaranteed.

When on the field, the Browns didn’t get much value from him. In 2024, during seven games, he had a 5.3 yards/attempt average, five touchdowns and three interceptions, and a 79 rating. Things haven’t been better during his tenure with the Browns. In 2022, he played six games with a 79.1 rating and 2023 had an 84.3 rating over six games.

The numbers are simple whether you look at stats or the dollars he is guaranteed. Like a Watson interception, the Browns would love this one back.

4 – Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels, Right Fielder

Mike Trout was the face of American baseball since he won Rookie of the Year in 2012. Since then, he has been an 11-time All-Star, a 9-time Silver Slugger, and a 3-time MV P. Trout’s most recent MVP was 2019, but since then, he hasn’t been much of a factor in baseball.

Mostly due to injuries, Trout has been absent from All-Star games and awards. In 2020, he played 53 games, 2021 was 36, in 2022 he kind of rebounded to 119 games (obviously still missed almost 50 games), 82 games in 2023, 2024 29 games, and 2025 he spent considerable time on the IL but so far has 99 games under his belt (he might get to 130 games this year).

Even when limited, Trout is a slugging and OPS monster. His career .981 OPS is unbelievable and in his 119 game 2022 season, he had a .999 OPS. But that was also the last time he had a WAR over 2.9. Though he has an .821 OPS this season, which is well above average, but 36^th overall, his WAR sits at 1.5. Kyle Stowers is 50^th in WAR at 3.5. Pretty similar to other injury seasons in 2020, 2021, and 2024.

The truth is that for the last six seasons, Trout hasn’t had the numbers to justify his $35.5 million salary (he also makes $4 million in endorsements each year). According to Forbes, Trout is the seventh highest paid player in the MLB, behind players like Soto, Ohtani, Blake Snell, Judge, Zack Wheeler, and Jacob DeGrom, but he is far from the seventh best player in the league.

As has been the case with most of the overpaid, Trout capitalized on recent success when he signed his recent 12-year $425 million contract after his MVP year in 2019. The fact that even paired with Ohtani the Angels could not advance to the playoffs shows that the next five years of Trout’s contract could be as much of a waste as the first seven.

5- Trevor Lawrence, Jacksonville Jaguars, QB

Trevor Lawrence is the 21^st most highly paid athlete in the world, which makes absolutely no sense to anyone. But he is just one of many quarterbacks in the Top 50 Most Highly Paid Athletes that we could have been chosen on this list including Jordan Love, Jared Goff, Tua Tagovailo, Kyler Murray, or Russel Wilson.

These quarterbacks, though good in their contract years, or good for spurts, or good last year took advantage of the fact that the next quarterback to need a contract gets to set the NFL record for highest paid quarterback. It is one thing if their name is Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen but names like Love or Lawrence don’t seem to have earned record setting payouts just yet.

In Lawrence’s case, he will earn $74.5 million for his on field contributions (signing bonus plus $37.5 million salary) and $6 million in endorsements. Other numbers that are related to Lawrence include 21 touchdowns to 14 interceptions with a 88.5 quarterback rating in 2023 and 11 touchdowns to 7 interceptions with an 85.2 rating in only 10 games in 2024.

Lawrence is saddled with a difficult, if not poor, organization in Jacksonville, but the salary doesn’t match the numbers or the performance. He has two 4,000 yard seasons behind him, which is impressive, but he does pass quite a bit due to his team being behind constantly.

What should Jacksonville have done? If the poorer teams don’t pay their quarterback, they would leave as soon as they can. However, poorer teams may consider that they are poor because of their quarterback. Starting over sounds very painful at the QB position, but teams are more than willing to fire their coach.

The quarterback run-up in salary is problematic for the NFL as the quarterbacks rarely produce as expected. However, it continues to dictate the market price. Whereas other players on the Forbes 50 seem to make sense like Justin Jefferson and CeeDee Lamb, the less well regard quarterbacks don’t make as much sense.