The $81 Million Player Who Shattered the NFL’s Salary Scale

 

Center Tyler Linderbaum transformed the economics of his position by landing a deal worth 50% more a year than any of his peers

 

By Andrew Beaton

March 10, 2026 9:00 am ET

The Raiders signed center Tyler Linderbaum to a 3-year, $81 million deal. Terrance Williams/Associated Press

 

Tyler Linderbaum had every attribute he needed to set off a bidding war when NFL free agency kicked off on Monday. 

Over four seasons with the Baltimore Ravens, he had clearly established himself among the best centers in the league. At 25 years old, he was also in the prime of his career. Even better, he was the only offensive lineman of his caliber on the market.

The only factor standing between him and breaking the bank was a general view that centers weren’t as valuable as other positions. Which is what made the deal Linderbaum received even more stunning. 

On Monday, Linderbaum agreed to a three-year, $81 million contract with the Las Vegas Raiders that not only made the highest-paid player at his position—it completely warped the NFL’s salary scale. The previous top deal for a center, the Kansas City Chiefs’ Creed Humphrey, was for $18 million a year. At $27 million annually, Linderbaum raised the bar by 50%. 

Under normal circumstances, those records move in small increments, not gigantic leaps. But Linderbaum had a perfect storm on his side to supercharge his market. Players so young and so talented don’t become free agents all that often. And with the NFL salary cap now over $300 million, teams had plenty of money to spend—without many other top-shelf players to lavish it on. 

As it turns out, the team with the most money at its disposal was the one that landed him. The Raiders had over $100 million in room beneath the salary cap—along with a need to protect their most important asset. In next month’s NFL draft, they have the No. 1 draft pick, which they’re all but certain to use on Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza.  

At 25, Linderbaum is in the prime of his career. Timothy T Ludwig/Getty Images

 

So the Raiders didn’t think twice about splurging on the guy who will snap him the ball. As general manager Jon Spytek recently explained, bringing in a young quarterback means a need to keep him upright. 

“You want to limit the amount of pressure you have on that guy,” Spytek said. “A great offensive line, a run game, all the things that can limit his chances to really get killed.”

To understand how NFL teams value their rosters, you only need to glance at which positions draw the most cash. Quarterbacks are at the top, with 11 passers now having received deals worth more than $50 million a year. 

After that, the top pass rushers and wide receivers tend to have the most earning power. Centers only begin to appear near the bottom of the scale. Even compared to other offensive linemen, they tend to be cheap. The highest-paid tackle last year made $30.1 million, or 67% more than the Chiefs’ Humphrey. The top guard was also significantly higher at $24 million a year. 

That made centers a potential inefficiency in the market. The league is flush with strong pass rushers who come through the middle. And as modern defenses do more to disguise their coverages and blitzes, centers have an even bigger job as the brains of the offensive line. 

It’s no wonder that some of the savviest teams in the league understood it was worth shelling out for a good one. Before Linderbaum, the two centers who earned the most belonged to the Chiefs and Eagles—who have three of the past four Super Bowls between them. 

Linderbaum capitalized on all of that during free agency’s soft opening, which featured the typical frenzy of agreements that can be officially signed on Wednesday. On a day that saw the Chiefs sign Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker from the Seahawks and linebacker Jaelan Phillips land a four-year, $120 million deal with the Panthers, Linderbaum was the one who transformed the economics of his position.

Linderbaum was a first-round selection of the Ravens in 2022. Julio Cortez/Associated Press

 

The odd twist is that the Ravens could have kept Linderbaum, one of their first-round draft picks in 2022, for far less. Last year, they had an option to keep him for an additional season, but it would’ve cost $23.4 million, which was $5 million more than the top of the center market. They deemed that too much and instead sought to work out a deal that they felt was more reasonable. 

“It is our intention for him to remain a Baltimore Raven long term,” general manager Eric DeCosta said at the time. 

What the Ravens didn’t count on was another team straying so far positional norms. But coming off a three-win season, the Raiders weren’t afraid to go to extreme lengths to rebuild their franchise.

“We’ve got a lot of needs to address,” Spytek said recently, “and we’ve got a lot of capital to do it.”

Copyright ©2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

Appeared in the March 11, 2026, print edition as 'The $81 Million Center Who Shattered NFL’s Salary Scale'.

2026 NFL free agency awards: Best, worst, surprising moves

  

Ben Solak

Mar 11, 2026, 06:30 AM ET

 

And just like that, NFL free agency is over!

 

Well, not really. It actually starts on Wednesday at 4 p.m. ET -- but as ESPN's Adam Schefter rightfully bemoaned earlier this week, let's just start calling the legal negotiation period (which began Monday) the real opening of free agency. Almost all of the significant dust has settled on major movers and new deals.

 

I like to hand out awards after the early parts of every free agent period. These aren't awards for biggest winners (your favorite team, surely) and biggest losers (the team that stole your favorite free agent targets, surely). My colleague Bill Barnwell hit all those on Tuesday. This is for the sillier stuff. The Market Buster Award. The Friendship Award. The Arch Manning Seat Warmer Award.

 

Intrigued? I sure hope so.

The Market Buster Award: Tyler Linderbaum

 

Yes, $27 million per year. 27! Twenty. Seven.

 

When the Raiders signed Linderbaum to a three-year, $81 million deal Monday, they reset the center market in a way that markets simply don't get reset in the NFL. The then-biggest deal at center was Creed Humphrey's deal at $18 million per year. Linderbaum's $27 million per year represents a 50% increase at the top. Unfathomable.

 

Here's a current look at the biggest contract at every position in the NFL by APY and what a new contract would have to hit in order to create a proportional increase to the "Linderbaum Leap" (copyright Ben Solak 2026, nobody else is allowed to use that without my written consent).

 

The 'Linderbaum Leap' at every position

 

 

Think about this: A team would have to pay an edge rusher $70 million or a running back over $30 million or a defensive tackle almost $50 million to get a proportionate jump. I only included kicker at the bottom because it might actually happen this year; Brandon Aubrey's negotiations with the Cowboys could get him around $10 million per year, which would be a 50% increase over Ka'imi Fairbairn's newly minted $6.5 million-per-year deal.

 

It's very easy to look at the Raiders, who entered the period with over $100 million in cap space, and shrug at the Linderbaum deal. Why not sign him for whatever exorbitant figure ensured he took his services to Las Vegas and nowhere else? (This, of course, was a much easier argument to make before Maxx Crosby's $30 million cap hit was suddenly catapulted back onto the Raiders' cap when the Ravens failed his physical and backed out of the trade. But it's the best Las Vegas knew at the time!)

 

This perspective is fine, but it doesn't change the fact that $27 million is an enormous number. Linderbaum is the sixth-highest-paid offensive lineman in all of football on this deal -- below only four left tackles and one right tackle. We've simply never seen an interior offensive lineman valued like this.

 

It's interesting to try to figure out when Linderbaum's deal will get beat. The league's best centers on rookie contracts are Zach Frazier (Pittsburgh) and Graham Barton (Buccaneers). Both were drafted in 2024 and are extension eligible after the upcoming season. Barton has a fifth-year option of team control; Frazier will be a free agent in 2028. We'll know how the Linderbaum deal has fallen for the Raiders by then, but if it goes well, more teams might be willing to pay their centers more than their guards -- and close to their tackles.

 

It's a trend to watch. But who knows what's really going to happen. We're in uncharted waters here -- $27 million worth of uncharted waters.

2026 NFL free agency winners, losers: Tagovailoa, Walker, more

 

Bill Barnwell

Mar 10, 2026, 06:30 AM ET

Winner: Tyler Linderbaum (and centers everywhere)

 

Loser: Baltimore Ravens

 

Yesterday's price is not today's price. When the Ravens selected Linderbaum in the first round of the 2022 draft, they had to know what might transpire down the line. The league lumps all offensive linemen together in terms of evaluating fifth-year options and franchise tags, which would have created a conflict if Linderbaum emerged as a standout, given how the center market lagged behind what guards and especially tackles were paid. Some organizations wouldn't bother caring or thinking about how that problem would play out, but the Ravens are smart enough to think that far ahead and project the market accordingly.

Well, Linderbaum emerged as a standout, and the Ravens were facing a conundrum. In 2024, the highest-paid center in the league was Creed Humphrey, whose deal averaged $18 million per year. Linderbaum's fifth-year option for 2025, a no-brainer based on his play, would have cost the Ravens $23.6 million for one year, obliterating the center market and making a long-term deal even more difficult to negotiate. The Ravens declined and hoped that they could get a deal done before Linderbaum became a free agent.

 

After 2025, the Ravens had another shot at keeping Linderbaum by using the franchise tag. Again, it was out of line with the center market, which hadn't budged from its $18 million peak salary. Franchising Linderbaum would have cost the Ravens $25.8 million.

 

The math just didn't add up. If he signed the tender, the Ravens would have been forced to account for all of Linderbaum's salary on their 2026 cap, which would have been difficult even before trading for Maxx Crosby over the weekend. Teams negotiating a multiyear deal with Linderbaum could structure a contract with a smaller Year 1 cap figure by working money through the signing bonus.

 

Well, Linderbaum hit free agency, and guess what happened? The top of the market changed. Linderbaum landed a three-year, $81 million deal from the Raiders, blowing past Humphrey's record deal. Linderbaum's contract averages $27 million per season, a 50% jump from the prior record for a center and the largest contract for an interior lineman in league history. And because it's a three-year pact, he will hit free agency again when he's about to turn 29.

 

It's one of the most player-friendly deals in recent memory, and a reminder of just how effective the franchise tag has been at limiting player value and salary growth. One of the other remarkably player-friendly contracts that comes to mind is the initial extension signed by Dak Prescott, who also had a significant amount of leverage because he was one year from true unrestricted free agency. A Cowboys team that had previously been hesitant to sign Prescott catered to his every demand, giving him the largest signing bonus in NFL history and a full no-trade/no-tag clause. It gave Prescott enough leverage to become the highest-paid player in NFL history when he inked his next deal in September 2024.

 

It's possible that the Ravens never had a shot at getting a Linderbaum deal done. Maybe they don't value interior linemen at that level, which is reasonable enough given that they've let plenty of them leave in free agency over the years (including Ryan Jensen and John Simpson, the latter of whom rejoined Baltimore on Monday). Maybe they knew where the market was heading and weren't willing to go there. Given what the Raiders (and presumably other teams) were willing to pay to sign Linderbaum, though, it's clear that the market was there for a center in the $25 million range. Losing Linderbaum for a compensatory pick in 2027 hurts.

 

It will also be harder for the Ravens to replace Linderbaum without those first-round picks in 2026 and 2027, which went to the Raiders to acquire Crosby. I'll mostly refer you to my colleague Ben Solak's thoughts on the Crosby deal and why it fit what the Ravens needed on defense on the field, but it's stunning to see a team that cherishes first-round picks move so much draft capital for a player who turns 29 before the 2026 season begins.

 

That move might have forced the Ravens out of the Linderbaum discussion, given how much Baltimore is committing to a handful of stars. It also limits the Ravens' ability to build a Super Bowl contender around those standouts because they've now lost two first-round picks (which makes Crosby an even riskier addition). Factor in the implied value of two first-rounders, and Crosby's making $57.5 million per year after the trade, which means he has to be an MVP candidate on an annual basis to make that deal work for the Ravens.

 

The Crosby trade isn't necessarily a bad one, but it puts an organization that's generally very patient and rewarded for doing so into the sort of risk profile the Ravens usually try to avoid. Comparisons to the Rams aren't accurate; the Rams have traded this sort of draft capital only for players who are either entering their peak or a quarterback. When they sent two Day 2 picks to the Broncos for Von Miller, the Rams also got Denver to pay down the remainder of Miller's contract as part of the move.

 

Lamar Jackson is 29. There's a difference between wanting to win now and leveraging assets to make winning now a necessity. The Ravens are firmly in the latter category, and though they gained Crosby, that move also cost them one of their best young players in Linderbaum.

 

The shocking rise at the top of the center market changes a lot of things. It's great news for teams such as the Chargers, who just inked a solid starter in Tyler Biadasz to a three-year deal for $30 million, and the Bills, who re-signed Connor McGovern for $13 million per year before free agency. It's bad news for teams such as the Commanders, who just cut Biadasz in the middle of what looked like a reasonable deal, and the Cowboys, who have a very good center coming due for a new deal soon in Cooper Beebe. The Chiefs will be thrilled that they have Humphrey secured until 2029. The Bucs and Steelers will have to be prepared to budget more for young standouts Graham Barton and Zach Frazier, respectively, when they become eligible for new contracts in 2027.

 

And in the big picture, more money at center means less money somewhere else. Though there has been plenty of ink spilled over the NFL's unwillingness to spend significant money at running back over the past few years, what has been lost in that conversation is where that cash has gone instead. Much of it has gone to guards, where the market has risen dramatically over the past decade. Teams are still spending on their run game, but they prefer to spend that money on the guys blocking for the ball carrier instead of the guy with the ball in his hands.

 

With the roof exploding for centers, does that squeeze running backs even further? Linderbaum is making $9 million more than any running back and about twice as much per year as guys like Kenneth Walker III and Travis Etienne Jr. signed for in free agency Monday. You can decide whether that's a good idea, but with center taking a larger market share, that money will come out of some other position's bucket in the years to come.

 

For the Raiders, Linderbaum fits as an investment on multiple levels. He's one of the more athletic centers in the league, and that will be needed as new coach Klint Kubiak installs what is likely to be a play-action, zone-heavy scheme. As I covered in my Super Bowl preview, Kubiak's Seahawks offense installed more gap runs and a wider range of concepts than the classic stretch offense his father, Gary, learned and then operated along with the Shanahan family years ago. But having athletic interior linemen is essential if an offense wants to make a zone run game work.

 

Linderbaum can be physically overpowered by bigger defensive tackles at times, but he's one of the league's better one-on-one pass-blocking centers. He will be an essential set of eyes for presumptive first pick Fernando Mendoza, helping to set protections and sort out the many pressures the Raiders will see from their AFC West opponents. Is this an overpay? Probably, but if the Raiders were going to overpay for anybody, Linderbaum was the right guy to go over the top and add.