Forbes' highest-paid athletes list highlights Carson Wentz's lucrative year

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Forbes released its annual list of the highest-paid professional athletes in the world earlier this month, and a surprising name popped up on the list: Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz.

Considering Wentz signed a four-year, $128 million contract last summer that currently ranks sixth among all NFL players in average annual salary, it was odd to see Wentz as the second-highest-paid football player on the list, behind only Kirk Cousins at No. 9.

It's not like Wentz is raking in money from some astronomical contract, so what gives?

It turns out, Wentz's place on the list is thanks in large part to perfect timing.

Forbes' list takes into account all earnings, winnings, and endorsements between June 1, 2019, and June 1, 2020, which helps Wentz's numbers enormously: he signed his current deal with the Eagles on June 6, 2019, and earned a $16.3 million signing bonus.

On top of that, Wentz was paid a sizable $30 million player option this past March.

While both the signing bonus and the player option are spread out across multiple years against the Eagles' cap, Wentz was awarded both figures in one-time payments. Very, very big one-time payments.

When you add that $46.3 million to his base salary ($1.38 million) and his roster bonus ($8 million), and then you tack on roughly $4 million in endorsements, you arrive at Forbes' estimation that Wentz brought in $59.1 million between June 1, 2019, and June 1, 2020.

That'll buy a lot of diapers!

Forbes notes that Wentz has endorsement deals with Nike, NRG, Bobcat, Amazon, Sanford Health, Bose, Scheels and BlackRidge Bank.

Tennis legend Roger Federer ($106.3 million), soccer legend Cristiano Ronaldo ($105 million), and soccer legend Lionel Messi ($104 million) took the top three spots on the list.

We probably won't see Wentz back here any time soon.

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