Shedeur Sanders pulled in a record $17.7 million in NFLPA group licensing income over the season, a figure that resets the league’s high-water mark and puts the rookie quarterback in a financial lane far above his draft position. Sanders, listed through his limited liability company SS2Legendary, beat the previous record of $9.5 million set by Tom Brady in the 2021-2022 season.
The number is drawing attention now because the NFL Players Association filed its annual report with the Department of Labor this week, putting a fresh ledger on the table for the 2024-2025 NFL season. J.J. McCarthy led all players with $4 million, but Sanders’ total stands out because he was drafted 144th in the fifth round and is tied to a slotted average annual salary of $1.005 million.
Group licensing covers deals involving six or more players, most often jerseys, trading cards, video games and other collectibles. The NFLPA figures also fold in player marketing income from appearances and hospitality promotions, though they do not include Sanders’ individual endorsements with Gatorade, Delta Airlines, Beats by Dre and Ralph Lauren. That split matters because the $17.7 million does not reflect his whole commercial footprint, only the slice routed through collective deals.
The surge goes beyond Sanders. NFLPA group licensing revenue from OneTeam, Fanatics, Panini and Electronic Arts combined hit $297 million in the 12 months ended February 28, up from $202.6 million a year earlier. Panini alone delivered $93 million after $39.6 million in the prior year, a jump that tracks with a collectibles market that has kept rookies near the top of the list because their first official team products are just reaching buyers.
That is the friction inside Sanders’ figure: a player taken in the 144th slot, on a rookie-scale salary, became the league’s biggest group licensing earner. Three of the top four earners last season were rookies, and the No. 2 earner brought in $12.8 million through TIPENTERPRISE LLC, while Patrick Mahomes was third through his 2PM LLC with more than $8 million, up from $1.9 million the year before. Sanders did not use a contract agent for his draft process, and the Browns did not reply to a request for comment from Sanders.
What remains unresolved is how much of Sanders’ total came from specific licensing categories and how much came from player marketing income, a breakdown the filing does not provide. For now, the annual report makes one thing clear: in a season when trading cards and other licensed products kept selling, Sanders’ name was worth far more in the collective market than his draft slot suggested it should be.
