Subscribe
Follow Us
Duke football opened its wallet to land Darian Mensah. The dual-threat quarterback is igniting new enthusiasm for the Blue Devils. With $8 million coming from Duke and now placed inside Mensah's bank account after transferring from Tulane.
But is he college football's richest QB? That major question surfaced ahead of his highly-anticipated Duke debut.
Name, image and likeness (NIL) hands teams leverage to pay athletes including Mensah. Including hitting the millions. Carson Beck is one other transfer who landed a bonkers NIL deal in joining Miami.
But Mensah's deal is higher than his — and every other QB according to Pete Nakos of On3/Rivals on Thursday.
Which QB's NIL deal was closer to Duke football's Darian Mensah?
The dual-threat and college football transfer portal addition helped rewrite the narrative of paying athletes. Nakos dove into Mensah's massive deal in Durham.
“He’s now set to be one of the highest-paid players in college football this season as part of a two-year, $8 million contract with the Blue Devils. Mensah is set to be paid $4 million for the 2025 season,” Nakos wrote.
And that's not all money wise for the incoming QB1 for Duke.
“According to one source, Mensah could max out the $8 million deal up to $10 million with incentives,” Nakos added.
Which QB comes close NIL wise to the Blue Devils' newcomer? One other newcomer to his school is close to Mensah. But it's blue chip college football recruiting five-star Bryce Underwood for Michigan. The incoming freshman at Ann Arbor will earn up to $3 million for four years, per Nakos.
Beck, meanwhile, is raking in up to $3.2 million for the Hurricanes. Dylan Raiola of Nebraska pulled in a similar dollar figure to the new Miami QB.
Drew Allar of Penn State briefly flirted with an NFL Draft entry. But he'll receive “at least $3 million” in NIL at State College. John Mateer of Oklahoma comes behind Allar — earning between $2.5 million to $3 million after leaving Washington State.
Mensah is wealthy, but also motivated. The Duke QB said he's playing with a chip on his shoulder this fall — as he'll represent California's 805 region in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Which rarely sees talent from California's Central Coast make their way over to the ACC.
