Quarterback Jim Kelly became the NFL's highest-paid player Friday - for the time being - when he signed a 7-year contract extension with the Buffalo Bills that will pay him a reported $20 million.
"I just want to be considered up in the elite . . . whether I was the higehst-paid player or the sixth-highest-paid player," Kelly said at a Rich Stadium news conference.Kelly, 30, will earn an average of more than $3 million a year when the $1.4 million he is owed for the last year of his current five-year contract is included. Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Randall Cunningham, at an average $2.6 million a year, had been the NFL's salary leader.
Joe Montana, who won his third Super Bowl MVP this year, is currently renegotiating his $9.95 million, 5-year deal and is likely to go beyond that.
Bill Polian, the Bills' general manager, declined to detail the terms of Kelly's contract but said the pay was commensurate with what other quarterbacks in the league are getting.