When Shane Victorino and Marcus Mariota met for lunch the other day, picking up the check wasn’t going to be a problem for either of them.
Victorino, going on four seasons after his retirement from a 12-year Major League Baseball career, still stands as the highest single-season salaried athlete raised in Hawaii. The $13 million salary he earned as a Boston Red Sox outfielder in the World Series championship year of 2013 and cashed again in 2014 remain tops.
Well, at least until 10 a.m. Wednesday, that is.
That’s when, without further action by the Tennessee Titans, Mariota’s $20.9 million deal for 2019 becomes fully guaranteed. Mariota’s $13.2 million raise from 2018 was triggered when the Titans chose to exercise the fifth-year option on his rookie contract.
Mariota being a first-round pick of the Titans and second overall selection in the 2015 NFL Draft, the parameters of his contract were set by the 2011 NFL-NFLPA Collective Bargaining Agreement. As a quarterback, he is due the approximate average of the 10 highest-paid players at his position in the league.
What is not lost on Mariota as he goes to the bank is that the 2019 season marks a significant crossroads for the 25-year-old on a couple of fronts. With a stellar showing this season, Mariota can put himself in a position to make much, much more money as well as reach his potential and better define what has been an up-and-down career.
His four seasons have been marked by gutty comeback victories and flashes of brilliance taking the once down-and-out Titans to respectability and the playoffs. But, as with 2018, which ended with his sitting out the final game due to a severe nerve injury, they have also been slowed by a variety — knees, broken leg, nerve, hamstring, etc. — of injuries.
Mariota has missed eight games over his four seasons, a significant number but not unheard of in the present-day NFL, where fellow quarterbacks Andrew Luck, Ryan Tannehill, Deshaun Watson and Carson Wentz have missed more over the same period (2015-18).
How Mariota bounces back will help define whether he has merely been unlucky and can be the franchise quarterback the Titans believe him to be for the long run or is injury-cursed and it is time to move on.
The Titans have several options of which to avail themselves, including negotiating a multi-year extension to tie him down long term, letting him go or applying a franchise tag to keep him in 2020.
If the franchise tag is invoked, the Titans would be required to pay Mariota approximately $27 million in 2020, roughly the average of the top five quarterbacks. If they sign him to a multi-year deal, he would likely surpass Victorino in another category as the most lucrative salaried career among local pros.
If that happens, a $100 million horizon would not be out of the question given recent salary trends at the position.
Victorino, according to Spotrac, Over the Cap and other salary-charting services, earned $65.49 million over the course of an all-star career, topping the New Orleans Saints’ remarkable, still active center Max Unger, who has earned $52.53 million in 11 NFL seasons.
With Wednesday’s bump, Mariota will be at $45.13 million, just ahead of Washington Nationals catcher Kurt Suzuki, whose 13-year career will have paid him $37 million.
The figures do not include income from sponsorships and endorsements that might have propelled others onto the list, such as golfer Michelle Wie, who has $6.8 million in LPGA Tour winnings and much more in endorsements in an almost 15-year career as a pro. Three-time World Surf League champion Carissa Moore has earned more than $1.6 million in prize money plus significant endorsements.
It is also worth keeping an eye on Mariota’s teammate on the 2015 College Football Playoff runner-up Oregon team, DeForest Buckner. The Waianae native is entering his fourth year as a defensive tackle for San Francisco and is due $2.93 million this year from a four-year, $18.19 million contract as a first-round pick in 2016.
But as he continues to emerge as one of the premier young defensive linemen in the league, it behooves the 49ers to lock him up long term, something they may want get put on paper before the 2019 season gets underway.
Hawaii, as well as Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Oregon, Tennessee and elsewhere, has shared in the good fortune of Victorino, Mariota, Tyson Alualu, Buckner, Suzuki, Moore and many other local pros. They are among the local athletes whose charitable work, through their 501(c)(3) non-profit foundations and donations, has funded educational, after-school, athletic and other opportunities for youth and the underprivileged.
Meanwhile, there is no word on who paid the tab on the Victorino-Mariota lunch.
BRINGING HOME THE BUCKS
Top single-season salaries of Hawaii pro athletes
NO. / PLAYER / SALARY / TEAM / YEAR
1. Marcus Mariota $20.9 mil. Titans 2019
2. Shane Victorino $13 mil. Red Sox 2014
3. Tyson Alualu $12.38 mil. Jaguars 2011
4. DeForest Buckner $11.87 mil. 49ers 2016
5. Brandon League $8.5 mil. Dodgers 2015
6. Max Unger $8.1 mil. Saints 2016
7. Kolten Wong $6.5 mil. Cardinals 2019
8. Dominic Raiola $6.5 mil. Lions 2016
9 (tie). Kurt Suzuki $6 mil. Twins 2016
9 (tie). Shawn Lauvao $6 mil. Redskins 2014
Note: Includes automatic bonuses.
Sources: Spotrac, Over the Cap, CBS Sports
TOP CAREER SALARIES
NO. / PLAYER / SALARY / YEARS
1. Shane Victorino $65.49 million 12
2. Max Unger $52.53 million 11
3. Marcus Mariota $45.13 mil. 5
4. Kurt Suzuki $37 million 15
5. Dominic Raiola $35.78 million 14
Note: Includes 2019 salaries. Sources: Spotrac, Over the Cap, CBS Sports
