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Dan Mullen's Salary vs NFL Salaries

Escambia94

Aerospace Cubicle Engineer (ACE)
Moderator
It's the most wonderful time of the year for football coaches in the NFL and in college. Now that the college football season is over it is time to worry about Dan Mullen's NFL coaching aspirations. None of us knows him personally, so let us assume that his decision will be largely driven by his salary ($6.07M) versus his career goals (winning championships).

First, here is how Mullen's basic salary stacks up against other college coaches. Note that a couple of these top-10 coaches have already been fired, which means this list may look very different pretty soon.
  1. Dabo Swinney $9.255M with $1.225M max bonus and $50.0M buyout
  2. Nick Saban $8.707M with $1.100M max bonus and $34.1M buyout
  3. Jim Harbaugh $7.504M with $1.325 max bonus and $11.7M buyout
  4. Jimbo Fisher $7.500M with $1.500M max bonus and $60.6M buyout
  5. Kirby Smart $6.703M with $1.150M max bonus and $24.2M buyout
  6. Gus Malzahn $6.800M with $1.400M max bonus and $27.1M buyout
  7. Tom Herman $6.750M with $725k max bonus and $20.4M buyout
  8. Jeff Brohm $6.600M with $1.290M max bonus and $27.650M buyout
  9. Lincoln Riley $6.384M with $950k max bonus and $21.0M buyout
  10. Dan Mullen $6.070M with $925k max bonus and $12.0M buyout
How does this stack up to the NFL?
  1. Bill Belichik $12M annual, $35M net
  2. Pete Carroll $11M annual, $22M net
  3. Jon Gruden $10M annual, $30M net
  4. Sean Payton $9.8M annual, $22M net
  5. John Harbaugh $9M annual, $16M net
  6. Matt Rhule $8.5M annual, $5M net
  7. Sean McVay $8.5M annual, $7M net
  8. Mike Tomlin $8M annual, $20M net
  9. Dan Quinn $8M annual, $3M net (terminated prior to full salary maturation)
  10. Andy Reid $8M annual, $25M net
  11. Bruce Arians $8M annual, $10M net
  12. Ron Rivera $7M annual, $10M net
  13. Kliff Kingsbury $6M annual, $6M net
  14. Bill O'Brien $5M annual, $7M net
  15. Joe Judge $5M annual, $20M net
Based on annual salary, Dan Mullen would be the #13 NFL coach. Most of the NFL coaches in the top 15 have been in the NFL for a while, with Matt Rhule being the lottery winner here after jumping from $4.1M at Baylor to twice that amount at Carolina. Before Mullen makes that leap he should watch what happens with Rhule after the former Baylor coach posted back-to-back 5-11 seasons. Bill O'Brien has been around for a while, but he was fired this past season after going 0-4, 52-48 since 2014.

Will Dan Mullen leave the Gators for the NFL? Will he break our hearts as Steve Spurrier did in 2001 and as Urban Meyer did in 2010? Why is the Gator Nation so up in arms about him leaving when half the social media is criticizing him about everything from his comment about game attendance after the Texas A&M loss to his stubborn loyalty to Todd Grantham? Dan Mullen is not perfect, but I think he is the only coach right now who is realistically in a position to restore the Florida program to its former glory. He just took a team with zero running game and zero defense and went toe-to-toe with the Alabama Crimson Tide. He won the SEC East for real, for the first time since 2009 (not counting the times McElwain backed the Gators into the East). I am sure Mullen will leave for the NFL when the time is right, but I doubt this is that time. Mullen has three 4-star QBs across three recruiting classes to play with, including Emory Jones--a QB that he first offered while he was the Mississippi State head coach. If Dan does leave, he should look at the fates his predecessors who are commanding similar salaries in the NFL. He has it pretty good at Florida. He would likely fare better than Doug Marrone, who went 25-25 at Syracuse, then 15-17 at Buffalo, and then 23-43 at Jacksonville. Marrone's $3M salary at Jacksonville would place him near the middle of the salary tier in the SEC, and his record at Syracuse would place him at the bottom tier of the SEC. Dan Mullen is certainly better than that and would likely leave for the NFL if it were a $7M-$8M salary with a team that would give him control over the offense. There are not too many teams that would offer as much prestige, control, and salary as the University of Florida and I expect Dan to stay at least for a few more years before testing the waters with a small-market NFL team.
 

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