It is extremely difficult, if not downright impossible, to be a contending team in the NFL without an elite—or at least very good—starting quarterback.
And that, more than anything else, is why players at the position continue signing extremely lucrative contracts, as Lindsey Thiry of ESPN noted:
"That alone gives quarterbacks leverage when negotiating an extension, because when a team has a good quarterback, let alone a great one who has made the playoffs and had success, he will command record-breaking money.
"It's known as the 'pay-me-or-else mentality,' one AFC executive said. It dares the organization to attempt the alternative and find a new quarterback, knowing there's zero guarantee how that will turn out.