The number next to every player on our valuations board is a model estimate of open-market NIL value. This page is the whole recipe. If you quote a Model Price, this is what you are quoting.
The engine is anchored to a ledger of publicly reported deals — journalism facts only. Every amount was reported by a named outlet or documented in court and public records. Valuation estimates from other services are never ingested as deal amounts. Where a report gave a range, we record the low end. Where a famous deal has no reported number, there is no row — no invented figures, ever.
Every ledger row carries a confidence tier: confirmed (player, school, or agent on the record, or public filings), reported (credible outlet with a specific figure), or rumored (single-source, disputed, or aggregator-only). Declined offers are recorded too — they price the market's willingness to pay — but are excluded from realized-compensation totals.
Reported deals and published market surveys are fit into a position-by-role rate card. Three anchor vintages are kept deliberately so the card can model market growth rather than freeze it. Current card:
| Position | Role | 25th %ile | Median | 75th %ile |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CB | STARTER | $700K | $775K | $850K |
| CB | ROTATION | $150K | $250K | $350K |
| CB | DEPTH | $37K | $62K | $93K |
| EDGE | STARTER | $600K | $920K | $1.0M |
| EDGE | ROTATION | $300K | $400K | $500K |
| EDGE | DEPTH | $44K | $74K | $110K |
| IDL | STARTER | $1.0M | $1.1M | $1.1M |
| IDL | ROTATION | $250K | $375K | $500K |
| IDL | DEPTH | $50K | $84K | $126K |
| IOL | STARTER | $550K | $600K | $650K |
| IOL | ROTATION | $126K | $210K | $315K |
| IOL | DEPTH | $200K | $250K | $300K |
| LB | STARTER | $475K | $538K | $600K |
| LB | ROTATION | $113K | $188K | $282K |
| LB | DEPTH | $150K | $200K | $250K |
| OT | STARTER | $500K | $1.2M | $1.0M |
| OT | ROTATION | $300K | $400K | $500K |
| OT | DEPTH | $60K | $100K | $150K |
| QB | STARTER | $1.5M | $2.8M | $2.5M |
| QB | ROTATION | $750K | $875K | $1.0M |
| QB | DEPTH | $136K | $227K | $341K |
| RB | STARTER | $700K | $775K | $850K |
| RB | ROTATION | $250K | $275K | $300K |
| RB | DEPTH | $37K | $62K | $93K |
| S | STARTER | $675K | $712K | $750K |
| S | ROTATION | $150K | $249K | $374K |
| S | DEPTH | $200K | $275K | $350K |
| ST | STARTER | $100K | $150K | $200K |
| ST | ROTATION | $32K | $52K | $79K |
| ST | DEPTH | $7K | $12K | $18K |
| TE | STARTER | $550K | $600K | $650K |
| TE | ROTATION | $126K | $210K | $315K |
| TE | DEPTH | $200K | $250K | $300K |
| WR | STARTER | $500K | $1.2M | $800K |
| WR | ROTATION | $300K | $400K | $500K |
| WR | DEPTH | $57K | $95K | $143K |
A player's Model Price starts from what he does on the field — role, production, recruiting pedigree, and draft-board signal — slotted into his position's rate card. Social reach can nudge a number; it never drives one. Football first.
Player values on a roster are reconciled to that program's budget band, built from public statements, records requests, and the rev-share era's published figures — so a team's model payroll lives in the range its own administrators describe, not in a fantasy economy.
When a real number is credibly reported for a player, it replaces the model's estimate on our surfaces. The model prices the unpriced; journalism outranks it.
Now run a real NIL budget yourself — Be A GM College →Questions, corrections, or a deal we should know about: the ledger only gets better with receipts.