The Falcons locked in their franchise receiver, Drake London, by signing him to an incredible four-year, $141,054,000 contract extension. His $35,263,500 APY makes him the third-highest paid receiver in the NFL.
The NFL contract world is a lot like the real estate market. New prices are set based on comps. So what comps helped set the London market and valuation? Let’s take a look.
Drake London 2025 comps
Looking at recent receiver contracts whose platform years featured similar production to London’s 2025. The two closest player seasons were A.J. Brown’s 2021 (contract in 2022) and Jameson Williams’ 2024 (contract in 2025).
Player | Draft Round | Age | Catches | Yds | Yds/rr | TD | Slot % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Drake London 2025 | 1 | 25.1 | 68 | 919 | 2.34 | 7 | 36.22% |
A.J. Brown 2021 | 2 | 25.2 | 63 | 869 | 2.50 | 5 | 35.73% |
Jameson Williams 2024 | 1 | 24.4 | 58 | 1,001 | 2.10 | 7 | 36.90% |
All production data is pulled from Pro Football Focus.
Brown’s deal was for a cap-adjusted $36.14 million APY while Williams’ was for a more modest $28.76 million.
Cap-adjusted means his APY is adjusted from the year it was signed and re-calculated from the salary cap in the year it was signed to this year’s salary cap. Those two deals provide a solid hi-lo guardrail for where the negotiations could have started between the two sides.
Brown is the most relevant comp as he was the same age as London is and his platform year counting stats are within five catches, 50 yards and two touchdowns of London while he has a small bump in efficiency on a per-route basis.
Williams is close in production, but he works as a field-stretching complement to Amon-Ra St. Brown, who is the volume driver in the Lions’ offense, while Brown was the alpha for the Titans leading up to his 2022 deal.
But a one-year sample size is a narrow lens to view a player.
Drake London two-year comps
Taking a wider view, his closest two year comps are DeVonta Smith 2022-2023 and Brandon Aiyuk 2022-2023.
Player | Draft Round | Age | Catches | Yds | Yds/rr | TD | Slot % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Drake London 2024-2025 | 1 | 25.1 | 168 | 2,190 | 2.33 | 16 | 39.79% |
DeVonta Smith 2022-2023 | 1 | 25.8 | 176 | 2,262 | 1.89 | 14 | 29.33% |
Brandon Aiyuk 2022-2023 | 1 | 26.5 | 153 | 2,357 | 2.41 | 15 | 25.56% |
Smith is an interesting data point. His two-year counting stats are extremely close to London’s, but his efficiency comes in almost half a yard per route run lower due to a significant difference in role.
But like Williams, Smith’s 2022-2023 came as the #2 to A.J. Brown in the Eagles’ offense while London operated as the undisputed top man for the Falcons’ passing game over the past two seasons.
Aiyuk is the more relevant comp as he was the X for the 49ers while amassing similar stats from both counting and efficiency perspectives. His cap-adjusted APY is $35.38 million.
A clear case for London's deal
I’d lay odds to evens that Aiyuk and Brown were the comps that London’s representatives and the Falcons settled on. Both of those player’s cap-adjusted APY’s were just a hint north of London’s APY.
All three players landed four-year deals. Brown’s included 40% of the total fully guaranteed and 57% in total guarantees. Aiyuk’s had 45% in full guarantees with 76% in total. London advances the full guarantees on both of those deals getting to 46% while landing in between the two in total guarantees at 71%.
“Third-highest paid receiver in the NFL” catches headlines. Some may think London hasn’t quite earned that type of payday. He has only topped 75 catches and 1,000 yards once in his career. But his peak season (2024) of 100 catches and 1,271 yards shows he is capable of being a volume-driving traditional X who can move into the slot to create matchup nightmares for defenses.
Additionally, over the last two seasons he has maintained a consistent yards per route run north of 2.30 and 16 touchdowns giving the team more confidence that he isn’t a one-hit wonder.
So, to answer the headline…no, London is far from overpaid based on how the NFL values traditional X receivers with his background and production. Which is why I projected him for almost this exact deal back in February.
The Brown and Aiyuk comps show a solid history of similar production getting paid at a commensurate rate. And while his APY is third-highest at the position, when controlling for the salary cap in the year the contract was signed he is only ninth-highest among active contracts.
This is a fair deal that should age well.
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