The 2019 LSU Tigers football team was out of this world.
Led by Joe Burrow, the Tigers posted an undefeated 13-0 regular season that included wins over top 10-ranked teams Texas, Florida, Auburn, and Alabama.
In the SEC Championship Game, LSU defeated Georgia to win their first conference title since 2011.
Ranked No. 1 in the final College Football Playoff (CFP) rankings of that season, the team then earned them a spot in the national semi-final game at the Peach Bowl.
LSU dominated fourth-ranked Oklahoma 63–28 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta to advance to the CFP National Championship.
There, the Tigers defeated the defending national champions Clemson, 42–25, to write themselves into the college football record books with an unforgettable 15-0 season.
Burrow, who threw for an NCAA-leading 5,671 yards and 60 touchdowns, was unsurprisingly taken as the first overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.
And he wasn’t the only member of the LSU team that was drafted high.
Four of Burrow’s LSU teammates – linebackers K’Lavon Chaisson and Patrick Queen, wide receiver Justin Jefferson, and running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire – were all also selected in the first round five years ago.
Two more stars, safety Grant Delpit and cornerback Kristian Fulton, were taken in round two.
Meanwhile, Ja’Marr Chase and Derek Stingley Jr stayed in college for a little while longer, and entered the NFL as the fifth and third overall picks in 2021 and 2022 respectively.
And now, within six years of winning that national championship back in 2019, four of those former LSU stars have combined to land a total value of $666 million in second contracts.
In 2023, Burrow inked a five-year, $275m deal with the Cincinnati Bengals. One year later, Jefferson signed a four-year, $140m extension with the Minnesota Vikings.
On Sunday night, after months of speculation, Chase one-upped his former LSU teammate and agreed a four-year, $161m deal with the Bengals.
Then, less than 24 hours later, the Houston Texans made Stingley Jr the highest-paid CB in the NFL, offering him a three-year, $90m contract.
In total, those four deals alone are worth a ridiculous $666m.
LSU stars really have hit the jackpot, and that figure doesn’t even include the NFL earnings of other notable players from the 2019 team.
Offensive lineman Damien Lewis, who was a third-round pick in 2020, signed a four-year, $53m contract with the Carolina Panthers last year.
Center Lloyd Cushenberry, who went a few picks after Lewis, also bagged a four-year, $50m contract with the Tennessee Titans last offseason.
Linebacker Queen, meanwhile, turned his 2023 Pro Bowl nod into a $41m contract from the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Cornerback Fulton has also secured a $20m deal with the Kansas City Chiefs recently and safety Delpit signed a $36m extension with the Cleveland Browns in December 2023.
All in all, those LSU stars have now signed for a combined $846m after their rookie contracts.
With such a high worth, fans have this week crowned that 2019 Tigers team the ‘greatest’ ever assembled in college football.
“That LSU team was incredible,” one person wrote on X, following news of the recent Chase and Stingley Jr deals.
“It is by far and away the greatest college team of all time,” another said.
“I thought the 2001 Miami Hurricanes was the greatest college team, but the LSU team has them beat,” a third concluded.
The NFL’s official X account also referenced the deals that Chase and Stingley Jr have agreed, sharing footage of their pair facing each other in LSU practice all those years ago.
To call that Tigers team generational, given a handful of players are now worth nearly $850m in the NFL, would arguably be an understatement.
Stay up to date with the latest from across the NFL via our talkSPORT Facebook page, and subscribe to our Endzone YouTube channel for news, views and exclusive interviews as we build up to the NFL Draft.
