The Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals meet Sunday in Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. Like just about any football game, there will be attention on how effective the quarterbacks perform.

For the Rams, Matthew Stafford is a 13-year veteran who entered the league in 2009 as the first overall pick. Meanwhile, the Bengals' Joe Burrow is also a former first-overall pick but entered the league in 2020.

Some might be wondering: when it comes to salary in the 2021 season, which player was paid more?

The answer is Stafford, and it's not even close.

The reason is due to the NFL's salary structure for rookies. In the 2011 NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement, the league adopted a strict rookie salary cap and there was essentially no wiggle room in negotiations for a better deal.

According to data compiled by Sportrac, Stafford was the 13th highest-paid player in the NFL at $27 million a season. Burrow was the 20th highest-paid player at $9.05 million.

Unlike Stafford, Burrow's salary operates under the rookie wage scale. The signing bonus is key for rookie deals, for which Burrow received $24,490,100 in cash in 2020.

Burrow's rookie contract ends after the 2023 season. Should he continue his strong play, he will almost certainly earn a contract extension that will make him one of the league's top-paid players.

Stafford's contract ends after the 2022 season.