Shedeur Sanders’ SS2 Legendary LLC received 13 NFLPA payments totaling $17,712,015 in “royalties/player marketing” from May 2025 through February 2026, far surpassing the previous one-year record held by Tom Brady.
Shedeur Sanders didn’t just slip in the 2025 draft — a new NFL Players Association filing suggests the financial fallout from that plunge has been anything but clean-cut.
The NFLPA’s recent LM-2. filed under the union’s federal requirements. shows Sanders — through his SS2 Legendary LLC — received more than $17.7 million from the NFLPA from May 2025 through February 2026. The figure, first reported by Daniel Kaplan and confirmed by PFT, appears in the union’s voluminous annual federal filing.
In the document, the payments are listed as “royalties/player marketing,” and they total $17,712,015 across thirteen separate transactions. The largest payment came on May 16, 2025, when SS2 Legendary received $9,241,318. The second-largest arrived on January 23, 2026, for $2,086,563.
Those royalty streams usually come from group licensing deals that compensate players for jersey sales. trading cards. video games. and other collectibles. One source suggested the massive May payment — the $9.24 million check — may have reflected an individual trading-card guarantee. That potential connection matters because Sanders’ draft path changed quickly: he moved from round one to round five before the 2025 draft came to a close.
Whatever the precise reasoning, the math is stark. The $17.7 million Sanders made in a single year dwarfs the total, four-year value of his rookie contract, which was $4.647 million. It also exceeds the full four-year contract signed by Packers receiver Matthew Golden. valued at $17.575 million after he was the 23rd pick in round one last year.
The LM-2 number also smashes the prior one-year record for this type of payout. Sanders’ reported $17.7 million shattered the previous mark of $9.5 million, which had been held by Tom Brady.
There may be more on the way, too. In March, Sanders changed his number from 12 to 2. Any jerseys that helped drive royalty payments for his first NFL season would need to be replaced as the new branding catches up — and the next LM-2 could reflect how that shift impacts future collectible sales.
Shedeur Sanders NFLPA LM-2 filing SS2 Legendary LLC royalties player marketing trading cards Tom Brady record Matthew Golden 2025 draft