Tom Brady has been one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL for quite some time. So long, in fact, that he is widely considered the best ever. And yet, Brady has almost never been the highest-paid player at the position. This is something that has been talked about in league circles for a while now, with many speculating as to why Brady has been so willing to take discounted contracts, but Brady himself cleared it up for good this week during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, seemingly confirming the most popular explanation for his relatively discounted salaries.

"I think the thing I've always felt for me in my life, winning has been a priority," Brady said. "And my wife [model Gisele Bundchen] makes a lot of money. I'm a little smarter than you think. Actually, it's a salary cap. You can only spend so much and the more that one guy gets is less for others. And for a competitive advantage standpoint, I like to get a lot of good players around me."

So, let's dig into this.

Brady and Bundchen began dating in 2006 and were married in 2009. The essential salary-tracking site Spotrac only has data going back to 2011, but that's still a pretty good sample that allows us to identify how much money Brady has saved the Patriots over the years. And as he said, during that time Brady has been able to save the Patriots a ton of money, ranking on average as the 13th highest-paid quarterback in the league.

In the chart below, we list Brady's salary (Brady $), the salary of the highest-paid quarterback in the league that season (Top $), the average salary of the five highest-paid quarterbacks in the league that season (Top 5 $), and how much Brady saved the Patriots relative to both the highest-paid quarterback (Top Save) and to the top five highest-paid quarterbacks (Top 5 Save). All monetary figures are in millions.

via Spotrac

Brady has saved the Pats over $9 million per year compared to the highest-paid quarterback in the league each season, and nearly $6 million per year compared to the average compensation of the five highest-paid quarterbacks. That's enough to bring in an extra good player or two each season. No wonder these guys keep winning Super Bowls.