Are we entering a new era for elite wide receivers? Will NFL teams start viewing them like running backs? Let's answer seven questions.
, with episodes released once a week. Barnwell joined ESPN in 2011 as a staff writer at Grantland. Follow him on Twitter here:There has been a lot of conversation about this deal since it was announced. Yes, $35 million per year is a lot of money, but there also has been chatter about what it means for the league as a whole.
That's not just a deal that resets the wide receiver market. It's a contract that sets a new high for all non-quarterbacks around the NFL. As Jason Fitzgerald of Over the Cap, Jefferson's cash flow will see him paid far beyond the rates of other wideouts, and it either competes with or tops what edge rusherOn one hand, that might seem weird. When Bosa signed his deal, he was coming off a mammoth season in which he led the league with 18.5 sacks and won Defensive Player of the Year.
Again, considering salaries in the context of how the cap has risen tells us a lot more about the market than simply looking at the cash being paid out. Jefferson's $35 million average salary comes in a year in which the salary cap is $255.4 million. Divide one by the other and you'll find Jefferson's salary represents 13.7% of the cap.
In other words, this isn't anything new. Elite wide receivers already were being treated as the most valuable non-quarterbacks in the league a decade ago when Fitzgerald and Johnson signed their deals. The deals for Hopkins, Adams and Hill reclaimed that title from Suh, and the Jefferson deal has won it back after Bosa took it over.
We're seeing this effect at wide receiver, though, more than any other position. Again, let's put these players into buckets by salary. The top bucket is for players who make north of $20 million per season, while the next bucket will be players making between $10 million and $20 million. There's a notable disparity between wideouts and players at other positions. Teams seem to place a premium on elite talent at the position and don't have the same appetite for secondary options.
It's impossible to say with any level of certainty, but there's likely another effect coming into play at the lower levels that is both impacted by and impacting the NFL.
Owners vary in terms of how hands-on they get with a roster, but the one thing they all have in common is wanting a franchise quarterback on their roster, since it's the one thing everybody knows directly leads to winning football games.
It took decades -- and success swapping out backs in many places across the league -- for teams to realize they were overvaluing running backs at the expense of other positions. If the Chiefs continue to save money at wide receiver throughout theother Super Bowl winners follow in kind, that could lead to more of a debate about wide receivers being overvalued. We're not close to that point yet.
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