The Daily Briefing Thursday, August 18, 2022
THE DAILY BRIEFING
The senior committee of the Pro Football Hall of Fame considered 12 candidates for enshrinement and came away with three Finalists.
In case you wondered why it is three and not 1 – the Hall’s Board of Trustees approved a change earlier this year to enlarge the number of finalists in the Seniors category from one to three in each of the next three Hall of Fame classes.
Bryan DeArdo of CBSSports.com:
The Pro Football Hall of Fame has taken another step toward finalizing its 2023 induction class. On Wednesday, the Hall of Fame’s senior committee named their three finalists for induction next summer. The trio that made the cut from 12 senior finalists are former Jets defensive lineman Joe Klecko, former Bengals cornerback Ken Riley and former Cowboys linebacker Chuck Howley.
Each finalist needs to receive 80% of his vote in order to reach induction. The committee will make their final vote in January. The coach/contributor committee will meet on Aug. 23 to select one coach or contributor as a finalist for induction next summer.
The only Super Bowl MVP from a losing team, Howley picked off two passes in Dallas’ 16-13 loss to the Colts in Super Bowl V. He had another interception in Super Bowl VI, as the Cowboys defeated the Dolphins to win their first Super Bowl. Howley was named to six Pro Bowls and was a five-time All-Pro.
A member of the Jets’ defense from 1977-88, Klecko earned Pro Bowl nods at defensive end, defensive tackle and nose tackle. He led the NFL with 20.5 sacks in 1981 while serving as a valuable member of the Jets’ “New York Sack Exchange” defense.
A career Bengal, Riley’s 65 career interceptions are tied for the fifth most in NFL history. In 1983, his final season, Riley picked off eight passes while returning a league-high two for touchdowns. Riley would join Anthony Munoz as the only Bengals enshrined in Canton, Ohio.
All three are very worthy. The other nine players discussed on Tuesday were Ken Anderson, Maxie Baughan, Randy Gradishar, Cecil Isbell, Bob Kuechenberg, Eddie Meador, Tommy Nobis, Sterling Sharpe and Everson Walls. Gradishar, Kuechenberg and Sharpe advanced through an initial cutdown vote from 12 candidates to six before the final vote was taken.
Riley’s teammate Anderson stands out as someone who deserves more consideration.
NFC EAST
DALLAS Hopefully this isn’t something to worry about for WR CEEDEE LAMB. Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News:
Cowboys wide receiver CeeDee Lamb did not participate in Wednesday’s joint practice with the Chargers because of a minor foot injury.
During the workouts, Lamb said he suffered a cut on his foot and had to get stiches. Team officials don’t believe the injury is serious, but Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said Lamb would also be held out of practice on Thursday.
NFC SOUTH
CAROLINA It looks like QB BAKER MAYFIELD will be the starter for Carolina Week 1. More importantly, that game is at Cleveland. Jeff Howe and Joseph Person in The Athletic:
The Carolina Panthers are expected to name Baker Mayfield their starting quarterback against the Cleveland Browns for Week 1 of the 2022 season, sources confirmed to The Athletic. He’s been competing with Sam Darnold but should be declared the starter when the team is ready to make the announcement.
Panthers coach Matt Rhule had indicated he could decide between Mayfield and Darnold by their preseason game against the New England Patriots. Mayfield played one series during the Panthers’ preseason game against the Washington Commanders. It was a 13-play drive that stalled after Mayfield fumbled an exchange with center Pat Elflein.
“I haven’t been worried about when the decision’s gonna be made or any of that timeline-wise,” Mayfield said. “Just try to put my head down and handle it one day at a time.”
The Panthers acquired Mayfield from the Browns during the offseason. Mayfield played 14 games during the 2021 season, recording 3,010 yards, 17 touchdowns and 13 interceptions.
The Panthers face the Patriots on Friday at 7 p.m. ET for their penultimate preseason game. Carolina’s Week 1 matchup against the Browns is Sept. 11 at 1 p.m. ET.
AFC WEST
DENVER RB MELVIN GORDON is resigned to having fewer carries than RB JAVONTE WILLIAMS. Kevin Patra of NFL.com:
Last season, Denver Broncos running backs Javonte Williams and Melvin Gordon split the carries evenly, with each getting 203 totes.
Heading into the 2022 season under new coach Nathaniel Hackett, Gordon admitted the staff is leaning toward Williams getting a more prominent role in his second year.
“I think they have a plan on what they want heading in, but as far as the rotation goes, I really don’t know,” Gordon said Wednesday, per the team transcript. “I think they want ‘Vonte’ to be the guy, but we do rotate. He’ll take the first series and then the second series with the [No. 1 offense], I’ll take. Sometimes we switch, but you know kind of how it is. I don’t know how they will do the rotation. I have to go back and look at how they did things in Green Bay with the carries and things like that. My mom says just go out here and compete and go as hard as I can. I don’t know what the future holds other than that, but I just want to put my best foot forward so when I do so out there, they go, ‘OK, we need to get him out there more.’ I know I have the game; I know I can play and I still have the juice, but we’ll see.”
(That roar you heard was the sound of those who drafted Williams in fantasy football screaming for joy.)
Last season, Williams proved he could be a tackle-breaking maven, with power to rip through defenders without losing speed in space. Denver was prepared to let Gordon walk in free agency, but the 29-year-old back returned on a one-year deal worth just $2.5 million.
Hackett mostly let talent dictate the touches in three seasons as the Packers’ offensive coordinator, but he always utilized multiple backs.
In 2019, Aaron Jones was the clear No. 1 (236 carries), with Jamaal Williams getting 107 carries. In 2020, with Jones missing two games, Williams took on a bigger role, splitting the carries 119 to Jones’ 201. Last season, AJ Dillon led the Packers in carries, netting 187 in 17 games with 34 catches, while Jones carried 171 times in 15 games with 52 catches.
We would think that head coach Matt LaFleur, an offensive head coach, and the Packers running back coach also would have influenced the Green Bay splits. Hackett as OC would not have been the sole architect.
Also, in case you were wondering – “tackle-breaking maven” Williams averaged 4.4 yards per carry and scored 4 TDs with his 203 carries. Gordon averaged 4.5 and rushed for 8 TDs. Williams caught more passes, 43 to 28.
Williams had 51% of the snaps, Gordon 47.6%.
LOS ANGELES CHARGERS Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com looks at the big deal signed by S DERWIN JAMES.
Chargers safety Derwin James successfully ended his hold in by cashing in, big time.
We’ve gotten a look at the full deal, thanks to a source with knowledge of the contract. It’s a four-year extension of the final year of his first-round rookie deal from 2018.
Here are the details, in full:
1. Signing bonus: $20.532 million.
2. 2022 base salary: $4.052 million, fully guaranteed.
3. 2023 option bonus: $12 million, fully guaranteed.
4. 2023 base salary: $2 million, fully guaranteed.
5. 2024 base salary: $12.75 million, $3.415 million of which is fully guaranteed by early 2023.
6. 2025 90-man offseason roster bonus: $3 million.
7. 2025 base salary: $13.75 million.
8. 2026 90-man offseason roster bonus: $3 million.
9. 2026 base salary: $14.5 million.
It’s a four-year, $76 million extension. That translates to a new-money average of $19 million. Of that amount, $38.584 million is fully guaranteed at signing. Another $3.415 million becomes guaranteed by 2023, pushing the total to $42 million.
Over five years, it’s a deal that pays out $85.584 million, and average at signing of $17.116 million.
James is guaranteed two years, with that extra bit that trickles into 2024. The final two seasons, at $16.75 million an $17.5 million, are essentially year-to-year options for the Chargers.
It’s a great deal for James. It pushes the injury risk to the Chargers, and there’s reason to be concerned about injury based on his first four years in the NFL. In 2019, he missed 11 games. In 2020, he missed the whole season.
But when he’s healthy, he’s among the best defensive players in the league. Coach Brandon Staley basically said that the other day. If you feel that way about the player, the team has no choice but to pay him accordingly.
Allen Iverson would be surprised to find out what made James the happiest about the completion of his new deal according to agent David Mulugheta:
@DavidMulugheta Man this never gets old. I couldn’t be happier to watch @derwinjames joy when finding out ———> he could go back to practice. Yes, you read that right. First thing he said after I told him he was now the HIGHEST PAID SAFETY in NFL history was, “now I can start practicing right?”
AFC NORTH
CINCINNATI QB JOE BURROW opens up on how and why he was opened up. Ben Baby ofESPN.com:
What initially felt like discomfort for Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow turned into a more serious and pressing matter, he said Wednesday.
In his first news conference since his appendectomy on July 26, Burrow said his appendix ruptured, which prompted surgery. The third-year player will continue his progress on Wednesday when he participates in team drills at practice for the first time since the procedure.
It’s part of the plan to get Burrow ready for the start of the regular season on Sept. 11.
Burrow said he is looking to add weight and return his body to its pre-surgery form ahead of the team’s Week 1 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. He said he is not expecting to play in the preseason. “I think it will be OK,” Burrow said. “We have a good plan as far as nutrition and weight room and all that stuff. I feel good right now and just going to keep feeling better.”
Information available at the time indicated that it was more of a routine procedure. However, that proved not to be the case once Burrow was examined.
“It wasn’t normal appendicitis that you hear about,” Burrow said. “I didn’t really feel much. Just getting checked out and had some discomfort so we thought we’d get it checked out. Turns out I had it. So we had to get it fixed.”
While Burrow was on the mend, he watched practices from a medical cart. Even though he couldn’t participate, Burrow said he wanted to be with his teammates so he could mentally get back into the swing of things with the defending AFC champions.
“You’re in a hospital for however many days and you start to feel like a sick person,” Burrow said. “So you want to get back out with the guys and feel healthy again.”
He declined to reveal how much weight he lost because of the surgery. Burrow said doctors permitted him to start tossing footballs two weeks after the procedure.
On Sunday, he ramped things up with his first official practice. He participated in individual drills and took all of the throwing reps during a 7-on-7 drill, an audible that indicated how good he was feeling. Burrow said that he lacked the preferred velocity on his throws, a side effect of the surgery.
“When they cut into you and do all that stuff your core is going to lose some muscle and some strength just getting that back,” Burrow said.
This marks the latest preseason abnormality for Burrow since he entered the NFL. In 2020, his rookie preseason was upended by COVID-19 and featured no games. Last year, Burrow played one series in the preseason finale following major knee surgery that ended his rookie season.
“I’d like to have a normal offseason at some point,” Burrow said. “That would be great. Going into the season feeling as good as I can, but that hasn’t been the reality for three years. Make the most of what you got.
“We’ll try again next year.”
CLEVELAND And there you have it, a negotiated settlement between NFL Justice and QB DESHAUN WATSON – somewhere between Judge Sue L. Robinson’s 6 games and the NFL’s desire for a year and $10 million. Jake Trotter of ESPN.com:
The NFL and the NFL Players Association on Thursday reached a settlement in the Deshaun Watson disciplinary matter, agreeing that the Cleveland Browns quarterback will serve an 11-game suspension without pay after he was accused by more than two dozen women of sexual misconduct during massage sessions.
Watson will also pay a fine of $5 million and undergo mandatory evaluation by behavioral experts and follow their suggested treatment program.
Watson’s fine and contributions from both the NFL and Browns of $1 million each will create a fund to support nonprofit organizations in the United States “that educate young people on healthy relationships, promote education and prevention of sexual misconduct and assault, support survivors, and related causes,” the NFL said in announcing the settlement.
“I’m grateful that the disciplinary process has ended and extremely appreciative of the tremendous support I have received throughout my short time with the Browns organization,” Watson said in a statement released by the Browns. “I apologize once again for any pain this situation has caused. I take accountability for the decisions I made. My focus going forward is on working to become the best version of myself on and off the field and supporting my teammates however possible while I’m away from the team. I’m excited about what the future holds for me in Cleveland.”
Watson’s suspension takes effect on Aug. 30 when NFL teams cut down to the roster limit of 53 players. He will be eligible for reinstatement on Nov. 28 and will be available to play for the Browns again in Week 13, when Cleveland faces his old team, the Houston Texans, on the road.
The settlement between the two sides heads off a ruling from former New Jersey attorney general Peter C. Harvey, whom commissioner Roger Goodell appointed to oversee the NFL’s appeal of disciplinary officer Sue L. Robinson’s decision that Watson be issued a six-game suspension.
“Deshaun has committed to doing the hard work on himself that is necessary for his return to the NFL,” commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement. “This settlement requires compliance with a professional evaluation and treatment plan, a significant fine, and a more substantial suspension. We are grateful to Judge Robinson and Peter Harvey for their efforts in addressing these matters, which laid the foundation for reaching this conclusion.”
Robinson, an independent arbiter jointly appointed by the league and players’ union, originally ruled on Aug. 1 that Watson would serve a six-game suspension but would not be fined for violating the league’s personal conduct policy, writing in a 16-page report that “the NFL carried its burden to prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that Mr. Watson engaged in sexual assault (as defined by the NFL) against the four therapists identified in the Report.”
Goodell, in explaining the league’s decision to appeal Robinson’s ruling, said that the evidence called for at least a full-year suspension.
“As we have previously conveyed, Deshaun and his representatives have abided by the NFL and NFLPA structure awaiting a final decision and we have respected the process,” Browns owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam said in a statement. “Now that a decision on discipline has been reached, we understand this is a real opportunity to create meaningful change and we are committed to investing in programs in Northeast Ohio that will educate our youth regarding awareness, understanding, and most importantly, prevention of sexual misconduct and the many underlying causes of such behavior. Since Deshaun entered our building, he has been an outstanding member of our organization and shown a true dedication to working on himself both on and off the field. We will continue to support him as he focuses on earning the trust of our community.”
Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com:
The fine equates to half of his salary from 2021. He didn’t play at all. But for the off-field issues, he would have been traded (most likely to the Dolphins) and he would have played.
The draft press release also mentions mandatory evaluation and another $2 million from the NFL and the Browns that will be given to relevant non-profit organizations that work to minimize and prevent sexual misconduct and assault.
The final decision represents a negotiated settlement between the NFL and the NFL Players Association. It ends the internal process completely, and it results in no litigation or other efforts to fight the punishment.
AFC SOUTH
INDIANAPOLIS Owner Jim Irsay is demanding results, starting with an AFC South title, now that QB MATT RYAN is on board:
Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay was so irate following his team’s season-ending loss last season that he summoned his head coach and general manager to his office for a tongue-lashing mere hours later.
That’s why Irsay’s adamant statements Wednesday about the importance of winning the AFC South should not be overlooked. It’s a continuation of the demands he has been making since the end of the 2021 season, when a loss to Jacksonville eliminated Indianapolis from postseason contention.
“It’s about Tennessee,” Irsay said during Wednesday’s joint practice with the Detroit Lions. “It’s about winning the division. It’s about going against those guys who have been very tough and do a great job there getting their players ready to play football in a tough, physical way. So, it’s always tough going against those guys, but we know that’s what we have to do. That’s what we have to overcome if we want to get where we want to get.”
Tennessee’s sweep of the Colts last season has stuck with Irsay, as has the Titans’ recent dominance in the AFC South. The Colts, who once ruled the division, have not won the division crown since 2014.
Last season, after a Week 3 loss to the Titans dropped the Colts to 0-3, Irsay called a meeting of the entire coaching staff and front office and delivered a humbling message: “You guys are getting your ass kicked,” Irsay recounted during the NFL annual meetings in March. “Who’s going to do something about it?”
Irsay on Wednesday balanced his message by saying he felt strongly the 2022 Colts have a chance to change the conversation about the team. The addition of quarterback Matt Ryan has truly bolstered Irsay’s hopes. He referenced former quarterback Carson Wentz’s shortcomings Wednesday when he said, “We went through some inconsistency at quarterback and that led to massive problems.”
No pressure, Matt.
“We did all those things with Peyton (Manning) and Marvin (Harrison), as well documented,” he said. “The 115 wins in a decade, going to two Super Bowls, winning two home AFC Championship Games.
“But now’s the time to create another era. It’s been created in Pittsburgh. It’s been created in Green Bay. It’s been created in Denver. So, you have to do that. I mean, it’s about greatness.”
AFC EAST
NEW ENGLAND Feisty QB MAC JONES has made friends with Panthers EDGE BRIAN BURNS whose ankle he tried to break last year. Anthony Rizzuti of USA TODAY:
There may have been some bad blood carried over into the second practice between the Carolina Panthers and New England Patriots from Tuesday. But, according to Mac Jones, there’s no bad blood left between he and Brian Burns.
Following Wednesday’s joint session, the second-year quarterback was asked about the state of his relationship with Carolina’s stud defensive end. That inquiry, of course, stems from the incident from last season—where Jones grabbed and twisted Burns’ ankle mid-play in their Week 9 matchup.
“Yeah, I’ve talked with Brian,” Jones said with a smile. “We already made up at the Pro Bowl and everything’s good. He’s a great player. And I just love watching him on the field—how he can speed-rush, he’s got good power. He’s just a great football player. And he really doesn’t like to talk. He just keeps getting after it and getting after it. I’m kinda the same way. Yeah, we’re definitely friends now. So it’s all good.”
The brand new buddies, as Jones alluded to, crossed paths at the 2022 Pro Bowl for the first time after the twist. Burns—who didn’t take too kindly to the takedown shortly afterwards—sorta kinda got his revenge there in Las Vegas, sacking the rookie in the second half of the game.
That, though, is all in the past now. Kumbaya, fellas!
THIS AND THAT
EXPLOSION IN WR DEALS Dan Graziano of ESPN.com looks back at the year of the huge receiver contract:
We believed the 2022 NFL offseason would be one of dramatic quarterback movement and it was. But what we didn’t see coming was what happened to the wide receiver market.
Seemingly out of nowhere in March, while most of the NFL world thought franchise-tagged star Davante Adams and the Green Bay Packers were still working on a long-term deal, the news broke that Adams had been traded to the Las Vegas Raiders, who were giving him the type of long-term extension the Packers had been working to give him this time last year. The move sent shockwaves through the NFL, raising fresh questions about player empowerment in general and the effect on Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (whose own “will he/won’t he” drama had just mercifully concluded) specifically.
But the external reaction wasn’t the half of it. Following the Adams move, NFL front offices began buzzing with news the Kansas City Chiefs were making Tyreek Hill available, the San Francisco 49ers’ Deebo Samuel wanted a trade, the Tennessee Titans might have to trade A.J. Brown if they couldn’t get him signed and the Seattle Seahawks’ DK Metcalf could be on the move.
Some of that stuff was true — the Chiefs traded Hill to the Miami Dolphins, and the Titans traded Brown to the Philadelphia Eagles. Some was not — the Niners and Seahawks told interested teams Samuel and Metcalf were not being traded. But in the end, all four of those players, plus the Washington Commanders’ Terry McLaurin, got the contract extensions they were seeking. The Los Angeles Rams extended Super Bowl MVP Cooper Kupp, even though he still had two years left on his contract. The Buffalo Bills extended Stefon Diggs before he even had a chance to express discontent with his place in the new wide receiver market.
Add in the extension the Carolina Panthers gave DJ Moore, and suddenly nine of the top 10 wide receiver contracts in terms of average annual salary were signed this offseason. In 2020, the average value of the top 20 wide receiver salaries was right around $17 million. In 2021, that number nudged up to around $17.5 million. A year later, it’s $21.3 million.
Why? No other position made a jump like that this offseason. Not even quarterback, where growth at the top of the market continues to be steady if not dramatic. (Cleveland’s fully guaranteed Hail Mary deal to get Deshaun Watson notwithstanding.)
“It’s a passing league now, and nowadays you’ve got to have two dominant wide receivers on the team,” said agent Tory Dandy, whose client list includes Brown, Samuel, Metcalf, the Los Angeles Chargers’ Mike Williams and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Chris Godwin and thus was smack in the middle of the whole salary explosion this offseason. “So I think, honestly, it’s just become a premium position.”
We talked to coaches, executives and agents around the league to try to figure out how wide receiver suddenly became a premium NFL position financially, what the driving factors were and, perhaps most importantly, what happens next. To start, though, we have to go back two years.
The DeAndre Hopkins effect In September 2020, a few months after acquiring him in a trade with the Houston Texans, the Arizona Cardinals gave wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins a contract extension. At the time, Hopkins had three years and about $40 million left on his previous contract, but the Cardinals added two more years and $54.5 million to the deal. That “new money” average of $27.25 million per year was an eye-popper, because at the time, the league’s highest-paid receiver was Julio Jones at $22 million per year. Hopkins’ new money jumped the wide receiver market by about 24% and made him the highest-paid non-quarterback in the NFL.
“It was Hopkins,” one AFC executive said. “Hopkins’ number drove it up. That’s why Adams wouldn’t sign in Green Bay. Then it was a disagreement over new money versus total, but it was that Hopkins number that everybody wanted to shoot for.”
Adams and the Packers had conversations on a new contract last offseason but couldn’t come to an agreement. Teams negotiating new deals with high-end receivers in 2021 didn’t want to give out contracts worth $27.25 million a year and instead argued the overall value of Hopkins’ deal should actually be considered $94.5 million over five years ($18.9 million a year), if you counted the three years he had left on his previous deal. The gap between $18.9 million a year and $27.25 million a year is big, and the Hopkins theory holds it’s the reason extensions got pushed off until this year.
Regardless, a Packers source said, by the time Green Bay got to talking deal again with Adams this offseason, he and Derek Carr had already launched the plan to play together in Vegas, and he no longer wanted to sign with the Packers long term. Green Bay franchised him to make sure they could get something for him, then dealt him to the Raiders, who signed him to a big new contract.
Adams’ deal was initially reported as $140 million over five years, which would be $28 million a year and surpass Hopkins’ $27.25 million average. In reality, it’s a three-year, $67.5 million deal, because the 2024 and 2025 seasons, which pay about $36.25 million each year, are not guaranteed. But the fact he’s not likely to get the 2024 and 2025 money doesn’t matter, because a lot of times these deals are about pride, and the $140 million-for-five number lets Adams argue he got more on average than Hopkins did.
The Christian Kirk/Mike Williams effect But it wasn’t just that outlying two-year-old Hopkins contract that sent the 2022 receiver market to the stratosphere. There were a couple of lesser-impact wideouts who scored big free agent deals when the league year opened and altered the expectations of the guys at the very top of the market.
One was the four-year, $72 million free agent contract the Jacksonville Jaguars gave former Cardinals receiver Christian Kirk. This one shook up a lot of people, because Kirk wasn’t universally perceived as a high-end wide receiver. The deal pays him an average of $18 million a year, and its maximum value (if he hits all incentives) is $84 million over four years, or $21 million a year. Those kinds of benchmarks struck people as a bit much for a guy who’d averaged 59 catches and 726 yards a season over his first four years in the league.
The other was the three-year, $60 million deal the Chargers gave wide receiver Mike Williams to keep him off the free agent market. Williams has never made a Pro Bowl and has averaged 54 catches and 892 yards over the past four seasons.
So if you were, say, Chiefs receiver Hill, and as of March had one year left on a three-year, $54 million contract extension that was averaging $18 million a year, you might be thinking, Hmm … I’m better than those two guys …
Regardless of your opinion on any of those players, it’s undeniable Hill is the most accomplished of the three. In the wake of the Adams deal, Hill wanted his extension to dwarf his previous one. The Chiefs, with a bunch of big contracts on their cap already and concerned about laying out that much money for a guy whose game relies so much on speed and who was two years shy of his 30th birthday, decided they couldn’t meet his demands, so they traded him to the Dolphins.
Top 5 Highest-Paid WRs, 2021 Vs. 2022
Player, Team 2021 salary DeAndre Hopkins, Cardinals $27,250,000 Julio Jones, Titans $22,000,000 Keenan Allen, Chargers $20,025,000 Amari Cooper, Cowboys $20,000,000 Michael Thomas, Saints $19,250,000
Player, Team 2022 salary Tyreek Hill, Dolphins $30,000,000 Davante Adams, Raiders $28,000,000 DeAndre Hopkins, Cardinals $27,250,000 Cooper Kupp, Rams $26,783,333 A.J. Brown, Eagles $25,058,618
The Dolphins promptly gave Hill a four-year contract with a maximum value of $120 million, which would make him the first non-quarterback in the NFL to average $30 million per year. Again, the reality of the deal is that it includes a non-guaranteed $45 million in 2026 he’s almost certain to never see. In reality it’s a three-year, $25 million per season extension that runs through 2025. Still impressive, and it helped set expectations for other receivers who were headed into the final years of their contracts.
“You go back six, seven months, you’d have said, if a wide receiver gets $22, $23 million a year, he did great,” one player agent said. “But when Adams and Tyreek Hill got those deals done, it really opened the floodgates.”
The rest of the 2022 extension class Adams and Hill were both veterans looking for their third contracts, as was Kupp, whom the Rams extended with two years left on his contract. But there was a large group of wide receivers from the 2019 draft class who were looking to cash in big for the first time. Tennessee’s Brown, Washington’s McLaurin, San Francisco’s Samuel and Seattle’s Metcalf all were selected in the second round or later that year. That means their teams did not hold fifth-year options on their contracts, and they were all extension-eligible this offseason for the first time.
At the league meetings in West Palm Beach, Florida, in March, teams were approaching the Titans and asking about Brown. The Titans’ answer at the time was that they were working to sign him. But a few weeks later, on the first night of the draft, they traded him to the Eagles, who signed him to a four-year, $100 million deal. Brown’s deal can fairly be characterized as reported ($100 million for four years), because while the $31 million he’s scheduled to earn in 2026 is not guaranteed, it’s far more reasonable (especially considering the expected growth in the salary cap) to think he will be in position to collect it at age 29 than it is to expect the Dolphins to pay Hill $45 million at age 32. But if you want to call Brown’s deal a three-year, $69 million extension for the sake of continuity, go ahead, and you’ll see others follow suit.
Last month, the Commanders agreed to a three-year, $68.2 million extension with McLaurin. The 49ers did a three-year, $71.55 million extension with Samuel. The Seahawks did a three-year, $72 million extension with Metcalf. These deals have their differences in terms of guarantees and three-year cash flows, but you can see they all landed in basically the same range in terms of average salary — in a lucrative middle ground between the Kirk/Williams deals, which pushed up their floor, and the Adams/Hill deals, which elevated their ceiling.
What’s next? Perhaps more importantly, each of those four contracts allows the player to hit free agency again at a young age. McLaurin will be 30, Samuel 29 and Metcalf 27 when their deals expire after 2025. Brown will be 29 when his deal expires after 2026. With new TV money about to start flooding the market and salary-cap growth expected to skyrocket in the next two or three years, players are taking shorter-term deals with the intention of hitting the market again once the market is historically flush.
And that’s where this gets interesting. With the wide receiver market now set at freshly elevated levels, we can look ahead to a 2023 offseason in which the Minnesota Vikings’ Justin Jefferson, the Dallas Cowboys’ CeeDee Lamb, the Cincinnati Bengals’ Tee Higgins, the Indianapolis Colts’ Michael Pittman Jr., the Cardinals’ Marquise Brown and the Denver Broncos’ Jerry Jeudy are among the exciting young wideouts who will be extension-eligible. In 2024, Cincinnati’s Ja’Marr Chase and the rest of the 2021 draft class will be extension-eligible.
First-rounders such as Chase, Lamb and Jeudy have to confront the fifth-year option and might have to wait, but you get the idea. If Jefferson and Chase continue their early-career trajectories, they’ll be looking for more than Brown, McLaurin, Samuel and Metcalf got. Imagine being the Bengals and confronting a potential Higgins deal next year and a potential Chase deal the year after while also trying to get quarterback Joe Burrow signed to his second contract.
“I don’t know. That’s in the future,” Bengals player personnel director Duke Tobin said. “We’re in the here and now. They’re here, they’re playing, and we want them to do as well as they can. We’ve got a lot of young guys we drafted and developed who are coming up on contract years. That’s what you want. You want guys to develop in your system, because then if you pay them big money, you know a lot more about them than other guys that you bring in from the outside. But we’re thinking about this year now.”
Assuming the salary cap grows the way most in the league expect, it will help everyone keep the players they want to keep. Industry insiders are anticipating the cap to rise from this year’s $208.2 million to something in the range of $225 million in 2023, and significant growth is expected in the years to follow once the impact of the new TV deals is realized. But as wide receiver joins quarterback and edge rusher as a premium position from a financial standpoint, it’s affecting the way teams make those cap decisions.
“One of the challenges is you’ve got to balance the salary cap,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “And then you’ve got to work it in with what you have on the team now, what you might have in the future, where you want to go with it, years of experience by the players, where they’re going from here. It looks like the Packers did that, we did that and that’s all part of the game in today’s world. It just happened to be [players at] that position that were able to go to other teams and make a lot of money. I thought what we did was great for Tyreek and it was very good for us.”
Time will certainly tell, and this won’t be the end of it. A few people interviewed for this story speculated the next logical position to explode in salary figures would be cornerback, because somebody’s going to have to cover all of these high-priced receivers and that should pay well, too. Maybe this time next year, we’ll be writing about how a completely different position went through the roof.
The only thing we can say for sure is 2022 was a good year to be a wide receiver looking for a new contract.
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