Trill Clinton
07-25-2014, 09:20 AM
http://grantland.com/features/the-2014-all-bad-nfl-contracts-team/
The All–Bad Contracts Starting Offense
Quarterback: Joe Flacco, Ravens
Contract Flaw: Ever Fallen in Love With a Player You Shouldn’t Have?
I thought nothing would be able to top the Sam Bradford rookie contract as long as it stayed on St. Louis’s books, but the massive deal given to Flacco after his Super Bowl win narrowly takes the cake. As bad as the Bradford deal is, at least the Rams can get out of it after this season and save significant money ($13 million) in the process. Flacco is surely the better quarterback of the two, but Baltimore is stuck in this deal for years to come. It can’t really do much about this deal until after the 2016 season, during which Flacco will have a cap hit of — shield your children’s eyes — $28.6 million. In 2017, the Ravens get to choose between paying Flacco $31.2 million or eating $15.3 million in dead money on their cap. Flacco will be better than he was last year, and the cap is going to rise, but Flacco has to be a great quarterback to justify this deal, and the only time he really was great was during the 2012 playoffs.
Running Back: Arian Foster, Texans
Contract Flaw: System Guy Out of System; Ever Fallen in Love With a Player You Shouldn’t Have?
Under Gary Kubiak, the Texans ran a zone-blocking scheme that was famous for creating superstars out of no-name running backs in Denver. After cycling through backs in Houston, Kubiak eventually found a steady starter in Foster, an undrafted free agent out of Tennessee. After Foster ran for 2,840 yards and 26 touchdowns in two seasons as a starter, the Texans could have chosen to re-up Foster for one more season as a restricted free agent, paying him $3 million or so on a one-year deal while planning to move on to fresh backup Ben Tate the following year. Instead, the Texans declined a cheap year of Foster and gave him a five-year, $43.5 million deal. Foster’s yards per carry and yards per game are both down since the extension, and injuries held him to a half-season in 2013. Foster is a tough player and one of the most erudite men in the league, but the Texans should have taken advantage of their system and minted the next Arian Foster while using their money elsewhere.
Running Back: DeAngelo Williams, Panthers
Contract Flaw: Ever Fallen in Love With a Player You Shouldn’t Have?
I wrote about the disastrous contracts handed out by Marty Hurney to the core of his 2-14 Panthers team here (http://grantland.com/features/the-roster-moves-made-panthers-gm-incompetent-best/), which includes Williams’s ill-advised deal. Despite the presence of former first-round pick Jonathan Stewart and a paucity of depth elsewhere on the roster, Hurney badly misread the running back market and re-signed Williams to a five-year, $43 million contract with $21 million guaranteed. Carolina has already had to restructure the deal to try to create cap space, and Williams hasn’t even produced a 900-yard season since signing his new contract.
Wide Receiver: Dwayne Bowe, Chiefs
Contract Flaw: Paying for the Outlier; Ever Fallen in Love With a Player You Shouldn’t Have?
A useful wideout who has been saddled with some middling quarterbacks during his career, Bowe’s résumé as a top-10 wideout primarily consists of a seven-week stretch in the 2010 season in which Bowe caught 49 passes for 733 yards and 13 touchdowns against abysmal defenses. Bowe has just 13 receiving touchdowns in the three seasons since that career year, but when he was about to hit free agency last year, a desperate Chiefs team gave him a five-year, $56 million contract with $20 million guaranteed.
Wide Receiver: Greg Jennings, Vikings
Contract Flaw: System Guy Out of System
Wanting a new no. 1 wideout for young quarterback Christian Ponder, the Vikings went shopping in free agency and came away with Jennings, who was once a star for the Packers. Despite the fact that he would be moving from Aaron Rodgers to Ponder, the Vikes authorized a five-year, $45 million deal for Jennings, who would turn 30 at the beginning of the 2013 season. He finished with a pedestrian 68 catches for 808 yards and four touchdowns in his first season away from Lambeau; the good news, perhaps, is that there’s no further guaranteed money in Jennings’s deal after 2014.
Tight End: Marcedes Lewis, Jaguars
Contract Flaw: Paying for the Outlier; Ever Fallen in Love With a Player You Shouldn’t Have?
Nichols’s Law of Catcher Defense (http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Nichols_Law_Of_Catcher_Defense) holds that a catcher’s defensive reputation is inversely correlated to his offensive output. A catcher who hits well will be regarded as a subpar defender, but as his output decreases, his work with the glove will begin to attract positive attention. A catcher who never hits will be treated as a defensive guru. In much the same vein, Marcedes Lewis has come to be regarded as a very good blocking tight end. I don’t doubt Lewis’s competency, but much of that reputation surely owes to the facts that he both makes a ton of money ($35 million over five years) and is an offensive zero.
Offensive Tackle: Sam Baker, Falcons
Contract Flaw: Ever Fallen in Love With a Player You Shouldn’t Have?
Having repeatedly seen Baker struggle with both his health and his performance as a pass blocker in the left tackle role he had been drafted to fill, the Falcons found themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place last offseason. They had few options at offensive tackle and limited salary-cap space to work with, but Baker just wasn’t athletic or reliable enough to play left tackle. Instead of moving on, Atlanta compromised and gave Baker a six-year, $41 million contract with $14.3 million guaranteed. One year later, Baker has proven yet again that he’s not a quality left tackle, which led Atlanta to use its first-round pick this year on Jake Matthews. He’ll be Matt Ryan’s left tackle sooner rather than later, while Baker will become one of the more expensive right tackles in football.
Offensive Tackle: Michael Oher, Titans
Contract Flaw: The Marginal Talent
Having failed to develop into the elite left tackle described inThe Blind Side, Oher left the Ravens this offseason in search of a new deal. Despite his having been limited to playing right tackle, the Titans gave Oher a four-year, $20 million deal with nearly half of that figure guaranteed. Even worse, they used their first-round pick on Michigan tackle Taylor Lewan, meaning that Oher may very well spend his first year in Tennessee on the bench.
Guard: Jeromey Clary, Chargers
Contract Flaw: The Marginal Talent; Ever Fallen in Love With a Player You Shouldn’t Have?
A mess at right tackle in San Diego for years, Clary has repeatedly been defended by the organization as a worthwhile contributor to what has usually been a terrible offensive line. He moved to guard last season after the team drafted D.J. Fluker in the first round, where he wasn’t much better. He’s in the final year of a four-year, $20 million deal; if the Chargers don’t cut him, he’ll be the fourth-highest-paid player on the team.
The All–Bad Contracts Starting Offense
Quarterback: Joe Flacco, Ravens
Contract Flaw: Ever Fallen in Love With a Player You Shouldn’t Have?
I thought nothing would be able to top the Sam Bradford rookie contract as long as it stayed on St. Louis’s books, but the massive deal given to Flacco after his Super Bowl win narrowly takes the cake. As bad as the Bradford deal is, at least the Rams can get out of it after this season and save significant money ($13 million) in the process. Flacco is surely the better quarterback of the two, but Baltimore is stuck in this deal for years to come. It can’t really do much about this deal until after the 2016 season, during which Flacco will have a cap hit of — shield your children’s eyes — $28.6 million. In 2017, the Ravens get to choose between paying Flacco $31.2 million or eating $15.3 million in dead money on their cap. Flacco will be better than he was last year, and the cap is going to rise, but Flacco has to be a great quarterback to justify this deal, and the only time he really was great was during the 2012 playoffs.
Running Back: Arian Foster, Texans
Contract Flaw: System Guy Out of System; Ever Fallen in Love With a Player You Shouldn’t Have?
Under Gary Kubiak, the Texans ran a zone-blocking scheme that was famous for creating superstars out of no-name running backs in Denver. After cycling through backs in Houston, Kubiak eventually found a steady starter in Foster, an undrafted free agent out of Tennessee. After Foster ran for 2,840 yards and 26 touchdowns in two seasons as a starter, the Texans could have chosen to re-up Foster for one more season as a restricted free agent, paying him $3 million or so on a one-year deal while planning to move on to fresh backup Ben Tate the following year. Instead, the Texans declined a cheap year of Foster and gave him a five-year, $43.5 million deal. Foster’s yards per carry and yards per game are both down since the extension, and injuries held him to a half-season in 2013. Foster is a tough player and one of the most erudite men in the league, but the Texans should have taken advantage of their system and minted the next Arian Foster while using their money elsewhere.
Running Back: DeAngelo Williams, Panthers
Contract Flaw: Ever Fallen in Love With a Player You Shouldn’t Have?
I wrote about the disastrous contracts handed out by Marty Hurney to the core of his 2-14 Panthers team here (http://grantland.com/features/the-roster-moves-made-panthers-gm-incompetent-best/), which includes Williams’s ill-advised deal. Despite the presence of former first-round pick Jonathan Stewart and a paucity of depth elsewhere on the roster, Hurney badly misread the running back market and re-signed Williams to a five-year, $43 million contract with $21 million guaranteed. Carolina has already had to restructure the deal to try to create cap space, and Williams hasn’t even produced a 900-yard season since signing his new contract.
Wide Receiver: Dwayne Bowe, Chiefs
Contract Flaw: Paying for the Outlier; Ever Fallen in Love With a Player You Shouldn’t Have?
A useful wideout who has been saddled with some middling quarterbacks during his career, Bowe’s résumé as a top-10 wideout primarily consists of a seven-week stretch in the 2010 season in which Bowe caught 49 passes for 733 yards and 13 touchdowns against abysmal defenses. Bowe has just 13 receiving touchdowns in the three seasons since that career year, but when he was about to hit free agency last year, a desperate Chiefs team gave him a five-year, $56 million contract with $20 million guaranteed.
Wide Receiver: Greg Jennings, Vikings
Contract Flaw: System Guy Out of System
Wanting a new no. 1 wideout for young quarterback Christian Ponder, the Vikings went shopping in free agency and came away with Jennings, who was once a star for the Packers. Despite the fact that he would be moving from Aaron Rodgers to Ponder, the Vikes authorized a five-year, $45 million deal for Jennings, who would turn 30 at the beginning of the 2013 season. He finished with a pedestrian 68 catches for 808 yards and four touchdowns in his first season away from Lambeau; the good news, perhaps, is that there’s no further guaranteed money in Jennings’s deal after 2014.
Tight End: Marcedes Lewis, Jaguars
Contract Flaw: Paying for the Outlier; Ever Fallen in Love With a Player You Shouldn’t Have?
Nichols’s Law of Catcher Defense (http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Nichols_Law_Of_Catcher_Defense) holds that a catcher’s defensive reputation is inversely correlated to his offensive output. A catcher who hits well will be regarded as a subpar defender, but as his output decreases, his work with the glove will begin to attract positive attention. A catcher who never hits will be treated as a defensive guru. In much the same vein, Marcedes Lewis has come to be regarded as a very good blocking tight end. I don’t doubt Lewis’s competency, but much of that reputation surely owes to the facts that he both makes a ton of money ($35 million over five years) and is an offensive zero.
Offensive Tackle: Sam Baker, Falcons
Contract Flaw: Ever Fallen in Love With a Player You Shouldn’t Have?
Having repeatedly seen Baker struggle with both his health and his performance as a pass blocker in the left tackle role he had been drafted to fill, the Falcons found themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place last offseason. They had few options at offensive tackle and limited salary-cap space to work with, but Baker just wasn’t athletic or reliable enough to play left tackle. Instead of moving on, Atlanta compromised and gave Baker a six-year, $41 million contract with $14.3 million guaranteed. One year later, Baker has proven yet again that he’s not a quality left tackle, which led Atlanta to use its first-round pick this year on Jake Matthews. He’ll be Matt Ryan’s left tackle sooner rather than later, while Baker will become one of the more expensive right tackles in football.
Offensive Tackle: Michael Oher, Titans
Contract Flaw: The Marginal Talent
Having failed to develop into the elite left tackle described inThe Blind Side, Oher left the Ravens this offseason in search of a new deal. Despite his having been limited to playing right tackle, the Titans gave Oher a four-year, $20 million deal with nearly half of that figure guaranteed. Even worse, they used their first-round pick on Michigan tackle Taylor Lewan, meaning that Oher may very well spend his first year in Tennessee on the bench.
Guard: Jeromey Clary, Chargers
Contract Flaw: The Marginal Talent; Ever Fallen in Love With a Player You Shouldn’t Have?
A mess at right tackle in San Diego for years, Clary has repeatedly been defended by the organization as a worthwhile contributor to what has usually been a terrible offensive line. He moved to guard last season after the team drafted D.J. Fluker in the first round, where he wasn’t much better. He’s in the final year of a four-year, $20 million deal; if the Chargers don’t cut him, he’ll be the fourth-highest-paid player on the team.