Exactly - Brett Favre signed a 10 year contract a few years back that's absurd, but it's all for cap purposes to spread out signing bonuses and such. All that matters is the amount of guaranteed money - incentives and bonuses vary by position and such. I'm a bit surprised he got almost as much guaranteed as Mario Williams, but I'd be interested in seeing the numbers from previous years where a QB goes 2nd or 3rd and some other position goes 1st. It wouldn't surprise me if it was similar, as QB's always get paid a premium.
There's a difference between "guaranteed money" and "total contract value". In the NFL there are no guaranteed contracts, players know this so in the NFL they end up getting, as part of their contracts "guaranteed money" that will be paid to them no matter what (injured, traded, etc, etc). It is in a sense "worst case scenario money", whereas a contracts total value (i.e. 60 million over 6 years) is not gauranteed, BUT if things were to turn out peachy (a player doesnt get cut, injured, etc etc) and he played out the entire length of the contract that is what he would recieve as salary. Guaranteed money is very important, but total contract worth is a machismo thing.. for Rookies with giant heads like these guys they can't stand to be 2nd to someone else.. Rookies focus a lot more on guaranteed money than older players because they haven't usually earned those mega millions yet, and don't want to jeopardize their earnings. So in summation.. if Vince Young and Mario Williams both play out their entire rookie contracts as is, then VY will have earned more dough. But if they both suck hardcore and get cut after their first years (haha!) then Mario will come out on top with more gauranteed cash.
Its all about the guaranteed money...I suspect Reggie would want more than a DE, but shouldn't get more than a QB...having said that, he'll probably agree to somewhere in the middle... I'm not sure this is a good deal for anyone as for unproven rookies to get this kind of outrageous money just sets the bar too high and when next year rolls around, it'll never stop...Its just bad economics for the NFL, IMHO...
The QB premium used to be more prominent than it is today, but it still exists.. just mainly for QBs that are considered so head and shoulders above everybody else. Bush might settle for less guaranteed money than Williams, but he's going to be fighting long and hard for a more lucrative contract than Vince.
Thanks for that explanation, Donny... I got it now. I am more than new to this "contract" talk... You say that like it's not possible. Why does it have to be WHACK? How much did Sam Bowie get paid more than Jordan the first year? Was that whack? ('course, I don't know a damn thing about those two, either )
No way any of these rookies even come close to going through their entire contract. Most likely, there are options that are picked up 3 or 4 years into it. Restructuring always occurs. It's partly a reason why the Redskins seem like they throw away alot of money but in the end, it's just inflated money that the players never even seem to come close to. Getting the guaranteed money is whats important.
The Saints are shaking in the boots right now, you can bank on that. Great for Vince and even better for Major Adams. I for one was pretty pissed with the decisions Adams made for VY, but the fact that he got him a deal that is worth more than what the #1 pick, that is what really matters.
I can't find more recent data (didn't look too hard, either), but as of 2002: http://www.theredzone.org/2002top_ten.asp The top DE made more than the top QB, but after that, QB's were more highly paid on average amongst the top 10, it seems. No idea if that's changed now, or how those numbers are computed (cap cost, actual money, etc).
Is that actually correct? According to this link, Mario's could be worth as much as 62 mil http://www.nfl.com/nflnetwork/story/9404184
The reason I ask is the Vince article makes it sound like it could be worth as much as 58 mil... making me think that includes the incentives for possible things.... but that one article on Mario acts like it could be worth as much as 62...
