Is your favorite NFL team's quarterback worth big money?
Matt Harmon
Yahoo Sports
Feb 19, 2019, 1:36 AM
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Jared Goff’s down the line contract decision epitomizes the deal with the devil of top-level quarterback money. (AP)
No one needs to remind us that in the real-life NFL, the quarterback is far and away the most valuable position in the sport. The money supports that reality. We currently have 16 quarterbacks making over $20 million per year, six making north of $25 million and several more set to remake the market in the next few offseasons.
Recent years have brought us the understanding that the good young quarterback on a rookie contract is one of the biggest team-building edges in the game. We’ve watched as organizations like the Bears, Rams and Chiefs have stacked assets around their discounted starter. Yet, it was a January piece by The Ringer’s Kevin Clark that revealed the other side of that revelation: What a true burden the top-level quarterback contracts are when doled out to the wrong player.
Since reading that, quarterback contracts and the team-building implications they carry have been an obsession of mine. Every team will be faced with the eventual reality of handing out a top-level contract to their good quarterback (if they’re lucky enough to have one) when their deal runs out. Jimmy Garoppolo got one after five damn starts with his new team. Timing is everything and the market carries an inevitability.
As fun of an experiment as it would be, we should believe a team has the stones to willingly walk into quarterback wilderness when they have a proven above-average starter when we see it. The idea of a club like the Rams, with a pristine offensive ecosystem, cycling cheap rookie deal quarterbacks through without a commitment is a fun thought experiment, but seems unlikely in the business-driven NFL.
Pay the right guy the top-level contract, you’ll stay in contention and no one will ever question your decision.
Hand out that $25 million deal to a quarterback incapable of thriving outside of structure or elevating those around him, you’ll alter the course of your roster-building forever.
With the stakes in mind, let’s go through each NFL team’s quarterback and decide if they’re worthy of money inevitably handed out to starters at their position. This is all my opinion and judgement, so feel free to voice your disagreement to me on Twitter (@MattHarmon_BYB).
We’ll sort all 32 rosters’ loosely-defined current starter into three simple categories:
Worth it.
On the bubble (might have a lean but need more data).
Not worth it.
All salary data provided by OverTheCap.Com.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Starter: Jameis Winston
Current per year salary: 5th year option 20mil
If you search the archives deep enough, you’ll find metrics giving evidence to Jameis Winston’s good notes as a player. He’s been the best quarterback at converting third-and-longs since 2016, earning a first down on 40.1 percent of his third-and-seven-plus throws. Now paired with the ultra-aggressive Bruce Arians, Winston may have found a stylistic partner.
All of that is fine and perhaps we will get Winston’s best season to date in 2019, but this is still a deeply flawed player. Going off just what we know of him right now, offering Winston a top-level contract and not simply letting him play out the final year of his rookie deal would be a mistake. We should be much more willing to accept the “he is what he is” rather than Arians bringing about some great change.
Verdict: Not worth it.
The complete list...
https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl-quarterbacks-worth-top-level-contract-093644755.html
