Asomugha is more than a “nice corner”. He an actual shut-down cornerback, and in this league, he might be the only one. He might very well be the best player in the league.
Also, Eli doesn’t deserve the biggest contract in the league. He’s a good quarterback, but he should be getting Romo-level contracts.
Like I said before. Not all 50 catch seasons are created equal, Hester forced a bunch of pass interference calls for huge yards as one example. Teams need to gameplan against a guy with 4.25 speed and a QB who can get him the ball. None of those guys were gameplanned against, and even with Orton under center teams had to account for Hester. With Cutler back there DCs will be circling Hester on the whiteboard. They won’t be circling any of those guys.
There are a lot of guys who are fast who suck. Some of the guys who are just fast and stretch the field never catch 51 balls in their careers. You favorite whipping boy Troy Williamson had all of 84 career catches. Comparing Hester to them is silly.
And of course I’d much prefer to pay my 4.25 40 guy $500k instead of $5M. The economics of the NFL just don’t work that way. It’s supply and demand at it’s most basic, 4.25 guys are pretty rare, guys who do that 4.25 speed in pads are even more rare. Heyward-Bey might not live up to his contract and draft spot but teams covet that speed. The Bears know other teams covet a guy with Hester’s speed and had to pay to keep him. The guy is unique and unique guys don’t come cheap.
You might be able to make the case that speed is overrated. That paying for a guy with truly elite speed is foolhardy, I might even agree with that in most terms, but you can’t deny that so long as people will pay for it it’s a fair price. The Bears got a WR with super-elite speed for a discount by most comparisons. The history of super-elite speed guys is spotty at best, but I’m quite certain you aren’t getting one anywhere for $500k.
The Bears are basically committed to Hester for 2 more years including this one. $15M for 3 years. Last year he got his signing bonus and played pretty passably. This year he’s getting $5M more and is expected to step up. If he struggles the Bears will probably give him 1 more season beyond that to try and gel with Cutler and after that he’s gone. The rest of that $30M is fictional. I’m willing to gamble with a measly $5M after this year to see if the hype is justified.
Nnamdi Asomugha can cover + Nobody bothers to throw the ball against the Raiders = Nnamdi Asomugha is a shut-down corner.
Nnamdi Asomugha on the Patriots or Colts would be a “decent corner”.
Pass interference calls? Really?
Here’s the gameplan for Hester: Watch the screen, and don’t let him beat you deep. Rough gameplan there.
In half of the games he played last year, he didn’t even get 50 yards receiving. Teams are certainly aware of him and how he can hurt them with his speed, but, at most, they’re rolling a safety over to help if he goes deep. Big deal. They gameplan for him on special teams, not as a WR.
But, as we agree, we will see.
Ask the Saints if those mean anything. In one of those sub-50 yard games you mentioned Hester had 77 yards in interference yards on top of his 46 he got credit for. One of which basically won the game in OT. I’d rather have catches, but when a guy can beat a DB so badly that he just gives up and tackles him it’s worth something. Guys with 4.6 speed don’t get that treatment or those calls.
Are you willfully ignoring the hyper-inflation of the salary cap just to bag on Eli, or did you just skim my post? (I can’t really fault you for either.)
I agree that Asomugha is more than a “nice corner”, but CBs aren’t anywhere near as valuable as QBs. The franchise tag is as good a way as any to assess the relative value of positions. 2009 franchise tags by position in order of value are:
$14,651,000 Quarterback
$9,957,000 Cornerback
$9,884,000 Wide Receiver
$8,991,000 Defensive End
$8,451,000 Offensive Linemen (includes Offensive Tackle, Offensive Guard, Center)
$8,304,000 Linebacker
$6,621,000 Running Back (includes all Fullbacks and Halfbacks)
$6,342,000 Safety
$6,058,000 Defensive Tackle
$4,462,000 Tight end
$2,483,000 Kicker or Punter
Cornerbacks only represent 68% of the value of quarterbacks. Note that Asomugha’s contract is ~160% of the franchise tag, while Eli is at a much more reaosnable ~110% of the franchise tag.
Also, case in point about the hyperinflation, check out the non-exclusive franchise tags lower in that same article. This is the same deal – top 5 salaries in the league at that position – except instead of this year’s numbers, it’s based on last year’s. Look at how the contracts skyrocketed in one year.
Cornerbacks almost doubled in one year, no doubt thanks to Asomugha. Quarterbacks went up 14.6%. Peyton signed in 2006. Compound his contract by 14.6% interest for three years and it’ll be way bigger than Eli’s.
I have been very vocal about not liking the most recent CBA because I felt the hyperinflation of the salary cap was ridiculous, and here we are several years later staring an uncapped season right in the face. It’s not good for the game. But as long as these are the rules, don’t begrudge Eli for getting fair market value for his services.
In googling for Eli’s contract I ran across this gem:
Out of the 32 teams in the NFL, where do you rank the Bears in total WR corps, and quality of its #1?
Ironically, both NY teams are in the same boat as the Bears at the receiver position, though thankfully neither is dumping a ton of money on a converted kick returner project. (I’m going to get creamed in the auction league, that’s for sure.)
Except that Romo can’t win playoff games, and Eli can.
Yeah, but if you don’t let him get behind you, and he’s not operating out of the slot, then I don’t see him as being all that. He’s fast and elusive (which is why he’s an awesome return guy), but he lacks the size to be a true #1 wideout. He’s not a good redzone option unless he’s running a route in the back of the endzone. He isn’t going to go up and get the ball or outmuscle a safety in a contested catch.
There’s my beloved Bengals, representing the avant garde rear echelon!
Eli plays best in the 4th quarter, in the last two minutes before a half, when the game is Late & Close, and has demonstrated an ability to come up big during the playoffs. People like to discredit his playoff performance in 2007, giving credit for the wins to the defense, but Eli was no small part of all four of those wins.
Tampa Bay decided to stack the box and dare Eli to throw, and then proceeded to get shredded as Eli had his way with their defense.
The Cowboys had the game all but won in the first half until Eli managed to put together a TD drive with a minute left in the first half, taking the wind totally out of the Cowboys’ sails. (Dallas failed to score a single point in the second half.)
In Green Bay, Brett Favre looked cold, miserable, and like he wanted absolutely no part of going onto the field after around the second quarter. By contrast, Eli looked perfectly comfortable, like he was in a dome doing a pre-game pattern tree with Burress.
Eli led two TD drives in the fourth quarter to beat the Patriots after only scoring 3 points in the first three quarters combined. The second one was with time running out, and he had to pull off several clutch plays to keep that drive alive.
The guy stepped up big time. What has Romo or Rogers ever done?
Admit it: The Bengals had you worried last season! That’s a game I felt we had in hand and should have won in OT. Sadly, it was also the game where Carson Palmer got his elbow hurt, and played in only one other game, against the Cowbiys, another game I felt we should have won.
But Hester had a whopping 3 receiving TDs last year. That’s as many as highly prized Bryant Johnson, Brandon Stokely, Nate Washington, Robert Meacham, and Reggie Williams had. Hell, he had more TDs than Greg Camarillo (55 catches, 613 yards only 2 tds in 11 games), AND he sure can draw the pass interference penalties.
Don’t get me wrong, by no means am I pimping the Bears prospects at WR. I’m marginally optimistic with Cutler there and I do think Olsen could end up being a superstar, but I wouldn’t really try and claim that right now, on paper, the Bears WR are better than 25th in the league.
All I’m really arguing that Hester getting $5M/year isn’t completely absurd. I agree that it’s a bit high, but it’s not even in the top 100 of outlandish contracts in the NFL and probably not even in the top 5 on the Bears. Speed doesn’t come cheap, that’s the extent of the argument from my perspective.
This entire concept of a #1 WR is kinda dumb. Who was the #1 wideout for the Patriots? Moss or Welker? Who was the #1 wideout on the 2007 Colts? Who was the #1 wideout for the Broncos last year? Who is going to be the #1 wideout for the Seahawks this year? Is it the guy playing the X position? The tallest guy? The fastest guy? The guy who moves the chains? The guy running go routes? The guy who gets the most TDs? The guy who gets the most receptions? They guy who the media talks about?
Saying a team doesn’t have a #1 WR is like saying a team doesn’t have an every down RB. It’s not really important at all if they are able to run/pass effectively. There are probably only 10 teams in the entire league who actually have “#1 WRs”, and those teams aren’t reliably any good. Houston has had a clear #1 for the last 5 years or so and what’s it gotten them?
Like I said, the guy didn’t light the world on fire. At this point he’s really fast and was marginally productive. Better than a lot of guys who are only one of those things, but not going to Canton any time soon. Don’t take me for saying the guy is great. He has potential, and he’s probably a little overpaid at this point, but that’s what the market dictated.
I wasn’t worried once it got to overtime.
20-27, 185 yards, 1 touchdown is shredded? You won that game because Eli didn’t throw any picks and grandpa Garcia threw 2. Nothing to do with Eli “shredding” the defense.
That’s a pretty excellent game in my book. If I recall correctly, that game was pretty much over by halftime so there wasn’t really much of a need to air it out in the second half.
You recall incorrectly. It was 14-7 at halftime. However, I also recall incorrectly, because Manning threw two touchdown passes.
ESPN is reporting a Crabtree cousin says “they” are prepared to sit out all season and re-enter the draft in 2010 if demands aren’t met.
:rolleyes:
I’d really like to see this happen once, and then the next year he’s a 4th round pick or something because no one wants a headcase.