Money talks...few exceptions.How many players are there in the NFL?
How many players have come in gone in the last 5 years?
So...throw out 20 players who have taken less money.
To elaborate on a few of your listed players...
Cousins took less money? You just can't look at contract value. You have to look at the structure of the contract. Cousins got a short term deal...and what a deal it was! If he performs, he will now get another big contract. He can only be franchise tagged. All other tags are off the table per his contract. And if he is franchised, I heard he would be getting $40,000,000 after year 3. So...he took less money? That comment is about 10% of the story.
Brees...really? Like he is going to go somewhere and play now in his career? He has an after football retirement plan job in New Orleans for the rest of his life. And...did he get offers from other teams? No one was going to make Brees the highest paid QB in the NFL.
Brady...yep. Amendola...yep.
BTW...People are going to have to looking at total dollars and dollars only on contracts. I keep reading "this guy is getting $XXX per year." It means little.
Contract structure is more important than the total dollars...signing bonus, guarantees, tag limitations, etc.
