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Steve
Best question yet: What starting QB is AD as valuable as? Bradford? no way; Keenum? no way.
Well even if AD took the Rams (low) offer at 21 M, he would already be getting more than Bradford (20 M) and Keenum (18 M).
And let's say the Rams gave in to 25 M. This year qb money on 2nd contracts was 28 M (Cousins) and next year it will be more (30 M at least) so how big is 25 M in comparison? It will be quickly overshadowed when Goff is paid in excess of 30 M in 2021. On top of it, qbs were getting 24-25 M in 2016 and 2017, when Luck and Carr got their brand new 2nd contracts. You're saying an elite defender can't get what a qb got 3 years ago? Heck Carr got 25 M in 2017, and Wilson 22 M in 2015...is Carr "worth" more than Wilson? (Naw it all has to do with the year you come up.)
And as for the magic unbreakable "qb contract" barrier, when Watt got his deal in 2014 (16.6 M) it was already more than a lot of starting qbs, including Bradford (13 M). Then when Suh got his 19 M deal in 2015, that too was more than most qbs and the ones above him were only 1 to 3 M more.
And there are always more good to great qbs than elite DTs. In fact Donald is the only recent one and the last 2 (Randle and Sapp) were out of the game by 2003 and 2007, respectively. Elite DTs make any defense better. What is that "worth"?
Besides contracts are not really measured by "how valuable a player is." If they were, Cooks would not be getting more than Gurley right now. Nothing against Cooks in the least, but if you were the one who had to choose, who misses an important game, Cooks or Gurley? If you say Gurley, then you have to wonder why he got so much as a running back. If you say Cooks, you have to wonder why he got more than Gurley.
You can sweep all those kinds of calculations away. Here's what DOES happen. 2nd contracts go up, and the increase is within a range. Donald, like Mack, is being paid not by a position but by the designation of "best defender." There's really only 4 guys like that right now--Watt, Von Miller, Mack, and Donald. It's the same logic that designated Gurley as more than just a running back (the highest RB contract, not tag but contract, is 8 M, and Gurley got almost twice that). So the starting point is Von Miller's 19 M in 2016. If 2nd contracts go up every year, and they do, and by a certain percentage, and they do, how much more is Donald worth in 2018 than Von Miller was in 2016 (hint: it's not merely 2 M more).
The whole "is he as valuable as a qb" thing is just smoke compared to that. That's the real measure. Anything else ignores the reality of how these contracts usually work.
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Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 07/30/2018 02:15PM by zn.
