If I were Letroy Guion, I would be pissed.
Sure, the Green Bay Packers re-signed Guion on Monday, handing him an underwhelming one-year, $2.5 million deal. Then they went out and re-signed B.J. Raji.
Raji also got a one-year deal. But surely Raji’s deal would be for less than Guion’s. Not only did Raji not play a down in 2014, but his last full season wasn’t anywhere near as good as Guion’s 2014 campaign.
Right?
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight?
Of course not.
Somewhere, in Ted Thompson’s logic, Raji is worth more than Guion. Raji’s one-year deal is worth $3.5 million and could reportedly increase to $4 million with incentives.
Now, that’s not a huge difference in NFL contract terms. It’s $1 million with the potential to be $1.5 million.
Still, Guion certainly has a complaint if he wants to make one.
He’s coming off a career year, one where he had 32 tackles and 3.5 sacks.
Raji, as we mentioned, was injured all of 2014. In 2013, he was garbage, turning in 17 tackles and no sacks. In fact, Raji has surpassed Guion’s 2014 total of 32 tackles only once in his career. It was back in 2010, when he had 39 tackles.
That was also the only year Raji surpassed Guion’s 2014 sack total. Raji had 6.5 sacks that season.
As it stands, Raji hasn’t recorded a sack since 2011.
You read that right.
Yet he is somehow worth more to the Packers than Guion.
How could this possibly be?
Well, plenty of people will surely point to Guion’s arrest earlier this offseason. We really don’t see how that affects anything though. Guion made a deal and won’t be doing any time. He’ll probably get suspended by the NFL, but the Packers won’t have to pay his salary while he’s out.
So the reality is, the Packers paid more money for a guy who’s last and only good season was five years ago and less money for the guy who appears to be entering his prime.
The only discernible difference between these two guys, other than performance, is that Raji carries the distinction of being a former first-round pick. He also carries the distinction of having been drafted by Ted Thompson.
And as we’ve seen with guys like A.J. Hawk, Ted Thompson really loves guys he drafted. Sometimes blindly so.