As expected, Randall Cobb was a hot commodity on the free agent market.
Teams were first able to negotiate with players on Saturday and Cobb received numerous offers. A number of those offers were reportedly more lucrative than the four-year, $40 million deal he ended up signing with the Packers.
Randall Cobb had 6-7 offers today, I’m told. He turned down considerably more money elsewhere to sign with the #Packers.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 8, 2015
That tells us a couple things.
Despite his agent, Cobb really does care more about winning than he does money. It is rumored that three of those offers came from Oakland, Jacksonville and Houston — teams that are either perennial losers or only occasional winners.
Obviously, the Packers quarterback situation also played a role in Cobb’s decision.
On the flip side, you can bet these other offers ended up driving up the price the Packers paid, as they’re now paying their No. 2 receiver more than their No. 1 receiver (by about $200,000 annually).
Cobb was originally seeking $9 million per year. Even that price seemed like more than the Packers wanted to pay.
The market quickly told the Packers they were out of luck. In the end, the Packers probably paid more than they wanted to keep Cobb and Cobb took less than he could have gotten elsewhere.
All for the greater good.