Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan is currently the NFL’s highest-paid player with an average salary of $30 million. Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers soon will replace him.
Once it became known that the Packers wanted give Rodgers a contract extension, a waiting game ensued. First, Rodgers would look at where free agent quarterback Kirk Cousins signed and for what. Then Rodgers would wait to see what the Falcons gave Ryan.
That was obviously the plan all along. Falcons general manager Thomas Dimitroff ran into Rodgers in February and Rodgers told him as much.
“I saw Aaron, interestingly enough, at the Super Bowl in the airport,” Dimitroff told Andrew Brandt on The Business of Sports Podcast. “And he just said to me, ‘we don’t know each other that well, but just get this deal done with Matt first so I can get on with my life.’ I knew right then, I thought, that was a good thing because that’s all we needed was for Aaron to go first and to navigate through all of this — we knew that wasn’t going to be the case.”
It has become apparent that Rodgers wants to be the highest-paid player in the game. The Packers wanted to give him an extension once the season ended. Those discussions have now dragged on for four months.
Rodgers wanted to wait for the other quarterbacks who he knew were getting huge deals to be able to top them. Not that Rodgers doesn’t deserve to be the highest-paid player in the game, but…
As we’ve noted, Jordy Nelson possibly doesn’t get cut if Rodgers had signed earlier. Rodgers was supposedly angry about that move, but he realistically could have prevented it.
But as they say, this is a business.
Ha, the Falcons were waiting on Rodgers and Rodgers was waiting on the Falcons.
Salaries get too crazy too quickly. You get one desperate team to overpay for regular talent, the player being helped by market circumstances as a scarcity of options at his position. Then, the really talented players say “hey, look what Average Joe has just cashed in! I’m worth more than that, pay me!”. And that’s how contracts spiral out of control. See what Davante got paid? Now Julio Jones wants more than that, for instance. That is a problem for the Falcons, though.
Quick disclaimer before someone points at Davante’s greatness. Yes, Davante is good. No, he is not great. He was helped by QBs looking his way a lot, regardless of a season and a half of repeated drops. Then, when the time came to negotiate, he was not one bit considerate with the team that gave him countless chances to develop. He would be on someone’s practice squad had the packers cut him after 2015.
You are delusional if you think adams would have been on any practice squad. The reason why the packers let him develop is becsuse it was obvious even then that adams had above average talent. His quickness, ability to read defenses and route running was obvious. He was being thrown at which means he was able to create seperation consistently. The pack just had to wait for his skills catching the ball and confidence to bloom which was apparent was going to happen. The dude is going to explode this year in production. Remember this prediction, by the end of the year, he will be in the conversation when talking about the best WRs in the league.
He is solid, I give you that. In my opinion, he is a WR1.5, which I define to be better than a WR2 but lacking some true WR1 trait (length, speed, quickness, route running, body control, contested-catch ability, etc). In Adams’ case, it is a lack of true break away speed (see Brandin Cooks for that kind of threat), and I don’t recall him making Jordy Nelson type catches (body control, i.e., twisting in mid air while securing the ball AND making sure both feet land in bounds).
If we get some help from Graham, defenses won’t be able to cheat Adams’ way and he should produce good numbers. If Graham busts or is underutilized (McCarthy has rarely made use of the TE position), then expect Adams to draw more attention and we will see whether he has the WR1 wood to still be productive.
If you want another example of a WR1.5, I would say Cobb, who was mostly shut down by double coverage when Jordy was injured (2015), but used to be too good if left on single coverage (2014), which is why I labeled him as more than a WR2. He has declined, and in my book he is a decent WR2 now. I recall him catching the ball AND making a defender miss in the past. Now it’s more of a “catch the ball and be tackled right away”, which does not warrant his current salary.
“But as they say, this is a business.”
Exactly Monty.
So, for anyone who thinks Rodgers shouldn’t be salty about losing his td machine, with the retort “it’s just business”.
Then just remember, don’t get salty on Rodgers for the contract he gets, because “it’s just business”…… right?