Sam Bradford and Peyton Manning

Sam Bradford received a contract with $50 million guaranteed. $50 million dollars for a player who has never taken a snap in the NFL. His six year $78 million contract estimates his vaue at $13 million per year.

Peyton Manning is in his contract year. Many, mostly in Indianapolis, believe he is the best quarterback of all time and deserves to be paid as such. If Sam Bradford makes $50 million, then by simple logic Peyton Manning should make more.

How about a 5 year $75 million guaranteed contract? Sam Bradford has a $13 million per year contract, surley Peyton is worth $15 million a year. You know, $15 doesn’t sound like enough for the best of all time, it should be $18 million over 5 years. That is $90 million with say 4 years guaranteed. A guaranteed $72 million. That sounds about right.

Well, here come Tom Brady in his contract year. He deserves at least as much. Tom has more Super Bowls. He deserves a $72 million guaranteed contract as well. After all, Sam Bradford has a $50 million contract.

Here is the problem. Every quarterback needs someone to throw to. They have to be paid. He needs a line to block for him. They need to be paid. When you score the touchdown, the defense has to take the field and they have to be paid. There simply isn’t that much money in football to support this.

This escalation will extend down to average quarterbacks as well. David Garrard is already the highest paid player on the team. Should he be? I don’t know, but the cost of quarterbacks is going up and up and up.

Sam Bradford’s contract makes it hard for Detroit to sign Suh. They are paying Matt Stafford $41.7 million guaranteed. The Detroit Lions have sellout problems. They can’t pay 20% of their player salaries to two people. But if number 1 makes $50 million, shouldn’t number 2 make $45 milion? The insanity continues.

The Jaguars are in a tough spot in negotiations right now. Number 11 got $16 million guaranteed. Number 8 got $23 million guaranteed. The Jaguars think $17 million is the right spot. Tyson Alualu’s agent thinks $20 million is the right spot. Depends on how you look, from the bottom up or the top down. Either way, they are having trouble supporting $15 million for Harvey, $17 million for Monroe, David, Maurice and now Tyson. It gets heavy, economically heavy.

The collective bargaining agreement is going to address salaries, especially for rookies. It has to. There is simply no way Sam Bradford is worth $50 million. Football is a tough sport. If only a few guys make large amounts of money, it comes out of the money paid to the rest. I feel for the average guy who will live with permenent injury and no money to fall back on. Sam Bradford and Peyton Manning and Tom Brady took it all.

– Terry O’Brien