pats1

Titans | Contract update: D. Givens base salaries
Wed, 15 Mar 2006 08:11:51 -0800

Jim Wyatt, of the Tennessean, reports Tennessee Titans WR David Givens signed a five-year, $24 million contract with base salaries of $800,000 (2006), $2.5 million (2007), $3.5 million (2008), $3.5 million (2009), and $4.2 million (2010). The deal included a signing bonus of $6 million and has roster bonuses of $500,000 in the final three years of the contract.

http://www.kffl.com/hotw/nfl

hwc

That's $13.3 million over 3 years with a $3 million dead money hit when he's cut before year 4.

No thanks. $4.5 million a year is way too much for a solid #2 wide receiver.

Miguel

There is $2 million missing. I think that the signing bonus is $8 million.

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AzPatsFan

I don't know how you come to that. My calculation would be dead money of $1.25 million after 4 years (most probable), and only $2.5 after three.

hwc

Oops. You are right. It's $6 million prorated over five years, or $1.2 million a year. So, when they cut him after 3 years, it'll be a dead money hit of $2.4 million.

I actually think they'll cut him after two years. In the third year, it will cost $4 million to keep him and $3.6 million to cut him. It would probably make sense to keep him for the third year, but after paying him $4+ million a year for two 30 catch seasons, they'll have a sour taste in their mouths.

They are paying him somewhere around 10th best WR in the NFL money. He's not that good.

Miguel

2006 - $2.4 million
2007 - $4.1 million
2008 - $5.6 million
2009 - $5.6 million
2010 - $6.3 million

Prediction - Givens' cap hit will not be among the Top 10 at his position until the year 2008.

FWIW - Givens' renumeration will not be among the Top 10 at his position until the 2009 season.

IMO, it is misleading to say that Givens is being paid as a Top 10 wide receiver when his APY of $4.8 million which is over 5 years is less than the average of the 10 highest cap hits in 2005 for wide receivers. IMO, it is also misleading to compare a deal originated when the cap is $102 million to deals originated when the cap was $85 million or , Compare apples to apples.

These are the wideouts who I am pretty sure have a higher APY than Givens.

Harrison
Ward
Moss
Wayne
Holt
Bruce
Steve Smith
Hines Ward
Rod Smith
Chad Johnson
Andre Johnson
Santana Moss
Coles
Chambers
Braylon Edwards
Joe Horn
Fitzgerald

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hwc

OK, lets compare apples to apples, then. David Givens does not belong in the same category with the receivers you have listed. He's a solid, but not spectacular, #2 receiver. Most of the players on your list are their team's clear #1 receiver. Many of them are franchise type players.The Pats weren't bidding on a player with Chad Johnson talent.

Here are the salaries plus bonus proration from 2005 for the top-10 highest paid wide receivers in the NFL:

Bruce, Isaac WR $9,240,709
Toomer, Amani WR $5,715,000
Smith, Rod WR $5,551,628
Smith, Jimmy WR $5,274,333
Moulds, Eric WR $5,078,431
Horn, Joe WR $4,765,000
Muhammad, Muhsin WR $4,615,000
Williams, Roy WR $3,845,000
McCardell, Keenan WR $3,766,666
Northcutt, Dennis WR $3,750,000

I think it's fair to say that most of the NFL valued Givens well below this list of receivers. He only got two offers -- one from the Texans and one from the Titans. If the NFL felt he was worth Muhsin Muhammad money, teams would have been beating his doors down.

Miguel

which is why his APY is BELOW their's even with cap inflation.

If you are going to look at one year's cap hit for these 10 players, then look at one year's cap hit for Givens. Orange to Orange. Givens' 2006 cap hit is a bargain. Roy Williams is the only player on that list that I would sign to a 5-year contract this year with the expectation that the player would play all 5 years at a high level. Givens' APY is less than the average of those numbers. One has to go back to the 2002 season when the cap was $71.1 million to find a season in which Givens' APY is not less than the average of the 10 highest cap numbers for wideouts.
I think that it is unfair to say that most of the NFL valued Givens well below this list of receivers when I think there are other very legitimate reasons why Givens did not get offers from all 32 teams. Some teams would not be interested in Givens at all not because they do not think that Givens is a good player but because they were already set at wideout. There was no chance that the Colts, Rams, Cardinals, Bengals, Jets, Raiders, Ravens, Giants, Lions, and Packers would ever get into the bidding for Givens because of that reason. Some teams like the Panthers and Chiefs would not get into the bidding because they did not have the cap space. Some teams do not do big-money deals in the 1st week of free agency because of their philosophical approach to free agency. Some teams like the Jaguars and the Falcons have recenly devoted high draft picks to wideouts and they may be hoping that those wideouts develop.

Givens actually got 3 offers and once he accepted the Titans' offer he was not going to get anymore.

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My youngest sister's best friend is on the board of directors of a food pantry in Malden, Massachusetts that distributed 285,000 meals and meal equivalents in 2005. I am asking that if you have found my salary cap pages useful that if you are able to do so, please make a donation to it. Please contact me for more information.