The early story of the 2024 NFL season has been the dominance of the underdog: Few could’ve anticipated teams like the Minnesota Vikings and Pittsburgh Steelers keeping pace with the reigning Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, leaving Week 3 with spotless records. Even fewer could’ve foreseen the quarterback play that’s accompanied such unexpected success, with castoffs like Justin Fields and Sam Darnold excelling.
Contrast this stardom of the journeymen with more mercurial results for high-profile signal-callers like Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts, who’ve combined for eight picks in three weeks; or Trevor Lawrence and Deshaun Watson, who’ve struggled to hit even 50% of their throws, and it’s no wonder some might be wondering if big-money quarterbacks are even worth the investment.
Consider Fields, who along with veteran Russell Wilson commands just 10% of what every other team in the AFC North pay for their quarterbacks, according to SportsLine. If the Bengals only had to pay $5 million for a starter, they would’ve likely already secured top wideouts Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins to long-term deals. The Browns might’ve just run it back with Joe Flacco if they could’ve reallocated Watson’s hefty salary to the offensive line.
But these are just hypotheticals, and flawed ones at that; who’s to say Chase and Higgins are putting pen to paper with Cincy if, say, a one-year rental had been the grand plan at quarterback rather than the trusty-when-healthy Joe Burrow? And after the Bengals’ 0-3 start, it’s fairly apparent that Burrow and Chase aren’t the primary issues.
A better question is: What do the broader facts say on the matter?
There isn’t a clean delineation point when sorting the “highest-paid” quarterbacks considering how often the market shifts with each new deal, but let’s just take the top 10 to start, based on average earned per year. Through three weeks of the 2024…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/as-affordable-qbs-outshine-the-highest-paid-should-nfl-teams-change-their-approach-the-answer-is-complicated/
Author : Cody Benjamin
Publish date : 2024-09-25 18:13:17
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