2015 NFL best and worst players in terms of money earned

[ducky]

They common saying is:

"At the end of the day, the NFL is just a business"

Cam won the MVP but he already inked his new deal (too small of one at that). So that great season only earned him a little more ching in endorsements.

So which player won the most amount of money this year and who lost the most:

My choices:

Winner:
1) Kurt Cousins. No one even close to this guy IMO. He came into training camp and wasn't even assured a starting job. He struggled a little early as the Redskins offense dealt with some growing pains on the OL and with injuries. But he treaded water to save his job for the 1st 8 games and then went on an absolute tear the final 8. He heads into this offseason as a FA with his agent likely not willing to put pen to paper unless the Redskins give him at least $40M in guaranteed money.

Losers:
A little tougher because it is tough to tell just how desperate NFL teams will be this offseason. So I give it to two players:

1) Colin Kaepernick. He headed into the season playing for a team that was EXPECTED to be one of the worst in the league. All he had to do was tread water for one year. And he still sunk like a rock. IMO no team is going to give the 49ers a pick for him under his current deal so they will just end up cutting him unless he agrees to a restructure with his new team before being traded.

Colin is a little lucky though that there aren't 32 decent QB's in a league of 32 teams. Meaning someone around the league is going to be willing to give him a sizable deal still.

But in the end he will be looking at a new 2 year contract in the range of $12M-$15M total instead of the of the 2 year near $30M deal he is currently under.

2) Greg Hardy. Was viewed as a talented trouble maker heading into the season. After this year he is just viewed as a trouble maker. Signed a 1 year $11M contract this year.....will be damn lucky to find a team willing to take him on a 1 year $5M contract next year. And because of his off the field issues and trouble in the locker room, no team is going to go multi year with him.


So who are your winners and losers or just guys I overlooked?

 

[flyerhawk]

It will be interesting to see if the Redskins let him hit the open market. I can't imagine they will but who knows.

 

[jarntt]

I hope the Cowboys don't resign Hardy and I was disappointed in his play, but can't imagine in any way that there aren't bigger disparities between pay and play on field. Heck, Romo only played 3 games. RGIII didn't even play and that's just NFC East QBs...

 

[ATL96Steeler]

Let me touch on one that you mentioned.

Cousins...if you are HOU, CLE, SF, sTL (noted as the most QB needy teams) are you willing to offer him $80/$40/6yr? I think not.

I love the work he did this year until the playoff game, but 9-7 is still pretty mediocre and I can see them being no better than that next season. Point - WAS is probably competing mostly against WAS here. He's definitely a winner because he's going to get paid, but we'll have to see where the number comes in at.

My winner pick...Kurt Coleman, CAR...'16 is the final yr of his deal...don't be surprised if they extend him next yr for big money.

The other one...a little more obscure... Alejandro Villanueva, PIT...this UDFA is a former U S Army vet...due to injury found himself starting at LT and has been a fairly quick study...I can see them giving him a long term deal for a bargain basement rate but whatever it is, it'll be a helluva lot more than $500k is getting this season.

 

[Wolverine830872]

Let me touch on one that you mentioned.

Cousins...if you are HOU, CLE, SF, sTL (noted as the most QB needy teams) are you willing to offer him $80/$40/6yr? I think not.

I love the work he did this year until the playoff game, but 9-7 is still pretty mediocre and I can see them being no better than that next season. Point - WAS is probably competing mostly against WAS here. He's definitely a winner because he's going to get paid, but we'll have to see where the number comes in at.

My winner pick...Kurt Coleman, CAR...'16 is the final yr of his deal...don't be surprised if they extend him next yr for big money.

The other one...a little more obscure... Alejandro Villanueva, PIT...this UDFA is a former U S Army vet...due to injury found himself starting at LT and has been a fairly quick study...I can see them giving him a long term deal for a bargain basement rate but whatever it is, it'll be a helluva lot more than $500k is getting this season.

I can see someone paying Cousins a 6 year/$80 mill contract with around 40 mill guaranteed. There are teams that are desperate for better QB play and I can't think of any other FA's that come close to Cousins. That should translate into a fat contract. Everyone had the Redskins as the only team in the NFCE that wouldn't compete for the division but because of great QB play, they pulled it off.

 

[jarntt]

Throw in all Wash gave up to get him and RGIII was the most overpaid player by a mile this year...

 

[cdumler7]

I would put Manning on the most overpaid players list so far this year. I mean even after the pay cut he is still making $14 million this year. What the Broncos got for that was the worst QB play over the first 9 games of the year. Now he does have a chance to redeem himself with the playoffs here but so far that has not been money well spent.

Most underpaid is probably Josh Norman of the Panthers. He played as the top Corner pretty much the entire season. Yet for this season his Cap Hit was $1.6 million. He is costing 1/10th of that of guys like Sherman, Peterson, and Revis and yet producing better results.

 

[ATL96Steeler]

I can see someone paying Cousins a 6 year/$80 mill contract with around 40 mill guaranteed. There are teams that are desperate for better QB play and I can't think of any other FA's that come close to Cousins. That should translate into a fat contract. Everyone had the Redskins as the only team in the NFCE that wouldn't compete for the division but because of great QB play, they pulled it off.

Who?

HOU has Watt's $100 mil contract and will need to re-sign Hopkins for something in that neighborhood. Doubtful.

CLE...they can probably afford the contract, they are desperate, but spending big money on FA has not been their MO...more than a QB away from playoffs, #1 overall draft pick, they can get a kid for a fraction of the that and try to build around him.

SF...not sure of their cap situation, but they are in line for the #2 QB off the board, will they spend $40 mil guaranteed? idk.

I'm not trying to undercut Cousins here...outstanding season, but if Romo doesn't get hurt, do you think WAS gets in with 9-7 or do they even go 9-7? This could very well have been a career yr for Cousins...not reasonable to expect him to repeat that effort....his completion % stats are most certainly going down next season.

WAS will probably pay him that $80 mil, and far be it from me to say he's not worth it, but I'm not sure they will be competing against anybody but themselves at that rate.

 

[ATL96Steeler]

I would put Manning on the most overpaid players list so far this year. I mean even after the pay cut he is still making $14 million this year. What the Broncos got for that was the worst QB play over the first 9 games of the year. Now he does have a chance to redeem himself with the playoffs here but so far that has not been money well spent.

Most underpaid is probably Josh Norman of the Panthers. He played as the top Corner pretty much the entire season. Yet for this season his Cap Hit was $1.6 million. He is costing 1/10th of that of guys like Sherman, Peterson, and Revis and yet producing better results.

Norman and Coleman out played their contracts for CAR.

 

[Wolverine830872]

Who?

HOU has Watt's $100 mil contract and will need to re-sign Hopkins for something in that neighborhood. Doubtful.

CLE...they can probably afford the contract, they are desperate, but spending big money on FA has not been their MO...more than a QB away from playoffs, #1 overall draft pick, they can get a kid for a fraction of the that and try to build around him.

SF...not sure of their cap situation, but they are in line for the #2 QB off the board, will they spend $40 mil guaranteed? idk.

I'm not trying to undercut Cousins here...outstanding season, but if Romo doesn't get hurt, do you think WAS gets in with 9-7 or do they even go 9-7? This could very well have been a career yr for Cousins...not reasonable to expect him to repeat that effort....his completion % stats are most certainly going down next season.

WAS will probably pay him that $80 mil, and far be it from me to say he's not worth it, but I'm not sure they will be competing against anybody but themselves at that rate.

It isn't too challenging to manipulate your salary cap to get that contract done. The only limiting factor would be that the guaranteed money has to be evenly spread among the first five years of the contract (I think).

 

[flyerhawk]

Best value player is always a player on their rookie contract.

 

[ATL96Steeler]

It isn't too challenging to manipulate your salary cap to get that contract done. The only limiting factor would be that the guaranteed money has to be evenly spread among the first five years of the contract (I think).

idk too many teams with 3 100 mil contracts...granted we're not talking about 100 mil for Cousins, but even at 80/40/6...we're looking at annual cap hit around $13 mil on average. I don't see HOU doing that...actually if I were HOU...I'd look more at the guy WAS will kick to the curb...a much cheaper reclamation project.

 

[Wolverine830872]

idk too many teams with 3 100 mil contracts...granted we're not talking about 100 mil for Cousins, but even at 80/40/6...we're looking at annual cap hit around $13 mil on average. I don't see HOU doing that...actually if I were HOU...I'd look more at the guy WAS will kick to the curb...a much cheaper reclamation project.

With 40 mill guaranteed the contract you could give a $36 mil signing bonus that would be pro-rated over the first 5 years (7.2 mil per) + 4 mil salary for first year guaranteed upon signing

1st year: 11.2 mil (4+7.2)
2nd: 9 mil (1.8 + 7.2)
3rd: 9 mil (1.8 + 7.2)
4th: 13.8 (6.6 + 7.2)
5th: 17 mil (9.8 + 7.2)
6th: 20 mil

That seems like a pretty team-friendly contract all-in-all. In year 5 you can cut bait and eat the dead money or ask for a restructure. You essentially go into the contract knowing that year 6 will more than likely never happen.

Seeing as SF will be able to take Kaep off the books with little dead money (if any?) they could simply roll Cousins into that roster slot and actually save money

Cousin for 10 roughly 10 mil a year for the foreseeable future probably has more value than rolling the dice with RG3 at QB and probably throwing away a couple of otherwise competitive seasons.

 

[cdumler7]

With 40 mill guaranteed the contract you could give a $36 mil signing bonus that would be pro-rated over the first 5 years (7.2 mil per) + 4 mil salary for first year guaranteed upon signing

1st year: 11.2 mil (4+7.2)
2nd: 9 mil (1.8 + 7.2)
3rd: 9 mil (1.8 + 7.2)
4th: 13.8 (6.6 + 7.2)
5th: 17 mil (9.8 + 7.2)
6th: 20 mil

That seems like a pretty team-friendly contract all-in-all. In year 5 you can cut bait and eat the dead money or ask for a restructure. You essentially go into the contract knowing that year 6 will more than likely never happen.

Seeing as SF will be able to take Kaep off the books with little dead money (if any?) they could simply roll Cousins into that roster slot and actually save money

Cousin for 10 roughly 10 mil a year for the foreseeable future probably has more value than rolling the dice with RG3 at QB and probably throwing away a couple of otherwise competitive seasons.

I doubt they would give him a $36 million signing bonus. Right now in the NFL Drew Brees received the highest Signing Bonus in the history of the NFL at $37 million. So that would move Cousins into 2nd when he has proven very little in this league. To me you are looking in the $20-25 million tops for signing bonus for a player that has proven so little.

Now that doesn't mean he can't have $40 million guaranteed just a good chunk of that would probably be injury related. They can still keep his cap hit lower in the 1st year and honestly would be smart to be like the 49ers in set up the contract to be performance based. If he continues to play well then he makes more money. If not then it is a lower cap hit and doesn't have a ton of dead money moving forward.

 

[Clayton]

Best value player is always a player on their rookie contract.

Pretty much across the board.

Nick Foles' cap hit was twice that of Aaron Donald

 

[Fountain City Blues]

Breaux for the Saints for me should be #1 coming out of the CFL. Saints D is horriawful, but it's far from his fault. Coleman is another one.

Worst would probably include Dwayne Bowe (Tiny % of snaps) and Demarco Murray.

 

[packerzrule]

Randall Cobb has proven every week that he is not worth the 40MM he just got without Jordy Nelson running interference for him

 

[SteelersPride]

Randall Cobb has proven every week that he is not worth the 40MM he just got without Jordy Nelson running interference for him

lets not forget that injury he never got fixed

 

[Hank Kingsley]

I would put Manning on the most overpaid players list so far this year. I mean even after the pay cut he is still making $14 million this year. What the Broncos got for that was the worst QB play over the first 9 games of the year. Now he does have a chance to redeem himself with the playoffs here but so far that has not been money well spent.

Most underpaid is probably Josh Norman of the Panthers. He played as the top Corner pretty much the entire season. Yet for this season his Cap Hit was $1.6 million. He is costing 1/10th of that of guys like Sherman, Peterson, and Revis and yet producing better results.

Butler?

 

[Anointed One]

I'd add Devonta Freeman to the mix...