Top 10 most overpaid players in the NFL
We see it all the time when a player signs a new contract to join a new team via free agency or to stay with his current team, the salaries across the NFL are getting out of hand. With each bad contract signed it sets a precedent for a player and his agent to use as leverage in their contract negotiations.
This never-ending cycle of one bad contract after another has populated the NFL with so many overpaid players it really places a premium on excelling in the draft so you can avoid the high-priced world of free agency as much as possible.
When you’re watching your favorite NFL team on Sunday, Monday or Thursday nights and the high-priced free agent drops a pass or throws an interception, the first thing you’ll say is how he is overpaid and not worth the money.
Here are the top 10 most overpaid players who have put their team in a bind by paying them millions and millions of dollars that they simply aren’t worth.
After reading through the list, please leave your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below to tell us who you believe is worth every cent and the players you believe should have made the list.
Without further ado, here are the to most overpaid players based on average salary for the 2014 NFL season.
10. Matt Schaub, QB, Oakland Raiders – $6.75 million
Schaub is getting paid like a league average starter at quarterback to ride the bench for the Raiders. After the former Houston Texans signal-caller was acquired in a trade in the offseason, the expectation was that Schaub would be the starter to begin the season, but that wasn’t the case as second round pick Derek Carr won the job in the preseason relegating Schaub to the bench.
It is not surprising to see Carr win the job over Schaub, but what was surprising was that the Raiders gave up a sixth round draft pick when they could have acquired him for nothing in all likelihood if they just waited for the Texans to release their former starter.
Schaub did restructure his salary from a $14.5 million salary-cap figure and a $10 million base salary to the lower average salary and salary-cap number, but this season he is still the 18th highest-paid quarterback and he may not start a single game all year.
9. Everson Griffen, DE, Minnesota Vikings – $8.5 million
Griffen is in the first year of a five-year, $42.5 million extension with the Vikings that included $19.8 million guaranteed despite only starting one game in his first 59 career games.
This is a contract that is paying for future performance and not past performance like many of the players on this list, but it is a calculated risk the Vikings are taking paying him more money than players like Cliff Avril, Michael Bennett, Carlos Dunlap and Cameron Wake.
Griffen has played well in a reserve role behind Jared Allen and Brian Robison in the past, but many players in the history of the NFL haven’t thrived when placed in the starting lineup after getting a big payday. Through three games, Griffen has two sacks, but I have doubts over the course of the contract that Griffen will be a consistent top-10 defensive end.
8. Brandon Carr, CB, Dallas Cowboys – $10.02 million
The debate over the top cornerback in the league is up for debate with Patrick Peterson, Richard Sherman, Joe Haden and Darrelle Revis in the conversation and are the highest-paid in the position in that order, but Carr comes in fifth on the list and is not in the same category as the four players listed above.
Carr signed a five-year, $50.10 million contract with the Cowboys, including $25.5 million guaranteed after the Chiefs released him as the Cowboys paid a hefty price to get a player they thought could solve their issues in the secondary. Through three games in the 2014 season, the Cowboys have the league’s No. 21 pass defense and has six interceptions in 35 career games with Dallas.
He is a solid player, but when his salary puts him in the ballpark of the four best at the position and his performance is not commensurate with those four Pro Bowlers.
7. Joe Flacco, QB, Baltimore Ravens – $20.1 million
Flacco is in the second year of the mega contract he signed after helping guide the Ravens to a Super Bowl win over the San Francisco 49ers worth 120.60 million contract over six years, including a $29 million signing bonus and $29 guaranteed.
The Ravens had no choice to sign Flacco to a contract of this size after his playoff run en route to winning the Super Bowl after failing to come to an agreement on an extension before his contract year and they’re literally paying for it now.
Flacco is the third highest-paid quarterback in the league, trailing only Aaron Rodgers and just below Matt Ryan despite zero Pro Bowl appearances, zero 4,000-yard seasons and zero seasons with more than 25 passing touchdowns.
The season after signing his contract, Flacco led the Ravens to an 8-8 record while throwing 22 interceptions to only 19 touchdowns and a career-low 73.1 quarterback rating.
Drew Brees and Peyton Manning check in fourth and fifth on the list of highest-paid quarterbacks after Flacco, so yes, he is completely overpaid when you consider his individual statistics and the fact he has the third highest average salary in the NFL this year.
7. Alex Smith, QB, Kansas City Chiefs – $17 million
Smith is the proverbial game manager who can’t win a game on his own and is out there trying not to lose the game. He has never thrown for more than 3,313 yards in a season or tossed more than 23 touchdowns in any single season in eight seasons.
He signed a four-year, $68 million extension with $45 million guaranteed to keep him in Kansas City, so could his ninth year in the league be the year the former No. 1 overall pick throws for 4,000 yards or 30 touchdowns?
He has managed to win games a nice clip with a 30-9-1 record entering the 2014 season since 2011, including an 11-4 mark last year before losing in the first round of the playoffs in his first season in Kansas City last year.
However, with a bigger paycheck than Andy Dalton, Philip Rivers and Tom Brady, are you going to take Smith over any of these players for one season? He would rank last in that group of players, which is why at $17 million a year and his lack of game-breaking skills, Smith is the opposite of a bargain.
5. Dwayne Bowe, WR, Chiefs – $11.2 million
Bowe is the fourth highest-paid receiver in the NFL courtesy of the five-year, $56 million contract he signed with the Chiefs that including a $15 million signing bonus and $20 million guaranteed, but the former first round pick has not justified that lucrative contract.
Over the last two full seasons Bowe has averaged 58 receptions for 737 yards and four touchdowns per year. His 57 receptions for 673 yards and a 11.8 yards per catch average were the lowest marks he has posted since 2009 when he only played in 11 games.
His career is clearly trending down and his offseason arrest for marijuana is another red flag for the former LSU receiver who is being paid more than notable receivers like Vincent Jackson, Brandon Marshall and Andre Johnson.
4. Jared Cook, TE, St. Louis Rams – $ 7.02 million
Cook is in the second year of the five-year, $35.1 million contract he signed with the Rams, including $16 million guaranteed, and an annual average salary of $7,020,000 after beginning his career with the Tennessee Titans.
I wonder if the Rams are having any buyer’s remorse after having 10 games with three or fewer receptions in a season that was actually kind of solid based on his past, but it still wasn’t good in regard to his pay grade.
Cook finished with 51 receptions and 671 yards and five touchdowns as he made a career-high 13 starts, but with players like Martellus Bennett, Delanie Walker and Greg Olsen making much less than Cook and putting up equal if not better numbers than Cook, it is easy for me to say that he is one of the most overpaid players in the league.
Would you trust Cook on your fantasy team?
3. Mike Wallace, WR, Miami Dolphins – $12 million
Wallace is the third highest-paid receiver in average salary this season in the second year of a $60 million contract he signed to leave the Pittsburgh Steelers to join the receiver-needy Dolphins. I understand the Dolphins had to overpay to get the player they so desperately coveted, but having said that, Wallace has yet to live up to the huge contract he signed.
With 73 receptions for 930 yards and five touchdowns, his numbers do not suggest he should be commanding the dollars he is getting from Miami this season and for the next three years. Wallace was signed to be the home run hitter and take the top off the defense, but his 12.7 yards per catch average last year was the lowest of his career and the third straight year that number has decreased.
To make matters worse his average is down to 12.4 through three games of the 2014 season. Blame quarterback Ryan Tannehill all you want, but Wallace isn’t living up to the contract he signed.
2. Jonathan Stewart, RB, Carolina Panthers – $7.3 million
Stewart makes $200,000 fewer than Marshawn Lynch and nearly $1 million more than Frank Gore to be the Panthers No. 2 running back. In fact, he makes $4 million more than DeAngelo Williams who starts ahead of Stewart for Carolina, but is the seventh highest-paid running back in the league this year.
The oft-injured Stewart is injured once again which has been which continues a disturbing trend after missing 17 games over the last two seasons. Stewart has not rushed for more than 770 yards in the last four seasons and has not scored more than four rushing touchdowns in the last three and has not been the same runner since his first two seasons in the league after he was taken 13th overall in the 2008 draft.
When he is healthy, Stewart has been a nice complement to Williams in the Carolina backfield, but the big problem is he’s rarely healthy and not worth the money.
1. Sam Bradford, QB, St. Louis Rams – $ 13,007,500 million
Bradford is in the second to last year of his rookie contract he signed after the Rams spend the No. 1 overall pick on the former Heisman winner out of Oklahoma in the 2010 draft when he signed a six-year, $78.05 million contract with $50 million guaranteed.
This contract given to Bradford helped serve as the impetus to have a rookie wage scale which was adopted in time for the 2011 draft to prevent players like Bradford getting so much money upfront before playing a down in the NFL and crippling a team’s salary cap.
Bradford has suffered three season-ending injuries in his five years with the Rams, including tearing his ACL for the second straight year during a preseason game that will keep him out for the entire 2014 season and could result in a possible release before the 2015 season.
Much like Stewart, part of being a great player is being on the field and being dependable, and unfortunately for the Rams and for Bradford that has not been the case.
When healthy, Bradford has an 18-30-1 career record with a 58.6 completion percentage and a 79.3 quarterback rating and he has never thrown for more than 21 touchdowns in a season.
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