Jaylen Waddle's new contract screwed over the Vikings to no end

One important storyline for NFL fans to follow in the offseason involves the wide receiver market. Several of the game's best wideouts entered the offseason eligible for extensions, and there was a good chance that the market was going to be completely changed.

We've seen the Houston Texans pay Nico Collins, but for the most part, the high-end receivers who were extension-eligible still are. The list got a bit smaller on Thursday when the Miami Dolphins gave Jaylen Waddle a three-year extension.

Waddle's extension is worth up to $84.75 million with $76 million guaranteed. It's a massive contract for Waddle, but one that makes sense with how NFL contracts work. All the Waddle contract does is screw over the Minnesota Vikings who have arguably the best receiver in football to pay.

Jaylen Waddle's extension could be bad news for the Vikings

Waddle's new deal made him one of the five highest-paid wide receivers in football. He's great, there's no disputing that, but is he a top-five wide receiver? That's a really tough argument to make.

He missed three games so statistics like yards and touchdowns won't skew in his favor, but Waddle ranked 15th in yards per game this past season. 15th is impressive, and he proved to be the second-best WR2 using that statistic, but by no measure is he one of the five best receivers yet he got paid that way.

His contract value will go down when the other high-end receivers like Jefferson, Ja'Marr Chase, CeeDee Lamb, and Brandon Aiyuk get paid, but again, Waddle is not at the same level of those guys. An argument can be made that he's multiple tiers below Jefferson.

Waddle getting paid like a top-five receiver means that the price for the actual top-five receivers just went up. This means that for a guy like Jefferson, the price only went up. It was already too high on their minds clearly, as nothing has gotten done, and now it's even higher. The sooner the Vikings get something done, the better.