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I had a similar convo to this the other day with some buddies as well. I phrased it as “is WR becoming a tier-1 contract position like Edge, Lt, and QB?”. With the salary cap there simply just isn’t enough room to take on many “top market deals” at many positions and is it worth it to pay an elite WR like you would an elite pass rusher/protector?
The best way I think we put it was is Jamar Chase more valuable than TJ Watt? Because as it’s developing it looks like Chase will be getting about $30 mil a year by the time he gets his next contract. Now also factor in that Burrow is likely going to cost about $45 mil a year at least as well and it seems like we’re just going to be exposed to a different roster structure where Cincy is going to build around the passing game (assuming they re-sign Higgins as well, but who knows how much he’ll cost).
The closest I can recall to that situation was the Peyton Colts in their prime when both Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne had top of the market salaries (granted both of them were around $10 mil each). I think the WR market in general is breaking and the teams that pay up are going to run into roster issues in the near future. Just too difficult to field a full roster of quality players when a single WR has that big of a piece of the pie.
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