It’s holdout season in the NFL! But these dudes have little reason to bitch of whine. Relative to what they’ve done on the field, they’re the 10 most overpaid players in professional football.
5. Carolina Panthers OT Matt Kalil: Ever since putting together a half-decent rookie season, 2012 No. 4 overall pick Matt Kalil has been one of the least efficient, inconsistent, penalty-prone offensive tackles in the NFL. He was one of the worst players in the league in 2013, 2014, and 2015 and he was injured for much of the 2016 season, but that didn’t stop the Panthers from giving him a five-year, $55.5 million contract last offseason.
The 29-year-old was once again a revolving door in 2017, but he was one of the 10 highest-paid tackles in football. It’s just disgusting.
4. San Francisco 49ers QB Jimmy Garoppolo: Kudos to Jimmy G for getting paid big this offseason, but the fact is he wasn’t a highly-touted first-round pick and he has just seven career starts under his belt. And yet he’s got the third-highest average annual salary in NFL history ($27.5 million).
The sample just isn’t large enough, and there’s a lot of space for the feces to hit the fan for Garoppolo in San Francisco.
3. New York Giants DE Olivier Vernon: The Giants rather inexplicably made Vernon one of the highest-paid defensive players in the game two offseasons ago, but some gave them the benefit of the doubt there because he was only 25 and he had shown some glimpses of greatness goodness? despite not making a Pro Bowl and accumulating just 29 sacks during his first four seasons with Miami.
The 2012 third-round pick out of Miami hasn’t been bad in New York, but he’s got just 15 sacks in two seasons there and he’s still yet to make a Pro Bowl as he prepares for his age-28 season. But among NFL edge defenders with long-term contracts, only Von Miller makes more per year than Vernon’s annual average of $17 million. And that’s just ludicrous.
2. Cleveland Browns WR Jarvis Landry: I get why this happened, because the Browns had the salary cap space and Landry became available to a desperate team this offseason. And it’s not as though he’s not a great player — the man has caught more passes in his first four seasons (400) than any other player in NFL history.
Problem is he’s not much of a playmaker. He scored just 13 touchdowns in his first three seasons, and in 2017 he became the first receiver in NFL history to catch 100 passes for fewer than 1,000 yards. Yet Landry’s five-year, $75.5 million deal makes him the fourth-highest-paid wideout in the NFL.
1. Baltimore Ravens QB Joe Flacco: Flacco continues to benefit tremendously from one hot Super Bowl run in 2012. His $22.1 million average annual salary is the ninth-highest in the game, despite the fact he’s a mediocre quarterback who’s never been to a Pro Bowl in his 10-year career.
Among 17 quarterbacks who have made at least 100 starts in that 10-year span, Flacco has the 16th-best passer rating, ahead of only career backup Ryan Fitzpatrick. It’s hard to fathom that he’s made $136 million in his career.
It is hard to evaluate QB/Receiver contributions, as you need both a thrower AND a catcher for success. If you look at Baltimore’s receiving core the last few years you will quickly see that Ozzie Newsome surrounded Flacco with a bunch of dreck. Pretty much the same can be said of Landry, who had Ryan Tannehill and a disinterested Jay Cutler as part of his throwing tandem.