The Justin Jefferson impact: Will wide receivers become too expensive?

There are any number of stats that will show Justin Jefferson had the best first four years of any wide receiver in NFL history. By any standard, the guy is a ridiculously good player.

There is also the basic understanding that defenses must game plan against specifically Jefferson, thus making him advantageously impactful for the Minnesota offense even when the ball isn’t coming his way.

With a new quarterback, J.J. McCarthy, on a rookie deal and entering a season where Las Vegas oddsmakers think the Vikings will finish last in the NFC North, signing Jefferson to a four-year, $140 million contract ($110 million guaranteed) made plenty of sense.

This isn’t to take issue with Jefferson or his contract. Good for him. Good for the Vikings.

That said, the allotment of salary cap to a single player often is calculated by two factors:

A) the premium nature of the position and its impact on the game
B) the supply of talent to fill that demand.

Traditionally, that first criteria has centered on three or four positions — quarterback, edge rusher, left offensive tackle (to protect the quarterback) and shutdown cornerback. Even then, the values fluctuate.

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There is no surviving without a quarterback. Everything else is secondary. No one in Kansas City is regretting allocating, per Spotrac.com, 16.6% of the team’s 2023 salary-cap space on Patrick Mahomes. If anything, it was a bargain.

The Chiefs are prepared to use 24.24 percent, 23.48 percent and 20.71 percent on Mahomes during the 2025-2027 seasons.

Mahomes, however, is both the best player at the most impactful position and also the best player at the most impactful position that lacks alternatives — namely good, let alone great, replacements. There aren’t 32 good quarterbacks in the world. You can look at the bottom of the standings to see what teams don’t have one.

Simply put, if you don’t have a great quarterback, you can’t win. And, of late, if you don’t…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/the-justin-jefferson-impact-will-wide-receivers-become-too-expensive-172445055.html

Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-06-04 17:24:45

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