How did WR market get here with CeeDee Lamb being latest $30M+ man in the NFL?

Cowboys wide receiver CeeDee Lamb’s holdout from training camp will draw to a close after he got a four-year extension valued at $136 million. (Photo by Matthew Pearce/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Before the Dallas Cowboys and CeeDee Lamb agreed to a hefty four-year, $136 million extension on Monday, there was a lot of buzz, and some consternation, about the exploding wide receiver market — including the bookend impact of the Detroit Lions’ Amon-Ra St. Brown deal vs. the Minnesota Vikings’ Justin Jefferson contract.

It was hard to go almost anywhere over the past four weeks of NFL training camps and not get some form of an opinion on the wide receiver money exploding in the offseason. Everyone has a rationale for how the league got to the point of $25 million to $35 million average per year being the new wheelhouse for good-to-great wideouts. Some view it as a natural rotation into what is most important in the league (accentuating QB value). Others point at a wave of general managers, coaches and team owners who care less about the decades-old “rule of four” that historically kept bank-breaking salaries in the hands of good-to-great quarterbacks, elite offensive tackles, DPOY-caliber edge rushers or lockdown “traveling” cornerbacks.

Before Lamb’s extension Monday, three deals came up most often in conversations about wideout money. Two were often cited as the “launch” deals of Tyreek Hill (after he was dealt to the Miami Dolphins) and Davante Adams (after he was dealt to the Las Vegas Raiders). The third was the Detroit Lions’ contract extension for wideout Amon-Ra St. Brown, which many clubs have deemed as one that will change the dynamics for everyone involved.

Despite St. Brown being a first-team All-Pro in 2023, it’s clear that several teams see him as a very-good-but-not-exceptional player who ultimately landed elite money due to some unexpected leverage. Specifically, a handful of teams believe the reason St. Brown landed elite money…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-08-26 18:48:42

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