At points before the start of free agency, Mario Manningham made noise about wanting to be paid like a number one receiver.
Matt Maiocco of CSNBayArea.com has the details from his contract with the 49ers and that certainly did not happen. Manningham will make base salaries of $1.2 million and $3.6 million in his two years with the 49ers with a $2 million signing bonus this year. According to the report, $2.45 million of the salary is guaranteed.
That’s a good bit less than a number one receiver would get and, as Maiocco points out, it’s a good bit less than former 49ers wide receiver Josh Morgan got from the Redskins for his two-year deal. Morgan, who is coming off of a broken leg, got a $5.5 million signing bonus from Washington, more than the total guaranteed money in Manningham’s deal, and more than $ 7 million guaranteed overall. That doesn’t mean Morgan won’t wind up earning that salary, of course, but he’s definitely at a lower point in his career arc than Manningham.
Then again, Manningham has yet to demonstrate the total skill set that would command a significant payday. And while he had a huge play in Super Bowl XLVI, teams apparently have figured out that a right-place, right-time performance on the biggest stage in sports won’t transform a guy who has never been an A-list talent into one. Indeed, the fact that the Giants apparently wouldn’t make an equal investment to keep Manningham proves that the market simply wasn’t there for a one-catch wonder.