One way or the other, Vincent Jackson will get paid, too

AP

Though he doesn’t enjoy the same no-franchise-tag leverage that helped receiver Larry Fitzgerald get an eight-year, $120 million contract, Chargers receiver Vincent Jackson will get paid, one way or the other.

His one-year franchise tender, fueled by crazy salaries paid in the uncapped year to wideouts like Miles Austin of the Cowboys ($17 million), sits at $11.424 million.  If the Chargers use the franchise tag again, Jackson will make at least $13.7 million in 2012, giving him a two-year take of more than $25 million.

If the Chargers don’t use the tag next year, Jackson will hit the open market on the heels of the Fitzgerald deal.

As long as Jackson, 28, stays healthy and productive, he’ll get paid a lot of money.

20 responses to “One way or the other, Vincent Jackson will get paid, too

  1. These WR deals are ridiculous. Just not worth the money. One guy getting 10% of the team’s salary cap. I’d rather have 4 “good” receivers than 1 “elite” receiver and a bunch of scrubs.

    If Fitz goes down, the Cardinals are tanked. How many other teams would have their season tanked by losing a receiver?

  2. mavajo says:
    Aug 22, 2011 9:50 AM
    These WR deals are ridiculous. Just not worth the money. One guy getting 10% of the team’s salary cap. I’d rather have 4 “good” receivers than 1 “elite” receiver and a bunch of scrubs.

    If Fitz goes down, the Cardinals are tanked. How many other teams would have their season tanked by losing a receiver?
    —————-
    All you really did right there is make an argument for just how valuable Fitz is to the Cardinals. Yes, if he goes down the Cards are screwed. You can’t say that about any other WR in the NFL. He is the “Peyton Manning” of the Cardinals. And because of that, he is worth all that money.

  3. “All you really did right there is make an argument for just how valuable Fitz is to the Cardinals. Yes, if he goes down the Cards are screwed. You can’t say that about any other WR in the NFL. He is the “Peyton Manning” of the Cardinals. And because of that, he is worth all that money.”

    ——–

    No, it doesn’t prove Fitz’s value. What it proves is that they’ve had to hamstring the rest of their team in order to pay Fitz’s bloated contract. If they weren’t so fixated on keeping him, they could have improved their overall depth at WR. Oh, and you can include Kolb’s ridiculous contract in there too, since they had to hand Kolb all that money in order to placate Fitz.

    The Cards basically gave out almost $200MM in contracts just to keep a wide receiver around. Ridiculous. What they should have done is traded him away and used those picks to help rebuild the team.

  4. The Chargers should let him walk and let another team pay first-tier money for a second-tier receiver. Rivers has had unbelieveable production throwing to a UFL-ish group of wideouts. As long as Rivers is vertical, the Chargers passing game will thrive with or without Jackson.

  5. He’ll get paid and rightfully so. The owners took the money from the rookies in favor of the vets – now pay them.

    All you people crying about players being over paid should direct your displeasure to the ones paying and thus setting the market prevailing rate. Next time you wanna bash the players for asking the market rate – go to your boss and tell him you’ll take a pay cut or don’t insist that any player does it.

  6. Having 4 good WR over 1 elite WR is great until the playoffs.

    Good wr’s will work great in the regular season, but when you’re playing against elite CB’s you need at least one elite WR to match up against them if you want a chance at a deep threat.

    Overpaid? Fitz and Warner carried their team to a Superbowl on Fit’z elite ability. Do you think Kurt and 4 good WR’s would’ve gotten there? I don’t

  7. @sterilizecromartie-

    I think the point made by mavajo, without putting words in their mouth, is that most good teams would be better off paying 4 or 5 guys the total of 18 mil (or whatever Fitz is getting) rather than put all of that money into one guy.

    Once you play a team that has a shut-down corner, that expensive toy is staying inside the garage most of the afternoon

  8. Vincent Jackson makes it all go. Having a 6’5″ 235 lb receiver – who is fast and can run after the catch – makes QB Philip Rivers a much better QB. Pay Jackson everything he is worth – which is top dollar for WR’s.

  9. Part of the reason Fitz was so money in the playoffs was due to Warner having an amazingly accurate season, and Having Boldin and Breaston also helped drag the double/triple coverage away from Fitz. This year they have no one else at WR and they have no RB( Beanie Wells while a beast in Madden is not that good). Welcome to triple coverage, where he might make some catches but its going to be tough. How did wizenhunt keep his job so long??? Derek Anderson??

  10. mavajo says:
    Aug 22, 2011 10:27 AM

    No, it doesn’t prove Fitz’s value. What it proves is that they’ve had to hamstring the rest of their team in order to pay Fitz’s bloated contract. If they weren’t so fixated on keeping him, they could have improved their overall depth at WR. Oh, and you can include Kolb’s ridiculous contract in there too, since they had to hand Kolb all that money in order to placate Fitz.

    The Cards basically gave out almost $200MM in contracts just to keep a wide receiver around. Ridiculous. What they should have done is traded him away and used those picks to help rebuild the team.
    ———-
    Rebuild? They were in the Super Bowl a few years ago and they play in arguably the weakest division in the history of the NFL. There is nothing stopping them from contending right now.

    Teams go through tons of draft picks and tons of free agents in order to find that one franchise talent. Now that the Cardinals have found that one person, you suggest trading him away in the prime of his career and starting all over again? You don’t trade away arguably the best WR in the league for a bunch of draft picks you can spend on unproven commodities.

    And they really don’t have to “improve their overall depth at WR” as you say. The collective group of Fitz, Roberts, Doucet, and Heap are more than good enough.

  11. Charger Dillon— Umm, can you name the last Super Bowl champ with one elite WR and scrubs? I mean even back as far as your mentioned Kurt Warner, yes, him and 4 good WR’s could have gotten there. They did. Issac Bruce is good not great.

  12. “Good wr’s will work great in the regular season, but when you’re playing against elite CB’s you need at least one elite WR to match up against them if you want a chance at a deep threat.”

    ——————

    Really now? The Saints, Patriots and Packers would beg to differ. They’ve won 5 of the last 10 Super Bowls, and none of them had an All-Pro receiver on their roster.

    Meanwhile, how many rings do Larry Fitzgerald, Andre Johnson, Randy Moss, Terrell Owens, Brandon Marshall, Calvin Johnson have? Zero.

    Look, this isn’t a knock on those guys. They’re all tremendous talents and you instantly become better by having them on your team. An All-Pro receiver is obviously a huge boon to your team — they’re difference makers. But that salary is so inflated that it’s going to hurt the rest of your team. Letting that huge salary walk is addition by subtraction.

    Receivers are just way too replaceable. Pass rushers, shut down corners and quarterbacks are not. By handing Fitz all that money, they’re going to have a tough time finding room for those other (more) important pieces.

  13. “Rebuild? They were in the Super Bowl a few years ago and they play in arguably the weakest division in the history of the NFL. There is nothing stopping them from contending right now.”

    So they’ll win their lousy division and then get a prompt first-round exit. Yippee. Have fun being a mediocre team picking in the late first round.

    Also, they were in that Super Bowl because they had Kurt Warner throwing to Fitzgerald, Boldin and Breaston. Their current WR group is a huge step down from that one, and Kolb is no Warner (currently).

    Oh, and that defense isn’t as good anymore either. Hmm I wonder why? Maybe they had to let some of their defensive players walk in order to afford a $120MM contract for somebody.

  14. Why rush to sign Jackson to a contract? It makes sense for the Chargers to let Jackson play “hungry” for most of the season as he will try to have the best year possible to land the big contract. At that point they can re-evaluate if they want to pay him the big contract or not.

  15. mavajo says:
    Aug 22, 2011 11:50 AM
    “Rebuild? They were in the Super Bowl a few years ago and they play in arguably the weakest division in the history of the NFL. There is nothing stopping them from contending right now.”

    So they’ll win their lousy division and then get a prompt first-round exit. Yippee. Have fun being a mediocre team picking in the late first round.
    —————————————————-

    Well logically that makes sense but thats not what happened last year. The Seahawks won the lousy division and then eliminated the Saints (41-36).

    If they can get to the playoffs its not a given that the NFC West team is going to just lose.

  16. “Well logically that makes sense but thats not what happened last year. The Seahawks won the lousy division and then eliminated the Saints (41-36).

    If they can get to the playoffs its not a given that the NFC West team is going to just lose.”

    ————-

    Which only proves the point even more. The Seahawks had no legit chance of going anywhere deep in the playoffs. They got lucky and knocked off the Saints…but then just got eliminated the next week anyway. So yay…they won a game, and got an even crappier draft pick. Nice job guys.

    These teams clinging to mediocrity make no sense to me. Either be great, or be awful. If you’re great, you compete for Super Bowls; if you’re awful, you’ll get high draft picks which will hopefully help you become great. The middle gets you no where. You have no real shot at competing, and you’re picking late in the first round and miss out on many of the high first-round difference makers.

  17. As long as Jackson, 28, stays healthy and productive, he’ll get paid a lot of money.


    And stays out of jail from driving drunk.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to leave a comment. Not a member? Register now!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.