The NBA opened free agency this weekend and the hours that followed have seen many basketball players cash in with huge contracts that would look out of place in the NFL.
Those contracts don’t escape notice from NFL players and the annual spending spree in basketball usually elicits responses from the football rank and file about the disparity between the two leagues. Bills wide receiver Sammy Watkins is among those chiming in this year.
Watkins retweeted a tweet saying NFL players “have the right to be pissed” because they don’t see the same salaries while playing in a league that generates higher revenues. The Bills wideout added his own tweet on Sunday morning.
We gotta get paid more I'm pretty sure 2014 class will change the market
— King me (@sammywatkins) July 2, 2017
With players like Jadeveon Clowney, Khalil Mack, Mike Evans, Taylor Lewan, Odell Beckham, Aaron Donald and Zack Martin coming up on extensions and Derek Carr already getting a big one, Watkins is right that the 2014 class is going to be studded with lucrative new deals in the near future. Watkins may get one before some of the others in the draft class after the Bills opted not to exercise their option on his 2018 contract, but, no matter how talented the draft class, it is hard to see a league with 53-plus players on each team catching up to the heights of NBA salaries.