Quote:
Originally Posted by 53Fan
You tell me Gtripp. Have I lost my mind or have the GNats lost theirs? 97.5 million to Eli? The Ravens win the SB because of defense and they release their QB. The Gnats win because of defense and a couple of very FORTUNATE plays and you give Opie 97.5 million dollars? They better hope he improves....a LOT.
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Well, there's other factors at play here besides "the Giants think Eli is worth 16+ million a year." The truth is, on the open market, he could probably get $60-$70 million. That's still overpaying him, but the Giants paid a premium to prevent him from hitting the market after the season, which to an extent is admirable.
The cost effective way to build a better roster would be to franchise tag Eli and draft his replacement, but that probably would have created more controversy/distraction than a team in New York wanted to deal with.
Still, the Eagles weren't willing to give Donovan McNabb more than two years on a contract, and while Eli might perhaps have stronger prospect than McNabb based on his age and recent performance, if we're talking about who deserves the money, McNabb wins 10 out of 10 times.
The bottom line is that we have two factors here: 1) average to above average quarterbacking is very valuable in this league, and 2) the CBA mandates that so much money has to go to the players, and it inflates the value of mediocre players like Eli.
The Redskins don't seem to understand point #1, but at least they've yet to stick themselves in a no win situation like the Giants just did today.