Pay Day

By Justin Rasile

Dez Bryant has been a polarizing figure ever since he appeared in his first NFL game back in 2010.  Now Dez’s contract is up and he wants to get paid just like he saw his teammate Tyron Smith ink an 8 year and $110 million dollar deal.  Dez, love him or hate him, is one of the best receivers in the league and deserves to be paid like it.  If you take him away from that receiving core, all you have is the inconsistent Terrance Williams and Jason Witten, who is trying his best to run away from father time.  The problem with Dez is not his on the field abilities; it’s his off the field boneheaded and immature decisions that have the Cowboys organization teetering on the edge of what to do with him.  Obviously they are going to pay him but it seems like they are attempting to low ball the man that has led this team’s receiving core over the past couple years.  So what is this man worth?  Dez does not seem like the type of guy who would take a hometown discount so I believe he will try and squeeze as much as he can out of Jerry Jones’s pocket.  Calvin Johnson currently has the richest contract for all of the receivers and his contract was for over $113 million and Bryant will most certainly want to surpass that amount.  So how much is Bryant worth?  I believe he is looking for a 7-year deal that will be worth $120 million.  His ego and his signing with Jay-Z’s Rocnation agency will definitely give the Cowboys a run for their money. 

Well, it looks as though the Andy Dalton and Colin Kaepernick $100 million contracts are ill-advised and stupid deals.  Dalton’s deal was for 6 years and $115 million dollars but only $17 million of it was guaranteed.  Likewise, Kaepernick’s deal was 6 years and $114 million but he is guaranteed $61 million dollars.  The Bengals could easily move on from Dalton after this season and not suffer too much of a cap hit and dead money but the 49ers are stuck for a little while.  That $61 million could likely end after his third year into the contract and if San Francisco decides to cut him then, they would still owe roughly $7 million in dead money.  I give credit to the Bengals for making a deal like that.  This year was a prove it deal for Dalton and he hasn’t exactly met expectations.  They could take one of the top quarterbacks in the draft and develop him for a year while Dalton takes the brunt of the hits and damage.  The 49ers have to deal with Kaepernick for a couple of years.  Hopefully whoever comes in to replace Jim Harbaugh can fix Kap’s mechanical and mental errors and make him into a student of the game (He NEVER audibles at the line of scrimmage.  Either he wholeheartedly trusts every single play call exactly how it was designed or he has no idea what the hell is going on).  Who knows, maybe these two quarterbacks will pan out to be something but only time will tell.