Tyler Forness: The Evolution of Wide Receiver Contracts
A number of elite wide receivers are about to get paid. Tyler Forness looks at how unique receiver contract structures have emerged and what that may mean for key upcoming deals.
This past Monday, the Philadelphia Eagles signed wide receiver DeVonta Smith to a three-year contract worth $75 million. He is the 13th out of 17 wide receivers to sign an extension of three years since the beginning of 2022, a shift in contract extensions that is noteworthy in many ways.
Sports contracts, especially in the National Football League, continuously evolve with premium positions seeing more significant changes. They evolve in structure and financial obligations as time goes on. Most of that has to do with inflation, but there is a component of television contracts pushing more money to the league itself. The average contract value has gone up but there is something more interesting happening with the wide receiver market that warrants a deeper investigation.
The National Football League negotiated a massive television contract with YouTube TV for the rights to air NFL Sunday Ticket, which was a major reason why the salary cap rose by a record $30.4 million.
When the salary cap goes up, so do the total dollar amounts of all contracts. It also can change the way that those contracts are structured. One extreme example that jumped the shark involved Scottie Pippen. He signed a seven-year contract extension that began in the 1991 season which only paid him $18 million.
Television contracts spiked significantly after the extension with players, including teammate Michael Jordan, making over $20 million per year by the end of his contract while Pippen only made $2.775 million. Those television deals made a massive impact on contracts and Pippen lost out on a lot of potential earnings.
That context has made the wide receiver market really interesting. The salary cap going up over 13.6% year over year has signaled a change in how players are signing contract extensions at the position. We have seen a significant number of wide receivers over the last few seasons sign extensions but rarely are they signing second contracts larger than three years.
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