The guy is a beast but he is not worth being the highest paid wr. Trade him now and let brees turn these other wr’s into studs. Do I want to keep MT? Absolutely, but he is not worth 20 mil a year

This same argument is trotted out each and every time a contract comes up for an elite player asking for market value. I finally figured out this thought comes from the combination of the fact that it's never happened before as the market keeps growing, and that many simply do not pay attention to the salary cap. In the 9 years since the last CBA was agreed to the salary cap has grown nearly 60% from $120 million to a current $188 million. CBA rules dictate that both a certain percentage of revenues for the NFL be paid to the players via the cap, and that a certain percentage of the cap (89% average over a 4 year period) has to be spent on the players for each team. Also notice that the number of players has not changed over that period. Each team still carries a 53 man squad.

So the consequence is that salaries are going to go up. And keep going up. So just because no receiver has had a $20 million salary before doesn't mean that a $20 million salary for a receiver in 2019 is out of line. It's the same reason we have $35 million QBs, which never happened before, or $20+ million defensive ends, which never happened before, or $14 million running backs, which never happened before. The money has to be spent.

I put it into the form of a question: MT has done in the last 3 years what no receiver, not Jerry Rice, not Randy Moss, not OBJ, not Jones, not Antonio Brown, not Calvin Johnson, not anyone ever has done in the first 3 years of their receiving career. So exactly why is a $20 million salary for a receiver, which of course has never happened yet, not be worth it?

I think we're going to have to stop looking at salaries in terms of dollars and looking at them as salary cap percentages. Just a quick example. In 2011 the top receiver salary cap hit was Larry Fitzgerald with a $16.25M cap hit. With a $120M cap that represents a 13.5% total of the cap that year. A $20M cap hit, which BTW Thomas would not create in 2019 even if his overall salary is in the $20M range, represents a 10.6% total of the cap. It's the same in the QB market too. Stafford's $29.5M cap hit this year is 15.6% of the total. In 2011 the highest percentage was 14.4% (Mark Sanchez! OUCH!) even though the difference in cap salary between the two is $12M.

I hope my point is clear. Don't just look at the number and say "that's too much". Look at the number in the context of the salary cap the number is in then decide its value. Getting MT locked up for 4 to 5 years will be worth every penny spent.

SFIAH

Believe as Saints fans become accustomed to Murray, they'll find his style is more comparable to Deuce McAllister than to Mark Ingram...

https://twitter.com/Saints/status/1155129922656047104