It was a king's ransom for a receiver who was an all-time third-party alternative in the Cardinals offense, and who only got significant playing time as an Madden 23 coins player in 2021 which he racked up 982 yards. Banking on promise, paired with the obligation to pay a "bad team tax," the Jaguars eliminated the wide receiver market in just one deal. Kirk was more than just 27th in the league in yards per reception this year, he wasn't even viewed as the best receiver among the free agents. So when he was paid as a top cornerstone of the franchise everything shifted.
The tone of the game suddenly changed. It became apparent that Green Bay wasn't going to be able to agree to signing Adams with the extension they had hoped for leading to his departure. Hill was in discussions with the Chiefs as well, but in the end, it was money that was the main issue. It's not fair to blame either Adams or Hill in this scenario. If one of them like Kirk is making $74M with a guaranteed $37 million the odds are in the realm of possibility that two of Madden NFL 23's best can be considered to have nine-figure contracts.
This wassimply difficult for the teams to bear. Given that both Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes who have signed big-money contracts, it's absurd to commit more than half of the salary limit to two players -however, without putting at risk the remainder of the team because of it. However, the commonality between Las Vegas and Miami is that they'ren't spending too much on the position of QB. Derek Carr is at the last of an extension in 2017 that will count just over $19M against the cap for this year, and Tua Tagovailoa has remained on the rookie contract. Both teams have the capacity to take on a massive tax hit to a top receiver under the Madden NFL 23's new ballooning pay.
The paradigm shift underscores how badly-prepared Madden NFL 23 could have been for the receiver's pay to go up. In the past, Amari Cooper was the sole WR to make over $20M, with the majority of the top contracts for receivers falling within the $10-15M-$15M-$15M range. The current situation is that there are five receivers who are expected to earn more than $20M, and seven earning over $15M. There's bound to be a lot of pain in the coming years and extremely tough decisions. While QB and WR pay are increasing exponentially, the salary cap has not kept up. In the last four years the cap has only risen $20M, while positional salaries have been increasing, especially for offensive players.
It means that unless there's significant cap relief before 2023. allowing teams to invest more (something owners will likely not want to do since it takes the profits of their business) Teams will need to begin deciding whether they'd prefer to pay an elite quarterback OR an elite receiver because they're unlikely to have the funds to pay both. Players should be paid, and they're going to find someone to pay them regardless of whether that means competing with a rival or not.
The most fascinating aspect of all this is to look at how effective young receivers have become in recent times. Madden NFL 23 plays are so much like college modern football that any notion of an onboarding process that is slow or the typical 1-2 year development to become a top receiver is gone. Justin Jefferson broke the Madden NFL 23's record for rookie receptions in the year 2020. and then was soon beaten in the hands of Ja'Marr. In fact eleven of the Madden NFL 23's best 25 recievers by distance were still under their rookie contracts in 2021.
In other words, even though we'll witness contracts increase at the position for skilled players, we might also see a churn begin to affect the position in the best teams, much like what we've seen with madden nfl 23 coins running back, though because of different reasons.
