Why star NFL wide receivers are cashing in — and elite cornerbacks are not

As standout running backs face longer odds to win summer contract battles, the wide receiver market looks set for new territory. Atlanta's Julio Jones and New Orleans' Michael Thomas are poised to break their position’s $20 million-per-year barrier, and others stand to land just behind the All-Pro wing of contract-seeking wideouts.

Once the NFC South superstars sign, a strange imbalance between the salaries of top receivers and players best equipped to cover them will exist. It has never been more important to employ reliable cornerbacks, yet corners’ financial standing does not reflect their value. Only two corners earn more than $15M per year. Jones and Thomas’ accords may lead to A.J. Green and Amari Cooper extensions. As of now, nine wideouts earn $15M on average. That number could spike closer to 15 by Week 1.

The best receivers should not be earning 25% more than top corners, but that is the 2019 reality.

Josh Norman’s 2016 Redskins deal –- five years, $75M –- established a cornerback benchmark. Getting there required an All-Pro hitting free agency. That contract occurred on a $155.27M salary cap; it took corners three years to eclipse it. Quite the minuscule bar raise transpired, considering Xavien Howard’s Dolphins extension (five years, $75.25M) came on a $188.2M cap.

The landscape when Norman signed with Washington featured the NFL's top receivers and corners on even financial ground. Darrelle Revis, Patrick Peterson and Richard Sherman joined Jones, Green and select other receivers in earning between $14M-$15M annually. But a wave of young wideouts changed the marketplace. DeAndre Hopkins, Mike Evans, Odell Beckham Jr., Jarvis Landry, Sammy Watkins and Brandin Cooks joined Antonio Brown in flooding the receiver market's upper reaches since 2017. No similar boom happened at corner.

When the Chiefs gave an upper-middle-class wideout (Watkins) $16M per year, the unexpected contract ignited the receiver market. It raised the floor for Beckham, Cooks and Adam Thielen extensions (and Brown’s post-trade windfall). The cornerback equivalent of the Watkins deal was probably Trumaine Johnson, a zero-time Pro Bowler who landed $14.5M average annual value from a talent-starved Jets team. But 16 months later, the corner spectrum looks the same. Peterson’s extension from 2014 (when the cap was $133 million) remains a top-five corner contract.

A few factors may have led to the growing disparity between fantasy superstars and their weekend competition. For one, the position’s higher degree of difficulty (in an offense-geared era) lends to less consistency. Since 2014, 13 corners have been All-Pro first-teamers. None did so more than once. In that same span, just six wide receivers earned first-team All-Pro acclaim. Did this era feature far superior talent at wideout than corner? Or is recognition more difficult at one of these jobs than the other?

An argument can be made corners are more important to championship formulas. Many 2010s Super Bowl champions relied on elite corners. Sherman helped catalyze the Seahawks’ ascent, and the 2014 Patriots would not have stopped Seattle without hired-gun Revis. Chris Harris and Aqib Talib’s lockdown coverage enabled Von Miller’s success in Denver, and the ’18 Pats deployed Pro Football Focus’ No. 1 corner (Stephon Gilmore) and muzzled the Rams en route to another title. Who was the last dominant receiver to partake in a football-related parade? Depending on how you categorize Demaryius Thomas, this exercise may involve going back to 2006 (Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne). Given how teams are presently distributing money, that seems notable.

Draft misses may also have played a part in this salary stagnation. The 2011 draft/priority free-agent class gave the NFL Peterson, Sherman and Harris – All-Decade candidates with potential Hall of Fame cases. In the following years, much of the young corner talent did not deliver. Top-10 picks Dee Milliner (2013) and Justin Gilbert (2014) were historic busts. Morris Claiborne (No. 6 overall, 2012) and D.J. Hayden (No. 12, 2013) became unremarkable cogs. After Gilbert and late-emerging Kyle Fuller, the 2014 draft’s top crop -– first-rounders Darqueze Dennard, Bradley Roby and Jason Verrett –- settled for one-year deals this off-season after rookie-contract inconsistency.  

As 2014 draftees Beckham, Cooks, Evans, Landry and Watkins commanded WR1 contracts, no corner in that age range could capitalize on a market-shifting pact. That affected the salary standstill. This era’s elite stoppers’ lack of longevity and/or unusual career paths did, too. 

Sherman has not been the same since a 2017 injury; Revis was finished as a top-tier corner by 30. Peterson’s performance-enhancing drug ban damaged his value. A former undrafted free agent, Harris has arguably been the most consistent active corner. But the Broncos rebuffed his off-season push for Norman-level money.

After teams' curious 2018 spending patterns thrust safety value into question, 2019's market correction raised safeties' salary roof closer to corners'. One of the younger extension-eligible corners must break through for the greater good. Jalen Ramsey profiles as the most sensible candidate, but the onerous fifth-year option –- which has him locked up through 2020 -– allows the Jaguars to delay this payment. The mercurial Marcus Peters of the Los Angeles Rams is not in as strong a position. With the Cowboys dealing with three higher-profile extension candidates (Cooper, Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott), neither is 2018 breakout Byron Jones.

Corners appear stuck for the time being. However, this might soon work in their favor.

The next collective bargaining agreement could significantly affect near-future salary caps because of potential gambling revenue. With the NFL and NFLPA apparently moving more quickly toward a resolution than the sides did in 2011, the corners attached to slightly outdated contracts may benefit. Cornerbacks will be in better position to correct this imbalance in 2020, when there may well be a new CBA in place. 

Premier cornerbacks will enter the season underpaid. But with cornerstone players like Ramsey, Peterson and Harris either set for 2020 free agency or a contract year, in an off-season that might see a CBA-triggered financial earthquake, it will be fascinating to see how some of this position’s key principals can fix this macro predicament.