Redskins on NFL Live Monday 2/19

[sportscurmudgeon]

The problem here seems to me that if Randle-El had signed for a $1M signing bonus and $1M a year salary, everyone would be falling all over themselves saying what a great value he was. And that would be absolutely true if he had signed for such a paltry number.

The fact is that he's a $10M bonus purchase plus annual salary increments. That's what he is; so you kind of have to evaluate him and the value he brings to the team against what he cost. It's kind of like the Mark Brunell situation; if Brunell was making the veretan minimum with no signing bonus money to amortize, he'd be a lot better value as "quarterbacking depth" than he is now.

Randle-El is much better than Archuletta who also got $10M to sign a contract here. But being better than Archuletta last year is hardly a form of high praise.

So in order to try not to be offensive, might I suggest that Randle-El's performance on the field - taking into account all of his field position contributions and receptions and gadget plays - did not merit a $10M signing bonus.

And by the way, all of his accomplishments yielded a 5-11 record... Had he not signed here and had the Skins kept that $10M in the bank, would the record have been all that much worse? I don't think so...