Trey McBride signed a 4 year deal for $76 million dollars to become the highest paid TE ever and I was shocked. Not shocked that McBride got the contract he got, but shocked at how little tight ends are paid. To put in perspective, the $19 million average per year would rank 21st among WRs. As we talk about a lot on this blog though, average value and total value of a contract mean very little in the grand scheme of things. It’s all about total guaranteed money. In that sense, McBride got a record $43 million guaranteed, which would be 17th among WRs.
For both of those values, McBride is behind guys like Calvin Ridley. To put this in perspective, last season Ridley had 64 catches for 1,017 yards and 4 TDs in 17 games and McBride had 111 catches for 1,146 yards and 2 TDs in 16 games.
Why do I keep comparing TEs and WRs? Because guys who pretty good WRs make as much as star TEs and star WR blow TE salaries out of the water. And they shouldn’t…
While top level WRs tend to put up decently better numbers receiving than top level TEs, TEs provide much more than just receiving, while WRs do not. Truly great TEs provide help in the run blocking game as well as create more matchup nightmares than WRs. A guy like Rob Gronkowski is too fast for a LB to cover, but too big for a DB. How do you stop him? You need to direct multiple guys each play to try to slow him down. This may mean having a DE chip him and have a LB and DB double cover him. This frees up other guys to get open and leads to less guys available to pressure the QB. And if they are foolish enough to leave him 1 on 1, you feed your star TE and let him dominate the game. Star WRs can warrant double coverage or matchup mismatches, but it doesn’t tend to be as extensive or involve as many players as is the case with a star TE.
So if you are telling me I can pay a guy who will do what a star TE does $43 million guaranteed and $19 million per year over 4 years or a star WR $112 million guaranteed and $40.25 million per year over 4 years, I am taking the star TE every time. That frees up so much other money for me to build my team up to better contend for a Super Bowl.
Don’t just take my word for it. The Pats/Bucs with Gronk as their star TE went to 6 Super Bowls and won 4. The Chiefs with Kelce as their star TE have gone to 5 and won 3.
The value of return you get for TEs make having a star TE one of the best investments in all of sports.
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