In the spirit of Sheldon Brown's recent outcry over the shortcomings of his paycheck, I decided to take a look at the salaries of other comparable cornerbacks across the NFL.
First, a disclaimer. I am not a statistician, nor am I very good at math in general. This isn't meant to be an "airtight" study, just a very loose look at what other cornerbacks have made up to this point.
To try to get this as fair as possible, I tried to look for the following:
1.) cornerbacks of similar skill levels (some will be better, some worse)
2.) cornerbacks who entered the league around the time Sheldon did
3.) cornerbacks who for the most part played for one team only (like Sheldon)
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1.) Sheldon Brown - CB - Philadelphia Eagles
Age: 30
Years in the NFL: 7
Total Money Received: $ 13,219,940
Avg. Money Per Year: $ 1,888,562
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2.) Al Harris - CB - Green Bay Packers
Age: 34
Years in the NFL: 9
Total Money Received: $ 22,143,970
Avg. Money Per Year: $ 2,460,441
( Played first 3 yrs. with the Eagles ($2.1 million) , last 6 yrs. with the Packers)
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3.) Ronde Barber - CB - Tamba Bay Buccaneers
Age: 34
Years in the NFL: 9
Total Money Received: $ 34,546,710
Avg. Money Per Year: $ 3,838,523
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4.) DeShea Townsend - CB - Pittsburgh Steelers
Age: 33
Years in the NFL: 9
Total Money Received: $ 11,003,840
Avg. Money Per Year: $ 1,222,648
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5.) Quentin Jammer - CB - San Diego Chargers
Age: 29
Years in the NFL: 7
Total Money Received: $ 31,649,030
Avg. Money Per Year: $ 4,521,290
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6.) Lito Sheppard - CB - New York Jets (7 years with the Eagles)
Age: 28
Years in the NFL: 7
Total Money Received: $ 18,066,600
Avg. Money Per Year: $ 2,580,942
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It should be noted that over the next few years, Sheldon's yearly salary will continue to increase. He will make $ 2 million this year, $ 2.5 million in 2010, $ 3.5 million in 2011, and $4.25 in 2012 before he becomes a free agent. If you do a very rough projection of what he will have made when he becomes a free agent, it will look something like this.
Age: 34
Years in the NFL: 11
Total Money Received: $ 25,469,940
Avg. Money Per Year: $ 2,315,449
These figures are very rough since they do not even include salary contributions from the "other" column, but they definitely don't look that bad to me. There is also the chance he could get a new contract sometime between now and 2013, so I'm not ruling that out.
Just by looking at what Sheldon has made up to this point, it might look as though he has been underpaid compared to his other NFL counterparts. However, he essentially sacrificed that boost in salary for long-term job security. He would have made way more money if he became a free-agent at some point in the last few years, but that was his decision.
The flip side is that the Eagles made an excellent move by locking up Sheldon in this long-term deal. I personally think they played this very intelligently. They saw in Sheldon the potential to become a future elite CB (which he did), and signed him to an early deal before he could realize his own future worth.
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