Hasselbeck":rg1b58zd said:
bjornanderson21":rg1b58zd said:
I was holding out hope we'd snag Kelly with our 2nd rounder, but that became unrealistic.
Then my hope was trading out of the 1st round and grabbing him early-mid 2nd, but that is starting to look unrealistic.
I was hoping to avoid taking him at 26, but at this point i can't complain.
Late 1st for a good center who will be cheap for 4 years? I'll take it.
The perk of taking him at 26 is you get him for 5 years if you want him. So if he became a Top 5 center .. that extra year becomes a big deal.
Let me preface this with the fact that I would be fine with Kelly at #26, but I just don't believe the 5th year option is much of a perk in the case of drafting a Center.
The 5th year option for a 26th pick is the average of the 3rd-25th highest paid players at their position, which for a top 10 player at most positions would be a great deal for the team,but not really at Center. Since the salary groups are split into much smaller positional groupings at QB,RB,WR,TE,CB,DE,DT,S,and K/P you would typically get a good value on your 5th year investment (Let's just say we won't ever have to worry about the ripoff that would be Fullback or Punter contract falling into the average RB or Kicker salaries since those positions are not going to ever be first rounders in the modern game).
With a Center (or Guard to a much lesser degree) the value of the 5th year option gets a bit diluted by the fact that the option is calculated based on the average of 3rd-25th highest salaries of all offensive line positions. Once you throw Tackle and elite Guard salaries into the average 5th year salary equation, the contract a 5th year option center would take in doesn't seem like much of a bargain. (My math probably isn't perfect, but it's close) For example this years 5th year option salary for olinemen picked after pick #10 would slot a center at around $7,670,000, within 20k of the 3rd highest salary for a center and only about $900k from the highest paid center in the league.
I'd have no problem with the pick, but using the 5th year option (and franchise tag for that matter) on interior lineman isn't really a financially beneficial option. :stirthepot: