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By: Matt Morrison (@dynastyjerk)
Hello all. Thank you for joining me on another Free Agent Friday article. Today, I will continue my recap series as I talk about some of the more important new contracts over the off-season. If you read my article last week you may be asking yourself, “didn’t we talk about this already?” Last week, I wrote about some of the more important free agent signings. While this is similar to new contracts, it isn’t always the same. For example, Davante Adams, Skyy Moore, and Rob Gronkowski were never signed as free agents, yet they all have changes to their contract. I will talk about all three of these players. Let’s do it…
New Contract Spotlight Recap
Rob Gronkowski
| Player | Age | Status | Current Salary | Estimated Value |
| Rob Gronkowski | 32 | UFA | $8,000,000 | $10,000,000 |
“The expectation is that if Gronk re-signs he will make at least as much as his previous salary ($8,000,000). I anticipate that number will be a little closer to $10,000,000, but we are in the ballpark at $8,000,000.”
(Published May 20th)
Unless you’ve missed the news, you know that Gronk has retired from the NFL. You can disregard everything that I mentioned from this speculative contract article. I was quite surprised when I heard that he would not be returning with Brady. While I don’t think it’s impossible that he could unretire again, you can’t hold a player for $8,000,000 on that hope.
Skyy Moore
“On paper, it seems that Moore steps into one of the best landing spots possible. While I think it is likely one of the better teams he could have been drafted to, it isn’t the best. That award goes to Christian Watson who was also drafted in the second round by Green Bay. The reason I’m not more “in” on Moore (at least this year) is because of the faith I have in JuJu Smith-Schuster and Marquez Valdes-Scantling. I think that both of these players will receive more targets and receptions in 2022 compared to Moore. I see Moore as a fringe WR4 with upside at the moment. I truly believe that the upside he possesses will not be seen until at least the back half of 2022.
I like Skyy Moore long term. I love the fact that he ended up in KC, but the learning curve with wide receivers is historically at least half of a season. I don’t expect much of an impact until the end of the 2022 season at the earliest. Keep that in mind when you are looking to draft Skyy Moore this year.”
(Published May 6th)
There really isn’t much that has changed since May. I see Skyy Moore ($1,612,625) as a long term hold. While I think there is a chance he makes an impact immediately, I wouldn’t be drafting him until the end of a draft in a redraft league. The lingering issue with JuJu Smith-Schuster’s ($3,250,000) knee makes me slightly concerned for him, but I can’t change his ranking based on a possible issue. In the end, I like both Marquez Valdes-Scantling ($10,000,000) and JuJu over Moore at least for this season. At roughly 1.6 million dollars per year, Moore is still on the top rookie wide receivers I would want to have for the future.
Davante Adams
| Player | Signing Age | Status | Team | Salary per Year | Season Finish |
| Davante Adams | 29 | Signed | Las Vegas | $28,000,000 | TBD |
| DeAndre Hopkins | 27 | Signed | Arizona | $27,250,000 | WR4 (2020) |
| Michael Thomas | 26 | Signed | New Orleans | $19,250,000 | WR1 (2019) |
| Julio Jones | 30 | Signed | Atlanta | $22,000,000 | WR3 (2019) |
“I want to preface these comparisons by saying that there is really no great comparison for Adams at his current salary and production. The comparisons lack because Adams is making an unprecedented amount of money. However, he was the WR2 last year. If he repeated that feat, these are the three players who would compare best to him over the last three years.
DeAndre Hopkins is the closest recent comparison at least in terms of salary. In his first big contract year with the Cardinals, he finished as WR4. That occurred way back in 2020.
Michael Thomas is a very good comp if you look at his 2019 finish combined with his salary at the time. He became a top paid wide receiver in 2019 with the Saints. He also was the WR1 in that season. Expect a similar finish from Adams as well as a similar DD/PT ($51,525 for Thomas in 2019).
Finally, we have Julio Jones’ 2019 season as well. In that year he received a $22,000,000 contract as he turned 30 years old. He finished two slots (WR3) behind Thomas in 2019.”
(Published April 22nd)
I wanted to repost the player comparison I made with Davante Adams ($28,000,000) in April. I also want to mention Adams’ ADP. It is currently 37.4. The beginning of the third round seems like a pretty good spot for Adams to go. In fact, I did a Dynasty Owner Livestream mock draft on Wednesday, and I was able to steal Adams at the 4.07. Again, Adams costs $28,000,000 per year, but any time after the third round is still a value because of his Top 1 upside.
Thanks for reading. If you want a more in depth breakdown on any of these players (or more) go take a look back at some of my past articles (go to https://dynastyowner.com/articles/ and click on an article, then search “TheJerk” in the box on the right hand side of the page).
If there is ever any player you want me to give more attention to, message me on Twitter (@dynastyjerk) and let me know. I would appreciate it if you followed @Dynasty_Owner on Twitter as well as subscribed to Dynasty Owner on YouTube. Take care everyone and be safe.
TheJerk