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2 Tennessee Titans contracts function as an excellent illustration of just how much running backs have actually been devalued in the NFL over the last decade.
The NFL wage cap is $198.2 million this season. It was $120 million in 2011.
On Wednesday, the Titans and Derrick Henry signed a four-year, $50 million agreement with $25.5 million ensured.
The Titans gave Johnson his raise when he still had two years left on his novice contract and they could have required him to play it out. The Titans didnt provide Henry a brand-new deal until he had actually played out his novice contract.
Henry is the very same age in 2020 as Johnson was in 2011. Henry is coming off a season in which he led the NFL in hurrying; Johnson had finished fourth in the NFL in entering 2010. Johnson made more money at a time when the wage cap was almost $80 million less.
In the time given that Johnson signed that offer, running backs have actually routinely stopped working to measure up to profitable agreements– consisting of Johnson, who was released by the Titans in 2014. The Titans are making a financial investment in Henry in the hopes that he can buck the pattern, but its nowhere near as big a financial investment as they made in Johnson 9 years back.
In 2011, the Titans and Chris Johnson signed a four-year, $53.5 million agreement with $30 million guaranteed.