I feel the need to start this article by saying that judging solely on the merits of his acting career, I am not a fan Tom Cruise.
Aside from a decent role here and there (The Color of Money, A Few Good Men), Cruise seems to swing and miss more than he connects. Much in the same manner, Cuba Gooding Jr. really needs to be put in the right role in order to show his decent acting ability (Men of Honor, Radio).
Regardless of your personal opinions regarding either of these two, it’s difficult to deny the pop culture impact of their 1996 collaboration, Jerry McGuire.
I was 10 years old when this movie premiered, so my memory of it is a bit blurry. What I do remember, however, is the now famous phrase, “Show Me the Money!†A conversation between Cruise and Gooding Jr. regarding a new NFL contract still remains relevant to this day. In case you need a refresher, here’s a YouTube link to that scene (edited for workplace safety).
While this Hollywood portrayal of agent and player is obviously overdramatic for the audience’s sake, it’s not hard to imagine similar conversations occurring right now between NFL superstars and their representatives. After all, no one plays the game for free.
This brings us to Dallas Cowboys wide receiver $2 million in 2014. It’s obvious that the Cowboys should, at some point, re-sign Bryant, who is one of the premiere playmakers in the game. And although $2 million sounds like a lot to most of us, Bryant’s compensation is shockingly low when compared to other highly paid NFL receivers.
The table below lists the top-five highest paid wide receivers according to overthecap.com.
| Player | Total Contract | Salary per Year |
|---|---|---|
| Calvin Johnson | $113.45 mil | $16.21 mil |
| Larry Fitzgerald | $113 mil | $16.10 mil |
| Percy Harvin | $64.25 mil | $12.85 mil |
| Mike Wallace | $60 mil | $12.00 mil |
| Dwayne Bowe | $56 mil | $11.20 mil |
It’s no surprise that Net Expected Points (NEP) metric is one of the main tools used to discover a player’s true worth by looking at how many actual points their performance added or subtracted from their team.
The table below shows how Bryant compares with these five wide receivers over the last four seasons (average seasons, not cumulative) using our Reception NEP, Target NEP and Reception NEP/Target.
| Player | Reception NEP | Target NEP | Reception/Target |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calvin Johnson | 141.72 | 66.87 | 0.87 |
| Larry Fitzgerald | 93.66 | 4.35 | 0.61 |
| Percy Harvin | 71.97 | 37.49 | 0.72 |
| Mike Wallace | 89.51 | 38.39 | 0.79 |
| Dwayne Bowe | 87.29 | 31.52 | 0.70 |
| Dez Bryant | 90.87 | 47.79 | 0.78 |
A couple of notes from this table:
- I excluded Harvin’s 2013 statistics due to him missing 15 games and instead used his 2009-2012 totals.
- While Calvin Johnson’s NEP numbers stayed consistent and elite during the time frame, Fitzgerald’s and Harvin’s were up and down. Fitzgerald’s incredibly bad 2012 Target NEP (-47.76) was factored in, but needs to be prefaced by who he had throwing him the ball that season (Jerry’s World in his honor, is proof enough. If he’s using the same rationale regarding his roster, he should see that Dez Bryant is well worth a large, long-term investment.