Miles Sanders could reset the RB market after Alvin Kamara’s new deal
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Somewhere in different corners of the NovaCare Complex here in Philadelphia, both Miles Sanders and GM, Howie Roseman made cringe-worthy faces in reaction to the huge salaries handed out to two of the premier running backs in the NFL.
Roseman’s face was one of dread, while Sanders made the all popular ‘stink’ face that follows something really good happening.
On Saturday, New Orleans Saints star running back Alvin Kamara, and Minnesota Vikings star running Dalvin Cook, joined Christian McCaffrey in totally resetting the salary parameters for dynamic running backs who also double as pass catchers.
With Christian McCaffrey striking first, followed by Joe Mixon, Dalvin Cook, and Alvin Kamara today, the best backs in the NFL are getting paid and the Eagles have one of the best in the game and he wasn’t a first-round pick.
Sanders has made it clear that he wants to pattern his game like the versatile Christian McCaffrey and if he performs like the Panthers star, he’ll join Nick Chubb, Saquon Barkley, and Josh Jacobs as the next star running backs to get paid.
According to Over The Cap, McCaffrey is the top dog salary-wise, but Kamara and Cook just shook up the top-10 by a wide margin.
At $15 million per season, Kamara now comes in at No. 3 on the list behind McCaffrey and Dallas Cowboys star, Ezekiel Elliott. At almost $12.5 million per season, Cook now lands in between Bengals star Joe Mixon, and Titans star Derrick Henry.
Sanders, like Cook and Kamara, will benefit from not being a first-round pick and thus the Eagles will lose the opportunity for a fifth-year option on the young running back. Sanders has two years left on his rookie deal after this season, and 2020 is actually the last year of guaranteed money for the Eagles star.
The No. 53 overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, Sanders deal was fully guaranteed at $3,151,995 ($1,340,058 APY), and he’ll have two years left on the deal at a $982,294 base salary for 2021 and a $1,225,941 base salary in 2022.
The Saints and Vikings made both Kamara and Cook wait and although both players got a $15+ million signing bonus’s on Saturday, both players only made a total of $8 million combined over their first four seasons.
Sanders set the Eagles rookie record for rushing yards with 818 (4.6 yards per carry) and caught 50 passes for 509 yards. He finished No. 8 in the NFL in all-purpose yards with 1,641 and recorded six touchdowns.
He did this while splitting time with Jordan Howard and not taking the reigns until after the bye week.
Drafted No. 8 overall by the Panthers in 2017, McCaffrey had two straight 1,000-yard rushing seasons, matched by two straight 100-catch seasons — totaling almost 2,400 total yards and 19 touchdowns over that two year period.
McCaffrey saw a huge jump in production from his rookie season to his second season — and an even larger jump from year two to year three. If Sanders can continue to duplicate the numbers and stay on his pace, he could be in line for a monster 5-year, $65 million deal in 2022 as well.
Or Howie Roseman, already in salary cap hell, will strike early as he normally does and ink Sanders to a four or five-year deal, in the $40 million to $45 million range, making both parties happy and allowing the former Penn State star to get another deal by the age of 27.
What Roseman and Eagles don’t want to happen is for Sanders to continue to ascend and eventually pass some of his contemporaries like Saquon Barkley and Josh Jacobs, thus setting Philadelphia up to be the next organization to totally reset the running back market.
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