The Jacksonville Jaguars made former Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Christian Kirk one of the top-10 highest-paid receivers in terms of average annual value this offseason though he has never eclipsed 1,000 receiving yards in a season. They inked him to a four-year deal worth up to $84 million where he’ll earn about $18 million a year.
His contract shook up the receiver market. An example of this is the fact that Tyreek Hill was traded to the Miami Dolphins, which allowed the Kansas City Chiefs to lower the figure they were pouring into their receivers group. Now eyes have turned toward stars like A.J. Brown, Deebo Samuel, and DK Metcalf.
Kirk completed an interview with CBS Sports and discussed how his deal set off all this receiver madness this offseason.
“I know I was one of the first, but to me the way I look at it, it was bound to happen,” Kirk said. “The cap changes every year and the market for all positions, it fluctuates. With the cap going up and with teams with more money to deploy, the wide receiver position specifically to have such a big impact on the game, you were going to see guys like Davante Adams and Tyreek Hill and Stefon Diggs get the deals that they got.
“And yeah, I was one of the first ones and people want to say I shook up the market. But in my opinion, things like that were going to happen regardless, but it definitely feels good to be able to, I guess maybe take that first step for the position and kind of advocate for us to be considered to be one of the highest-paid positions in the league.”
Kirk makes a great argument that is hard to disagree with. The value for top receivers has gone up, and the cap for teams increased this offseason. The combination of those factors makes others think that the receiver market was bound to be shaken up eventually. He was just intelligent enough to be the first one to cash in on it, and no one should blame him for that.