Best: Chris Harris, 5 years, $42.5 million, $10M guaranteed
John Elway pulled off one of the greatest con jobs of all time to get Harris to agree to this contract late in the 2014 season. Harris was already gaining recognition around the NFL as one of the better cornerbacks in the NFL and he was every bit as good as teammate Aqib Talib. At the least Harris should have matched Talib’s $9.5M per year contract, but he’ll end up earning $6.5 million less over a 5 year period. While his overall guarantee of $24 million is closer to Talib’s that in no way should make up for the differential.
By the time Harris has signed this contract the cornerback market had already taken a turn for the better after a two or three year pullback, yet somehow the Broncos got Harris to work from the old contract landscape rather than trying to push forward the way other players would have. Just a few weeks later when free agency began Byron Maxwell, a lesser player, signed a massive contract for over $11 million a season. This past year Janoris Jenkins signed for over $12.5 million a year. This was a heist by Denver’s front office.
There were other little things that I like about this contract as well. This may have been the first Broncos contract to use the end of contract option years. They used the bonus structure in this one so that they would even get a salary cap credit if an option was not picked up. I also liked the decision to take a low cap hit early in the contract so that their investment in the corner position, from a cap perspective, would not run so high while Talib and Harris were both on the team. Normally I don’t care for that contract structure but in this case I think it works perfectly plus they never get to a point where the cap numbers are excessive. Its just a great deal for the Broncos.