There was a lot of debate about whether or not the LA Chargers should re-sign Mike Williams this offseason. A lot of fans believed that Williams would be overpaid if he made the $18-20 million per season that was estimated and that the Bolts were better off spending elsewhere.
Then Williams signed a three-year, $60 million contract with $27 million in year one and those fans that were against Williams revolted. The contract became much better when the cap hits of each year were put out but there were still some naysayers that thought the Bolts overspent for a WR2.
Those same naysayers may have finally flipped and taken the side of the Chargers with legal tampering opening in the NFL on Monday. The first wide receiver domino to fall was Christian Kirk, who signed a whopping four-year deal worth up to $84 million with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Jaguars are giving former Cardinals WR Christian Kirk a four-year deal worth up to $84 million deal, per source.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 14, 2022
Are we going to keep calling Mike Williams overpaid?
Mike Williams contract is a bargain for the LA Chargers.
There were two main arguments that I had when it was being debated whether or not the Chargers should re-sign Williams. The first is the fact that the Bolts should not get cheap when they have an elite quarterback on his rookie deal, especially with a wide receiver that he has great chemistry with.
If you have to overpay someone $3-4 million per year to keep something good in tact then you do it.
The thing is that Williams was never going to be overpaid, though. Sure, when Williams agreed to the deal it made him one of the highest-paid receivers in the league. But as we see year-over-year, the market continues to grow and by the time Williams is in the second or third year of his deal, his contract will look much better in comparison.
It is already starting with Kirk. If Kirk is getting upwards of $21 million per year, how much is Davante Adams going to get? Jarvis Landry? Juju Smith-Schuster? Allen Robinson? All of these guys are probably going to get more than anticipated with the cap expected to spike in the coming years.
Getting Williams' deal done and showing him the respect of paying him his perceived worth before letting him field offers from other teams was the best thing the Chargers could have done. They are paying Williams less than a guy who has never had a 1,000-yard season. And when the dust settles, they will probably end up paying him less than a lot of players who are not as good as him.
Tom Telesco definitely deserves criticism for certain aspects of how he does his job. He handled the Mike Williams contract situation as well as he could have.