WarGhost Open Rant: Norwell Getting Paid Like a Top Tackle

[WarGhost21]

Alright, with the debate going on throughout the forum and the rest of the internet, I couldn't sit back and not make my point heard. This will be my first installment in an offseason series of "rants" on things going on around the league, so enjoy and remember, these are just my opinions, and I don't care if you don't agree with me!

 

First of all, Norwell has been the best Guard, and possibly the best Linemen in general, over the past two seasons by a wide margin, and he's still extremely young. When you get that type of talent on the market, you need to pay for them. It doesn't matter what position he plays, if he is the better at his job than players at a different position on the line who get paid a ton of money, he at least deserves as much as they are getting paid. 

 

Secondly, with the huge spike in pass rushing interior D-lineman coming into the league in recent years, the interior offensive line is just as important for protecting the quarterback as a left tackle. Aaron Donald, Fletcher Cox, Geno Atkins, Malik Jackson. All of these players are fantastic pass rushers, and all of them start closer to the QB on any given play than the guys coming off the EDGE. A player like Norwell, who can shut down the guy on the interior, is every bit as important as someone who can stop a EDGE guy.

 

Third, when you are the best at your position, you should be the highest paid at that position. Kevin Zeitler was massively overpaid last season, but that still set a bar. Norwell, who is immensely better than Zeitler, shouldn't be paid less than him. That is the benchmark, and you can't go below a decent guards pay if you are an All-Pro guard. It's just not rational.

 

Now, if I could go back and change the amount the top paid Guards were given, Norwell's price tag wouldn't be so high, probably around 10m/year, but since we can't turn back the clock, Norwell deserves every penny he just earned. It doesn't matter how much another player is paid, if one player are the best at their position, they deserve to be the top paid, even if it means they are paid the same amount as a position with higher value. I'm honestly surprised, with Norwell being such a dominant Lineman, that he wasn't paid closer to 70m over those 5 years.

 

That's all for my Rant today. Feel free to debate, but my viewpoint will not change, sorry. Hope you enjoyed, and I hope you join me for my next installment, whenever that should be!! GO COLTS!!

[PeterBowman]

I think I saw where he's actually now the highest paid OLineman in the league now.

[WarGhost21]

Just now, PeterBowman said:

I think I saw where he's actually now the highest paid OLineman in the league now.

Still behind Trent Williams, who is getting 13.6m/year, but he is the second highest!

[Trueman]

1) Ballard went for him.

 

2) We don’t know why Norwell turned us down. 

 

3) There’s still plenty of avenues to get better.

[WarGhost21]

3 minutes ago, Trueman said:

1) Ballard went for him.

 

2) We don’t know why Norwell turned us down. 

 

3) There’s still plenty of avenues to get better.

Right, I'm just writing this for all of the people who are saying that guards don't deserve to be paid as much as tackles, no matter where they decide to go. I'm sure Ballard offered him good money, as he is a very smart man.

[AntonMcG]

OP post made no sense.

[OffensivelyPC]

I don't think that it's that Guards don't deserve a lot of money, but it's like any other position, you've only got so much money to throw around so you tend to put it in the places that you value the most.  If you have a flat tire and an oil leak, but only enough to permanently fix one and a temporary quick fix for the other, you're going to channel all your resources into the oil leak because it can mean more devastating.  The QBs blind side is where he can take the most devastation.  So that's often the place teams channel more money into when they have a long term solution available.  If you've got a temporary solution but no permanent solution on the horizon, you can budget accordingly and fit a highly paid interior lineman in the process.  The unit as a whole may not be better, but it's still better than if you didn't pay either the permanent solution at LT or at OG.  And this all assumes that you can even attract someone who commands high pay from the outset.

 

As it pertains to the Colts, we've got a now, probably average option at every spot along the line.  Mewhort or Ryan might be above average or better but for their injury issues.  We could spend money on players like Norwell, and maybe we tried, but at the end of the day, he's got to like our offer and want to come here.  Other teams are competing to sign those guys too.

[dgambill]

Uhh no...guards are not as valuable all things equal to a left tackle. Guards often get double teams from the center to help them. They are not left on an island against the very best pass rushers in the league. There are probably like 30 topics right now saying you don't take a guard high in the draft at 3 and spending the most money in the league on a guard is under the same umbrella. Your not going to get consensus from your post. Norwell is terribly over paid in comparison to other players on the OL around the league. However, Jacksonville valued him that highly and was willing to spend on him. I will be perfectly happy drafting a guard in round 2 or 3 and or trading back to later in rd 1 and filling our need that way. I won't lose a moment of sleep worrying that we didn't make a guard the highest paid lineman in the league.

[Flash7]

Norwell got paid in Free Agency like a top tackle..

 

However, hypothetically, if a top tackle were available in Free Agency, that top tackle would get paid more than Norwell, due to the position. So in essence, Norwell got paid like a top tackle that is NOT available through free agency. He set the bar, but make no mistake - a top tackle would get paid more.

 

[WarGhost21]

For clarification, I don't want the Colts using that much money to go after a Guard, but that is the price that has to be paid to get a guard now. The price tags for Guards is rising, so Norwell setting the bar is only the beginning. In a few years, Norwell's deal will look like a steal, because prices will never stop rising. I don't want to spend that kind of money seeing as how much else we need work on, but a team that doesn't have many holes and has the cap is perfectly fine paying that much for a Guard of Norwell's caliber.