By the time Carr's cap hit escalates to the $7-8 million range, guys like McNabb, Culpepper, Vick, McNair, Farve (if he's still playing), and of course Manning's contracts will dwarf those numbers
I hate to tell you this, but Carr's cap hit is over 7 million
next year. It's not some far away future number. It's here.
As far as comparisons to other QBs, It's not fair to compare the contracts of 7+ year vets who have led their team to the playoffs or won SB's to a guy in the 3rd or 4th year of his rookie contract. Vick is the only valid comparison of the ones you list (as is Leftwich, Palmer, Harrington, and Ramsey) since they're only a year apart.
Carr will make more than Vick in the first three years of their respective contracts. Carr will make $16.25 million in the first three years of his contract and Vick made $15.3 million (they have the same agent - Mike Sullivan).
I guess Carr taking a record number of sacks behind the worst O-line in NFL history means nothing to you..
Far from it. The first year was a gimme as far as I'm concerned, a free ride. What that meant to me was that we had a terrible OL and Carr got the **** beat out of him.
Would any of the QBs I've listed above have taken the Texans to the playoffs in the 1st two season?..
Probably not, but I'm not sure what that has to do with what Carr's salary will be in 2005.
Bash Carr for this, that, and the other thing, but the earning it stuff is a load. He's earned his money thus far...
Who's bashing Carr? Did I say he didn't earn his salary in '02 and '03? No. What I did say is that he's not a top ten QB. Sure, he could become one this year, but that's not a given. What's a given is that his salary is about to become a top ten salary so (and what I said earlier was) his performance on the field better warrant that salary. In other words, "he will become very expensive
next year so he better start earning it" as opposed to the way I looked at it the first two seasons, i.e., cut him some slack (but still expect steady improvement) because they were learning years and he had marginal talent around him.
Just in case you haven't noticed me say this at any time over the last two years, I like Carr. It's just that I expect a lot more out of him now (like throwing more TDs than Ints for starters) since he is beginning to get paid like a big time QB.