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Seven most mind-boggling NFL contracts of 2016

Colin Kaepernick

Outside of the quarterback position, this past spring represented one of restraint for teams around the NFL. Sure there were some curious contracts thrown out there, but the free agency period in general didn’t stand out as too absurd from a financial standpoint.

With that said, there are still pedestrian players set to earn a whole heck of a lot of green this upcoming season.

From a quarterback in San Francisco that’s set to count nearly $16 million against his team’s cap to a cornerback in Dallas that remains one of the league’s most overpaid, here’s a look at the most mind-boggling NFL contracts heading into the 2016 season.

1. Colin Kaepernick, quarterback, San Francisco 49ers ($15.9 million)

Kaepernick threw six touchdowns in eight starts for San Francisco last season. During that very same span, he led the team to an average of 13.6 points per game. You don’t need to be a genius to understand how bad that is.

Despite finding himself set to count nearly $16 million against the cap this season, the former Super Bowl quarterback is engaged in a training camp battle with Blaine Gabbert for the 49ers’ starting job. Yes, the very same Blaine Gabbert that won five of his 27 starts as a member of the Jacksonville Jaguars from 2011-13.

To make matters even worse, Kaepernick doesn’t appear to be the favorite to land the job under first-year head coach Chip Kelly (more on that here).

That’s an absolutely stunning realization to come to, especially just a few years removed from him being considered one of the top young signal callers in the NFL.

2. Sam Bradford, quarterback, Philadelphia Eagles ($12.5 million)

Sam Bradford, Chip Kelly

Bradford somehow turned last season’s well below-average performance into a two-year, $35 million contract with $22 million guaranteed. This brings his NFL earnings up to over $100 million in guaranteed cash.

The former No. 1 overall pick has thrown 78 touchdowns in his six-year NFL career. Yes folks, that equates to $1.3 million per touchdown pass.

Sadly, Bradford’s 2016 salary doesn’t even begin to detail how bad this contract is. With $22 million guaranteed, the Eagles have pretty much boxed themselves in the corner — leading the team into having to keep the substandard quarterback beyond this season. If not, Philadelphia will incur a dead cap hit of nearly $10 million next march.

3. Matt Kalil, offensive tackle, Minnesota Vikings (11.1 million)

It was definitely a surprise to see Minnesota pick up the option on the final year of Kalil’s rookie contract. After putting up a Pro Bowl performance as a rookie in 2012, this former top-five prospect has struggled a great deal.

To be clear here, Kalil was much better last season than he was in 2014. Though, it was hard for him to duplicate what we saw the previous year.

In fact, Kalil ranked among the worst tackles in the NFL in sacks and pressures allowed in 2014. These numbers may have declined a great deal in 2015, but Kalil still didn’t find himself among the top half of starting left tackles in the NFL.

The larger issue here is Kalil’s 6-foot-6, 306-pound frame. He’s not tough enough to play inside and doesn’t possess the run-blocking ability to play along the right side.

This means that his only fit moving forward is as Teddy Bridgewater’s blindside protector. Unfortunately, it has not worked out up to this point. As the fifth highest-paid left tackle in the NFL this upcoming season, the USC product needs to revert back to 2012 form.

If that doesn’t happen, he won’t see a contract anywhere near what he’s currently playing under once he hits free agency.

4. Kirk Cousins, quarterback, Washington Redskins ($20.0 million)

Kirk Cousins

Prior to his breakout performance last season, Cousins found himself competing for playing time with the likes of Colt McCoy and Robert Griffin III. In fact, there was a point he found himself benched in favor of both.

This isn’t that much of a surprise given how bad Cousins was in D.C. during his first three seasons with the Redskins. Here’s a quarterback that tallied 18 touchdowns compared to 19 interceptions in nine starts prior to last year.

With that said, Washington did find itself between a rock and a hard place when it ultimately placed the franchise tag tender on the former mid-round pick.

If the team had let Cousins test free agency, he likely would’ve received a deal similar to what the Houston Texans gave Brock Osweiler. That would have been somewhere in the neighborhood of $40 million guaranteed.

Instead, the Skins are paying Cousins $20 million over one season — an expensive prove-it deal if you will. Should Cousins duplicate last season’s performance, he’d then be in line for a huge long-term deal.

There are, however, a multitude of issues at hand here. Cousins may have put up nearly 4,200 yards with 29 scores and 11 interceptions en route to leading Washington to a surprise division title. He might have also led the NFL with a 69.8 completion percentage. Still, there was a certain unevenness about his overall performance in 2016.

If these splits remain the same in 2016, the decision to give Cousins $20 million for the 2016 campaign will prove to be a disaster. At the very least, the Skins didn’t commit more than one year of guaranteed cash here.

5. Brandon Carr, cornerback, Dallas Cowboys ($10.2 million)

After allowing a 116-plus quarterback rating when targeted in 2014, Carr followed that up by yielding a triple-digit rating again last season. That’s not necessarily something you’re looking for when it comes to a corner earning $10-plus million.

This all comes after Carr put up four tremendous seasons to start his career with the Kansas City Chiefs. When Dallas signed him back in 2012, it wasn’t seen as a bad deal. Sure the five-year, $50.1 million deal it gave him was steep, but he was one of the top corners on the market.

The issue here has been restructures. Due to a less-than-stellar cap situation, the Cowboys have reworked Carr’s contract twice in the past four years, forcing the team to keep him on and push guarantees back.

Hence, the fact that in the second-to-last year of his deal he’s earning more than what his average called for back in 2012.

6. Bruce Irvin, linebacker, Oakland Raiders ($12.5 million

Irvin does a lot more than simply get to the quarterback. That’s why it’s unfair to look at the 22 sacks he racked up in four seasons with the Seattle Seahawks and assume $9.3 million per year is a reach. He’s solid against the run and does a darn good job dropping back into coverage.

Still, Irvin never saw a three-down role in Seattle after the team made him a top-15 pick back in 2012. He didn’t tally double-digit sacks in a single season. And in one of the most-telling stats, Irvin’s career high in tackles currently stands at 45.

Oakland paid for projection when it signed Irvin to a four-year, $37 million deal back in March. That’s a risk the team had to take. It’s also a risk that cold backfire big time moving forward.

7. Joe Flacco, quarterback, Baltimore Ravens ($22.6 million)

Courtesy of USA Today Images

Our fourth and final quarterback in this article, Flacco’s contract was given to him based off one historical postseason performance in January of 2013. Nothing he’s done in any of his other seven seasons prove him to be more than a fledgling mid-tier signal caller.

Coming off a torn ACL that cost him the final six games of the 2015 campaign, Flacco enters the 2016 season as the fifth highest-paid quarterback in the NFL. His cap hit is higher than Cam Newton, Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson and Tom Brady.

To make matters worse, this former first-round pick has $47.3 million still owed to him after the 2016 season. This means that it wouldn’t be financially realistic for the Ravens to move on from their “franchise” quarterback until following the 2020 season, when he’ll be 36 years old.

The Delaware product has not put up more than 27 touchdowns in a single season. He’s also tallied double-digit interceptions each year and is coming off a 2015 campaign that saw him throw two more touchdowns (14) than picks (12). That’s a mediocre quarterback if we’ve ever seen one.

All contract information provided by Spotrac 

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