I know this has nothing to do with the 49ers, but is anybody else blown away by Eli Manning's6 year $97.5 million contract extension? As our friends at The Big Lead pointed out (by far one of my favorite websites), Eli's average salary of $15.3 million now surpasses that of brother Peyton's ($14.17 million). I just want to make sure I'm not the only person having a little bit of sticker shock here.
In their initial post about the deal, The Big Lead made a great point:
Very wise of Manning’s agent to get this done before the season. Why? His starting WRs this year are Steve Smith (the one from USC, not the star in Carolina) and Domenik Hixon. Combined, they have 109 career catches and three TDs . . . Yes, they drafted Nicks and Barden, and 2nd-year pro Mario Manningham should be in the mix, but that is a motley crew with no experience.
Now I realize the backup options in New York are much worse (Carr, A. Woodson), but was that kind of dollar figure necessary? Even if Eli was a free agent after this coming season, do you really think it's much of a roll of the dice to see what he does with those kind of receivers in a tough division like the NFC East before working out a new deal? Consider me baffled.