Yesterday the Chargers agreed to a five year deal with Antonio Gates. The deal is worth $36.175 million. It includes $20.4 million in guarantees and averages just over $7 million per year, making him the highest paid TE in the league. Dallas Clark earned $6.77 million making him the highest paid TE in the league last year.
This is an interesting deal for several reasons. First off there's the obvious implications regarding Vernon Davis. Secondly there's the whole issue with the contracts for Vincent Jackson and Marcus McNeil who must be furious right now. Join me after the jump for some number crunching.
Let's compare stats first:
Antonio Gates
| Career Stats | |||||||||||||||
| Season | Team | Receiving | Rushing | Fumbles | |||||||||||
| G | GS | Rec | Yds | Avg | Lng | TD | Att | Yds | Avg | Lng | TD | FUM | Lost | ||
| 2009 | San Diego Chargers | 16 | 16 | 79 | 1,157 | 14.6 | 56 | 8 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 1 | 0 |
| 2008 | San Diego Chargers | 16 | 16 | 60 | 704 | 11.7 | 34 | 8 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 1 | 1 |
| 2007 | San Diego Chargers | 16 | 16 | 75 | 984 | 13.1 | 49T | 9 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| 2006 | San Diego Chargers | 16 | 16 | 71 | 924 | 13.0 | 57T | 9 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| 2005 | San Diego Chargers | 15 | 15 | 89 | 1,101 | 12.4 | 38 | 10 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| 2004 | San Diego Chargers | 15 | 15 | 81 | 964 | 11.9 | 72T | 13 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| 2003 | San Diego Chargers | 15 | 11 | 24 | 389 | 16.2 | 48 | 2 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 1 | 1 |
| TOTAL | 479 | 6,223 | 13.0 | 72 | 59 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | |||
Vernon Davis
| Career Stats | |||||||||||||||
| Season | Team | Receiving | Rushing | Fumbles | |||||||||||
| G | GS | Rec | Yds | Avg | Lng | TD | Att | Yds | Avg | Lng | TD | FUM | Lost | ||
| 2009 | San Francisco 49ers | 16 | 16 | 78 | 965 | 12.4 | 73T | 13 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| 2008 | San Francisco 49ers | 16 | 16 | 31 | 358 | 11.5 | 57 | 2 | 1 | 11 | 11.0 | 11 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| 2007 | San Francisco 49ers | 14 | 14 | 52 | 509 | 9.8 | 31 | 4 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 1 | 1 |
| 2006 | San Francisco 49ers | 10 | 8 | 20 | 265 | 13.3 | 52T | 3 | 2 | 5 | 2.5 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| TOTAL | 181 | 2,097 | 11.6 | 73 | 22 | 3 | 16 | 5.3 | 11 | 0 | 4 | 3 | |||
Now Antonio Gates has been productive for longer than Vernon Davis but I think it's safe to assume that if VD has even close to the same kind of year in 2010 that he did in 2009 we'll be locking him up fast. He's younger, more talented and has more upside to his career so there's no reason we can't pay him more.
My guess it'll be six years $45 million. with $25 million guaranteed. We've talked about this before, back when Celek extended and when we extended Patrick Willis and I think this is the most realistic figure, however I wouldn't be totally shocked to see a 7 year deal worth close to $50 million.
The way I'd structure it is to split the bonuses up over 2011 and 2012, with the rest of the money coming in 2013-2016. What do you guys think? Personally I think we extend him before the end of the regular season.