Blogging The Boys
It feels like it was forever ago that cornerback DaRon Bland was wowing the football world with his historic pick-six performance that altered the record books (five in a season), and put some added excitement into the Dallas Cowboys’ 2023 season. In reality, only two years have passed, but a lot has changed since. Bland has been hurt in each of the last two seasons, and the Cowboys haven’t made the playoffs since. Sad face emoji.
While things have fallen a bit, the team still rewarded their young corner with a four-year, $90 million extension last summer, showing no concern about the foot injury and hoping more of the good stuff was to come.
At the time, the Bland signing felt like the team was hedging its bet from the uncertainty that Trevon Diggs brought. That ultimately looked pretty smart considering that Diggs faded quickly and found himself off the team before the season even concluded last year, and he remains unemployed. But the pivot to Bland hasn’t necessarily been a breath of fresh air, as another injury-riddled season has put a similar dark cloud over his future with the team.
To gain a better understanding of this unsavory cornerback investment talk, we want to run through some details and get a real sense of what lies ahead. First off, let’s talk contract.
Signing his new deal last year made him the fifth-highest paid corner in terms of average salary at $22.5 million. While that seems high, he actually fits into the third tier of high-priced corners following the top guys around $30 million (Trent McDuffie, Ahmad Gardner, and Derek Stingley Jr.) and the next level guys around $25 million (Jaycee Horn and Patrick Surtain II). He is more grouped with the $20 million guys (Jalen Ramsey, A.J. Terrell, Denzel Ward, and Marlon Humphrey).
He’s closer to the 20th-highest-paid corner than he is to the top guys. And it gets better when you look at total guarantees. Bland sits under $50 million, while most other Top-10 paid corners exceed $70 million, $80 million, or reach $100 million like the recently paid Trent McDuffie. Bottom line is that the front office was a little more cautious when it comes to investing in Bland.
Contract discussions can be a little convoluted, so we’re going to break things down into a very simple year-by-year cumulative cost analysis. You can go to your favorite financial website if you want to learn about his cap hits and roster incentives, but we’re going to keep it simple and give you what’s important, which is the actual cost based on how long they keep him on the roster. He got a four-year extension, so here is a breakdown of what they will end up paying based on how far into that contract he goes.
