Nelson Agholor's Agent Clearly Botched His Contract With Raiders in Colossal Way
By Brendan Balsamo
Last season, Nelson Agholor was the bane of Philadelphia Eagles fans' existence. He had some extremely low effort plays, some terrible drops, and was ranked as one of the worst wide receivers in the NFL, almost unanimously.
Still, Agholor is a tenured wideout who has had some solid seasons and was an important piece to the Eagles' Super Bowl win in 2017. In a surprising move, however, the former USC product signed with the Las Vegas Raiders for the veteran minimum of $1,047,500, in what was a perplexing deal that has drawn ire from other agents across the league.
These WR deals are starting to come in around the same range (Robby Anderson notwithstanding). Agents weren’t happy to see Nelson Agholor only get a veteran minimum deal. That brought the market to a screeching halt. But for Sharpe, a good opportunity with #Vikings so he jumped. https://t.co/o7HchmmAZp
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) March 25, 2020
As said by NFL Network's Mike Garafolo, the wide receiver market has been brought to a "screeching halt." The fact that Agholor, a 26-year old former first-round pick and top option on a highly successful Eagles team, accepted a one-year deal for the veterans minimum will likely result in a lesser market for the remaining receivers in free agency. Rather than pay more money to these available wide receivers, teams may opt to lowball them or pursue cheaper deals, using Agholor's contract as a benchmark.
Aside from Robby Anderson's two year, $20 million deal with the Carolina Panthers, there have been very few big free agent wide receiver signings as of the past two weeks.
Nelson Agholor signing for Veteran Minimum sent a shockwave through the remainder of FA WR market.
— Chad Forbes (@NFLDraftBites) March 24, 2020
Last offseason Colts signed Devin Funchess 1 Yr $10M ($7M Guaranteed) plus $3M of incentives. That proves a major outlier in the “Draft Pedigree” mediocre production WR market...
Agholor's agent truly dropped the ball on this one, and his client won't be the only one paying the price. Multiple free agent wide receivers and their agents will have to atone for Agholor's agent's failure as well.