In the NFL, the highest paid players these days are elite passers, pass protectors, pass rushers and pass defenders. A subgroup of the last category mentioned, cornerbacks have come a very long way since Deion Sanders entered the league and helped to transform the meaning, branding and dollar value of the position.
Flashing back to the late ’80s and early ’90s, it would have been unfathomable to ponder a CB inking a $82 million deal, but that’s where we are with the Buffalo Bills extending Tre’Davious White this holiday weekend.
It’s a very happy Labor Day for White, with the 2017 1st round pick getting $70 million in compensation ($55m guaranteed, total value raising to $82.1m when the new deal expires) for his labor.
All of #BillsMafia tonight…@TakeAwayTre_ | #GoBills pic.twitter.com/1L8z5ON7z8
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) September 5, 2020
He is now the highest paid corner in football. White, who previously considered sitting out this season due to COVID concerns, was slated to make a $1.8 million base salary this season and then a $10.2 million fifth-year option, off his rookie contract, in salary next season.
On the new four year extension, he’ll be making well into double figures in millions per season. The LSU product also just provided an excellent recruiting for his former school, which markets itself as “DBU.”
The 27th overall pick in the 2017 NFL draft out of Louisiana State, he made his first Pro Bowl and was first-team All-Pro last season.
“Take away Tre” led the NFL in interceptions with six in 2019, and his 12 INTs since he entered the league is tied for fourth best overall during that span.
Tre’Davious White is one of the major key pieces of the Sean McDermott rebuild. It’s a revitalization effort that saw instead results. In the coach’s first season on the job, 2017, the Bills went 9-7 and ended longest playoff drought of any North American professional sports franchise at that time (18 years).
Last season, they went 10-6 and returned to the playoffs, and with Tom Brady now gone from New England they are considered favorites to usurp the Patriots and claim the AFC East division. If they do so, it would be the franchise’s first division title since 1995.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly contributes to WGN TV, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Now and SB Nation.
You can follow Banks, a former writer for Chicago Tribune.com, on Twitter and his cat on Instagram.
