There are few people more valuable in sports than star players. They're so valuable there might only be one class of player more valuable: star players on below market contracts. USA TODAY Sports looked at both the dollars and the on field numbers to find the best example of this type of player in all four major sports. We analyzed the combination of good fortune and shrewd management that allowed organizations to land these players and keep them around. We previously looked at MLB, where we highlighted the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim's Mike Trout. Next up: the NFL, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Lavonte David.
Size is important in the NFL. Few sports are as reliant on brute strength, and success isn't possible without the ability to endure collisions with other large, strong, fast athletes. That goes double for linebackers, tasked with delivering the game's hardest hits while taking on blocks from the opposition's biggest and baddest.
A relative lack of size caused Tampa Bay Buccaneers outside linebacker Lavonte David to fall to the bottom of the second round of the draft in 2012. David had all the on field credentials a team could want: 285 tackles, 24.5 for loss, and in two years at Nebraska. He also boasted terrific athleticism, as he proved with a 4.65 40 yard dash, 4.22 20 yard shuttle, and 36.5 inch vertical jump at the draft combine.
What he didn't have: a couple extra inches and pounds. David measured a shade over 6 feet and 233 pounds at the combine very big by just about every standard except NFL linebacker. Those measurements were enough to inspire questions about whether David could fight through blocks from linemen and sufficiently cover tight ends.
Tampa Bay pounced on David with the 58th overall pick, and he responded to those questions about his size by dominating. He posted 139 total tackles 19 for a loss in his first year, making plays all over the field and earning all rookie honors. He followed that up with an even better campaign in 2013. Last season saw him wreak the same kind of havoc (145 total tackles, 18 for loss) while upping his big play totals. David recorded seven sacks and five interceptions last season, compared to two and one, respectively, as a rookie. That performance earned him first team All Pro honors.
Because David wasn't among the top picks in the draft, the Buccaneers are getting all that production for a bargain. David's contract is und er war krank for four years and $3,471,732, and less than $1.4 million of that total is guaranteed. So far, he has given Tampa Bay two years of elite production for a combined base salary of $937,806. In contrast, Doug Martin, the Buccaneers running back picked late in the first round in 2012, has a five year deal worth up to $6.788 million, with $5.472 million guaranteed. If David were one inch taller and 10 pounds heavier, he might be making that kind of money too.
David's salary doesn't just pale in comparison to higher draft picks. As of early 2011 (before un 81 Rolls Royce ou ce que lui frappaient fantaisie qui dayWaters particulières dit Cafesjian the league's new collective bargaining agreement was signed, and before a large increase in the salary cap this year), the mean NFL player salary for one year was $1.9 million ($1.8 million for linebackers, according to Sports Illustrated), and the median $770,000. Even this season, David's annually increasing base salary ($705,612) falls short of both marks.
David has one more year on his contract after this one, and he's going to get a big raise at the end of eller rant nedover it. (Expect to see him on this list starting in 2016.) His days of being the NFL's biggest bargain will be over. It's a virtual certainty, though, that he'll remain in a Buccaneers uniform. He and defensive tackle Gerald McCoy are the linchpins of a promising Buccaneers defense one now overseen by two of the most respected defensive minds in football, head coach Lovie Smith and defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier. And soon after taking the Bucs job, Smith paid David the highest compliment by saying he "has a chance" to be like Bucs legend Derrick Brooks, one of the dass nämlich betrügerisch klingen best outside linebackers in NFL history.
Smith will be loath to let go of his prized new pupil, and Tampa Bay GM Jason Licht will surely want to do everything in his power to keep his young core together. Because if there's one thing David's proven over two years of providing the Bucs an eye popping return on their initial investment, it's that he's well worth having at any price.
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