In early September 2020, the Buffalo Bills and All-Pro cornerback Tre’Davious White agreed to a huge contract extension worth $70 million (including $55 guaranteed) over four years making him the highest-paid cornerback in the NFL for a brief period of time. Since then, a multitude of top cornerbacks have signed new deals, so let’s examine how his contract looks next to the deals from the last ten months.
In terms of total value of the contract, White sat second behind Miami Dolphins CB Xavien Howard when he signed the deal. Howard’s five-year deal paid him $82.5 million total and that extra year pushed him over in total, but not annual average salary. Now White is fifth on the overall contract compensation but Jalen Ramsey, Marlon Humphrey, and Byron Jones all signed five-year deals, as well.
Average annual value (AAV) is a better barometer here because of the different length of the contracts. White ($17.25 million) sits third behind only Ramsey ($20 million) and Humphrey ($19.5 million) but it’s a pretty significant amount of money lower.
For money fully guaranteed at signing, White’s $36.7 million is fourth behind Jones, Humphrey, and Ramsey.
The purpose of this article is to show you that even though White signed a market-setting deal, just three days later Ramsey surpassed those numbers. Then a couple more players got into the mix. Remember that when we start talking about other market-setting deals in the future.
Entering the final year of his deal, New England Patriots star cornerback Stephon Gilmore is unhappy with his contract and wants to be paid more. Xavien Howard also wants a pay bump despite having four more years remaining on his deal. The 2018 NFL Draft class featured Denzel Ward and Jaire Alexander in the first 18 picks, and both former Pro Bowlers will be looking to cash in soon. White will be even further down the list soon.