Gainwell

Or, you know, maybe they watched tape or just looked at the stats that he was our second leading receiver and the other guy wasn't playing?

 

Gainwell had 486 yards receiving. He also had 528 yards after catch. Do the math.

 

Lots of swing catches where he caught it behind the LOS... He gained over 7 yards after the catch per reception, so he turned a lot of dump offs and check downs into positive plays.

 

I got you! I agree on the Le’Veon being the best back ever had he stayed. If I remember correctly he held out all season for like 4-5 million more. He faded after that as well. Pretty much every player does when they go to the Jets.

 

Exactly. It's a nice 74 here right now. I can't stand the cold.

 

Short winters, long summers.

 

You in Little Rock?

 

He will find out in FA

He would be foolish to sign before

 

I bet he will get more than that this is his first chance to really get paid, if that's all he gets he should fire his agent.

 

Najee only got $5.25M and he had twice the yards of Gainwell

$3M/yr may be fair

And if that is all he gets then it has nothing to do with the agent it’s what he is worth

 

I think skillsets matter for the money. Gainwell has the ability to play all 3 downs and he is excellent as a receiver out of the backfield. Harris was a borderline starter quality 2 down volume back. I think someone will pay Gainwell a decent amount because his skillset is more unique. Some team that plans on using its RB's in the passing game a good bit is going to love to have him. However, I don't think any teams are going to view him as a "starter", so his value is capped. I think something in the middle of Austin Ekeler's $4.2m and Jordan Mason's $5.2m is probably the sweet spot. It could be less if he's viewed as a one hit wonder or something, but this was the first time he was extensively used and he performed very well. Someone with a middling starter or a team with a young QB would benefit greatly from his services.

 

Gainwell should be a priority signing, he is a difference maker.

 

I agree.

I love the guy. I hope McCarthy wants him, and I hope they can sign him.

He isn't a premier running back that gets 25 carries a game, but he was money in split duties with Warren and on third downs. He has some of the best hands I've ever seen at the running back position.

 

A little chart to show which RB offered the best value this season based on total EPA (rushing+rec) vs their average salary rank.

Steelers got good value from Gainwell this season. But even Warren's pay isn't out of line for what he brings to the offense. Worst contract is Jeanty's. Barkley's is also bad. Best is Javonte Williams.

(btw, the salary correlate much better with receiving EPA than rushing EPA when looking at them separately. Just further proof that teams are willing to pay for a RB that is good in the passing game)

 

It's funny because in the cut / extend / play out thread, I just said I'd let Gainwell walk.

But that's because I assume that someone will overpay him based on his production last year.

At $3MM / year, it would be an easy decision to bring him back. But I wouldn't expect close to the same production because I assume we'll have more than 1 (and sometimes 0) actual NFL WRs.

 

Someone with a middling starter that would be the Steelers .

 

$3M puts him around 25th highest paid RB for next season. Unless his EPA improves that would be a slight overpay. But I think he can improve on this under McCarthy.

 

At least I gave you arrows to look at

 

I think anytime you're outside of the top 15-ish guys at a position, it's basically "got a 2nd contract or beyond that wasn't vet minimum". There will always be a bunch of guys on rookie deals bringing down the average (or not bumping up the top contracts).

At some point though, it becomes cheap enough where the overpay isn't all that important.

A vet minimum deal is probably something like $1.25MM/year. So $3mm isn't terrible for a guy who's a pretty good RB2 and could easily be the lead guy if RB1 gets hurt (and there's a pretty good chance of that happening to rbs).

So maybe $2mm / year would be better.

For some perspective, N Chubb was on a 1-year $2.5MM contract last season. I'd do that too because I think he's probably a reasonable backup at this point. But at this point in their careers, I'd take Gainwell for the extra $500k.

The thing I worry about is that another team will fall in love with his production this year. Which I don't think will be representative of his production going forward. Because he was basically our WR2 (WR1 for 2 games).

 

Gainwell is not getting a big contract but it will be more than 3M per year. However, if he only gets 3M per year.. its because his year wasn’t nearly as impressive as some believe it is.

I think he will get $6M per year by a pass heavy team. He is NOT a 3 down back. He can’t tun between the tackles and that was my biggest gripe with him. He was great on swing passes which made him fan favorite because we couldn’t sustain drives in the ground and the QB rarely threw down field.

Also, white Mike likes big backs. I expect KJ to get on track and be a bigger feature in our offense next year.

 

This is what I think too...or at least a fair bit more than $3MM.

Someone will pay him more than I think we should because he's really good at catching the ball.

But I highly doubt he ever sees 85 targets in a season again (5th most by a RB last season I think).
https://www.espn.com/nfl/stats/play...able/receiving/sort/receivingTargets/dir/desc

 

No. I lived there for 4 years, but I live farther south now.