Debating Rice’s place on the ‘All-Bad Contracts Team’
Jul 31, 2013, 4:50 PM | Updated: 4:52 pm
By Kevin Cacabelos
Special to 710Sports.com
All attention is on Percy Harvin and his hip injury, but a recent column on Grantland.com by Bill Barnwell that lists the some of the worst contracts in the NFL includes one of Harvin’s teammates, fellow wide receiver Sidney Rice.
Barnwell points to Rice’s injury-plagued 2011 season and his “pedestrian numbers” from 2012 as reasons why his five-year, $41 million deal might not be an ideal arrangement for the Seahawks.
Brock Huard and Danny O’Neil took issue with Rice’s inclusion on Barnwell’s “All-Bad Contracts Team” during Tuesday’s edition of “Blue 42”.
“The stats don’t tell the whole story,” Huard said. “If you simply look at the stats and you look at the numbers and look at his receptions and you compare it to his peers in the receiver world that are making more and put up all the fantasy points, that’s not what he’s going to do in this system.”
Rice’s 748 receiving yards and 50 receptions in 2012 ranked outside of the top 50 in those categories. They paled in comparison to his Pro Bowl season with quarterback Brett Favre and the Vikings in 2009, when he hauled in 83 receptions for 1,312 yards.
According to Huard, reaching these numbers is simply not possible within the Seahawks’ offense, which attempted a league-low 25 passes per game last year.
“He’s not going to put up those numbers; he’s not going to put them up with Golden [Tate] here, not going to put them up with Percy Harvin hopefully here and also Doug Baldwin here,” Huard said. “He’s not going to get the amount of touches for a run-first team to put up those same numbers.”
Despite where his 2012 numbers ranked among NFL receivers, Rice led Seattle in receptions and receiving yards and tied Tate for most touchdown receptions with seven. He also appeared in all 16 games for just the second time in his six-year career.
“He’s a top-notch receiver and their No. 1 receiver. Is he in this system worth $8.5 million? Probably not. But is [his contract] one of the worst contracts in the league? Absolutely not,” Huard said.
