Adrian Peterson was the consensus best running back in the NFL. No one blinked an eye when he got his $100 million deal, but once again history has shown that when you give big money to a running back the majority of the time it bites you in the back.
It wasn’t Peterson’s fault, but he was gimping most of the year and then blew out his knee.
So, if I am the Ravens as much as I like Ray Rice there is no way in hell I am giving him basically $40 million guaranteed.
Ravens running back Ray Rice is set to become an unrestricted free agent next month, and given that there’s been no progress on talks for a long-term deal, Baltimore will surely use the franchise tag to keep Rice in place.
That may lead to months of negotiations between Rice and the Ravens, and Peter King writes at SI.com this morning that Rice wants an Adrian Peterson-like contract. Peterson signed a seven-year, $100 million contract in September, with $36 million guaranteed and $40 million in the first three years.