With the RB market on a decline, the NFL teams are drawing all sorts of criticism from all sides. Due to this many star players like Saquon Barkley and Christian McCaffrey are considered underpaid. The worst part is that the debate is on the rise amidst reports of the NFL having reportedly distributed $374,400,000 to each team which they made through national revenue.
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To put things into perspective, as of 2023 each NFL team has a salary cap limit of $224.8 million. Which simply means they have made close to $150 million in profit just from national revenue. Yet one of the most key positions in an offense is getting overlooked and this was not taken well by the fans.
NFL Paid $374.4 Million To Each Team In National Revenue
The news came to light when the Green Bay Packers which is a publicly owned franchise released their finances. NFL reporter Ari Meirov took to Twitter to show that the NFL distributes national income (which was $11.98 billion in 2022) equally among all teams, which simply means that each team got paid a whopping sum of $374.4 million last season by the NFL.
The Green Bay Packers announce they received $374.4 million in national revenue from the NFL last season. Multiply that by 32 and that means the NFL distributed $11.98 billion to its teams (up from $11.1B).
Because they’re publicly owned, the Packers must release their finances. pic.twitter.com/JAyVUZE6Eq
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) July 19, 2023
The tweet went viral in no time and one of the first points of concern for the fans was the underpaid RBs in the league. The teams are in the midst of a heated debate that is only going to catch more heat in the coming season when multiple RBs are going to demand long-term deals with a reasonable pay rise.
Here are some of the best fan reactions on Twitter:
And they can’t pay their RB’s..smh
— kingtaka30045 (@kingtaka30045) July 20, 2023
Aaron Jones is making $11,000,000 this year, but go off I guess.
— Brandon M Brown 🦁 🏈 9-8 (@BrandonBrownM) July 20, 2023
And no raises for RBs!
— EvilMattCanada (@TheMattCanada) July 19, 2023
With that being said, it does not look good on the NFL teams who are simply bagging more profits but showing little to no interest in their crucial players. Earlier in the offseason the Packers even shaved off $5 million from star RB Aaron Jones’ contract which reduced his salary to just $11 million for the 2023 season.
With such similar instances, the actions of the teams are raising more eyebrows making people believe that they are simply taking advantage of the low expected shelf life of the RBs, especially of the veterans.
The RB Debate Intensifies
Recently multiple personalities like Christian McCaffrey, Jonathan Taylor, Rich Eisen, and even former RB OJ Simpson boldly addressed the ongoing crisis. A few days ago, franchise-tagged Saquon Barkley was on a standoff with the Giants, seeking a long-term deal with better pay. He was set to make $10.1 million during his franchise tag but agreed to a new one-year contract worth $11 million offered by the Giants.
A similar situation is happening with the Raiders’ Josh Jacobs and the Cowboys’ Tony Pollard, who are franchise tagged and in hopes of a long-term contract extension with their respective teams. Will the crisis in the RB market get solved? Only time will tell.
