The paradigm shift underscores how unprepared Madden 23 coins had been for the soaring salaries of receivers. The year before, Amari Cooper was the sole WR with a salary of more than $20M and the majority of top-tier contracts for receivers being in the $10-15M-$15M-$15M range. There are now five receivers set to earn more than $20 million, while another seven earning over $15M. There's likely to be a lot of pain in the coming years and extremely tough decision-making. Although QB and WR pay is increasing exponentially, the salary cap isn't keeping pace. Over the past four years, the cap has only increased $20 million, while salaries for positions have boomed, especially for offensive players.
It means that unless there's significant cap relief after 2023 that permits teams to spend more (something owners may be reluctant to do, since it eats the profits of their business) Teams will need to make a decision on what they'd rather pay an elite quarterback OR an elite receiver, because they likely cannot afford both. The players deserve to be paid, and they're going to get someone to pay them, whether or not that involves competing against a top contender or not.
The most interesting wrinkle to the whole thing is when we take a look at how successful young receivers have become in recent years. Madden NFL 23 offenses are so much like college modern football that the idea of slow onboarding or the two-year development to become an elite receiver has gone. Justin Jefferson broke the Madden NFL 23's rookie record for receiving in 2020. but it was quickly surpassed in the hands of Ja'Marr. In actuality 11 of the Madden NFL 23's top 25 players in terms of yardage were still on rookie contracts when they signed in 2021.
As we have contracts balloon at the position that has well-known talent, we could also see a churn begin in the future. This could affect the position in the top teams, similar to what we've seen in running back, but due to different reasons. It's been widely believed that the top teams don't sign up rushers to huge extensions but instead allow them to walk after their rookie contracts and find another. This is a flawed system that was designed to keep in mind running backs getting injured and becoming injury prone. In the future, we may see this is happening with receivers as well, but instead , teams allow them to leave due to the upcoming payday.
This will put more responsibility upon scouting organizations to find Madden NFL 23-ready players immediately which allows teams to maximize their production on cheap or subsidized rookie contractsafter which they can move on.
Although it's quite likely we'd see these contracts rise naturally on their own however, it's clear that the cheap madden 23 coins of Christian Kirk expedited the process.
