Keyshawn Knows His Value, Just Not How To Shut Up

When I read this article about Keyshawn Johnson last Friday, I started my own post about it basically chiding him for pricing himself out of a job. In case you missed it, here's the quote:

"I'm not in rental mode. You're not going to rent me for six months because someone with my career warrants more than that. I don't need to do that. I'm not playing for $750,000, $850,000, $1 million or $2.5 million. You can write that down."

So, it's Keyshawn being Keyshawn and that's always good for a yuck or two. But then I did something that I almost never do... I thought about it. Is something over $2.5M really way out of bounds for Keyshawn? So, I thought I would compare that figure to the salary of the player that he was traded for a couple years ago: Joey Galloway.

With Galloway's restructured deal, he receives in 2007 a $1.2M salary, a $1.8M roster bonus, and a $100,000 workout bonus for a total of $3.1M. Galloway is a year older than Johnson, and even though he has been in the league one more year, Johnson has six more games under his belt than Galloway. As far as I can tell, Johnson has only missed three games i his career due to injury. This translates into more receptions and more yards for Johnson, though Galloway has a better per catch average and more touchdowns. One thing that stands out is that Johnson has no punt returns on his resume; Galloway has 138 with five for TDs.

Though they have different strengths and skill sets, I'd say these two receivers are comparable. So, it's probably not crazy for Keyshawn to want comparable money to Galloway. Granted, it was a ridiculous statement to make publicly since it perpetuates his reputation of being selfish and overall douchy and therefore lowers his marketability. But the point is that it's not a ridiculous number for him to shoot for.