2005 NFL Player Salaries Comparison Finale, The Wide Receivers

Two positions down and one to go. Up to now, we've found that in 2005 the top 10 highest paid NFL quarterbacks cost their respective teams an average of $675,880 per touchdown pass and the top 10 running backs cost an average of $1,524,719 per rushing touchdown. Now it's time to see how the wide receivers of '05 stack up to those numbers and each other.

Snagging Their Spots In The Comparison, The '05 Wide Receivers

In 2005, the highest paid wide receiver was Chicago's Muhsin Muhammad. His $9,335,407 million in salary was roughly $700k more than second place's Joe Horn. Let's see how all of their salaries stack up when comparing receiving touchdowns.

Muhsin Muhammad: $9,335,407/4 receiving TD's = $2,333,851/TD

Joe Horn: $8,667,200/1TD= $8,667,200/TD

Jerry Porter: $8,003,080/5TD's= $1,600,616/TD

Derrick Mason: $8,002,090/3TD's = $2,667,363/TD

Marvin Harrison: $8,000,000/12TD's = $666,666/TD

Randy Moss: $7,750,880/8TD's = $968,860/TD

Braylon Edwards: $7,743,000/3TD's = $2,581,000/TD

Isaac Bruce: $7,400,000/3TD's = $2,466,666/TD

Roy Williams: $7,067,500/8TD's = $883,437/TD

Eric Moulds: $6,600,000/4TD's = $1,650,000/TD

Those are the salary breakdowns for the top 10 highest paid receivers with respect to their receiving touchdowns. On average, they cost their teams more than either the quarterbacks($675,880/TD) or running backs($1,524,719/TD) with a sum of $2,448,565 million per receiving TD. Like those two positions there were a few players that peformed well during the 2005 season, but weren't in the top 10 in terms of total salary. These five receivers each reached double digits in terms of receiving TD's, but weren't paid in the top 10.

Steve Smith: $1,850,000/12TD's = $154,166/TD

Hines Ward: $5,668,960/11TD's = $515,360/TD

Larry Fitzgerald: $5,344,590/10TD's = $534,459/TD

Joey Galloway: $3,591,430/10TD's = $359,143/TD

Joe Jurevicius: $852,640/10TD's = $85,264/TD

That group contains two big-time "steals", Steve Smith and Joe Jurevicius. They each came in well below the $2.4 million average set by the top 10.

That's it for the salary comparisons of the 2005 quarterbacks, running backs and wide receivers. Hopefully it provided some entertainment while you were counting down the days until the NFL Draft. I also hope that it provided you with some insight as to how the players at those three positions stacked up against each other within their position and outside of it.