Dallas Cowboys: LB Sean Lee

Contract: Seven years, $42.6 million nike official nfl jerseys

Lee may be the most controversial player on this list, and for good reason. When he’s healthy, there are few better linebackers in the NFL. Lee combines supreme athleticism with an uncanny ability to read the field and diagnose an offense’s intentions. Dallas’ defense is far better when Lee is on the field, and were he on the field all the time, there’d be no question about the value of the six-year, $42 million deal he signed in 2013.sale nfl jerseys

The problem, of course, is that Lee isn’t always on the field. He missed the entire 2014 season due to injury, he’s never played a full 16-game season and he managed just 11 games in 2017 with a hamstring issue. The Cowboys’ decision to select Boise State linebacker Leighton Vander Esch in the first round of the 2018 draft is instructive. Vander Esch an athletic marvel who fits the Lee prototype pretty well from a physical perspective, and the pick seems like a franchise admission that at the age of 31, Lee isn’t likely to turn his injury history around.

The Cowboys have enjoyed relative bargains year-to-year from a cap perspective in return for Lee’s work, but his current contract bumped up to an $11 million salary cap obligation for 2018 and a $10 million hit in 2019. Dallas would have to deal with $7.1 million in dead cap where can i buy nfl jerseys if it released Lee this season, so there’s no sense in doing that. But in 2019, the hit is just $3.1 million, so it’s safe to say that 2018 will be Lee’s defining season with his only NFL team.personalized nfl jersey

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