$7.5 Million Per Touchdown
January 6th, 2010
Poring over some Bucs numbers, eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune unearthed some disturbing figures for not just Bucs coaches, but for the accounting firm that overseas the Bucs’ finances.
When Bucs receiver Michael Clayton shined as a rookie, it appeared the Bucs had hit the lottery. Now, buying a Florida Lotto ticket would be a better investment.
Joe will let Kaufman detail the numbers, via the TBO.com Bucs Twitter feed.
One more number to chew on, Buc fans. After catching 7 TD passes as a rookie in 2004, WR Michael Clayton has scored 3 times in 68 games.
Per USA Today, in this past heinous Bucs campaign, Clayton caught 16 passes and one touchdown pass, just his third in four years and earned $7.5 million in 2009.
So for that lone touchdown, it cost Bryan and Joel $7.5 million.
Look, this is not a rip job on Clayton, who by all appearances seems to be a good guy. But when thinking of what lies ahead for the 2010 season, Joe has to wonder how the bean counters much less Bucs coaches can justify that money for that production, no matter how good the guy blocks.
January 6th, 2010 at 4:36 pm
I was all for giving Clayton a chance when they re-signed him. Time for him to go.
January 6th, 2010 at 5:08 pm
I was fooled on that one as well Jeff
January 6th, 2010 at 5:33 pm
There is no justification for this Hack recieving any more dough from the Glazer idiots via the fans.
January 6th, 2010 at 6:07 pm
Clayton is still a Buccaneer?
I thought he was already gone.
Oh yeah!…he did make one catch I saw there near the end.
January 6th, 2010 at 9:18 pm
Even Duemig can no longer defend Clayton and listener’s of the Big Dog show in the afternoon has heard Duemig say as much. Duemig still defends the money Clayton was paid but doesn’t defend his performance. I wasn’t even hoping for 1,000 yards out of him this year. 40-50 catches, 600-700 yards and any TD production would have made his resigning justified. Now that the season is over, every Clayton supporter now realizes his time is up. We need to let him go. Maybe a change of scenery will help him.
All those still clinging to the fond memory of his rookie season….LET IT GO! That player no longer exists.
January 6th, 2010 at 10:52 pm
SKILLET SUCKS CUT HIS ASS!
Lets resign A. Bryant, trade a 2nd round pick for an elite wideout (Marshall). Those 2 together would be fun 2 watch. Sammie in the slot, Winslow at T.E. and we have a pretty good nucleus around #5.
January 6th, 2010 at 10:57 pm
” I DARE ANYONE TO QUESTION THE RESIGNING OF MICHEAL CLAYTON”
Rah you are such a joke!!
January 6th, 2010 at 10:58 pm
Joe, I commend you for finding a picture of Michael Clayton actually holding on to a football. Or was this photoshopped?
January 6th, 2010 at 11:04 pm
joe i think you could score 3 times in 68 games!
January 6th, 2010 at 11:24 pm
Trade Clayton to Da Bears. They are suckers for lousy Bucs. We might even be able to land a couple practice squad players for Clayhands, but with Chicago’s mgmnt it will probably be a 4’th rounder.
January 7th, 2010 at 2:46 am
I was wondering about that Tommy. Duemig has been defending him for the past few years. It is so typical of him. If he likes you, he will defend you to the bitter end. But if he doesn’t like you, he’ll rip you apart at any chance. Take Jim Leavitt. I personally don’t care for Leavitt. Duemig doesn’t like him either and it shows. But if it was Bobby Knight that had done the same exact thing that Leavitt did, Duemig would be taking a different stance. The other good example is Gruden and Morris.
Clayton should be shown the door. The guy clearly doesn’t work hard at his craft. He got lazy after his rookie season. He’s a good blocker, but you are paid to catch the ball when you are a WR. He needs to go. They probably do have to pay Bryant. They can’t afford to have no playmakers at WR. It might be wise to get a WR with one of the two second round picks.
January 7th, 2010 at 7:34 am
Eric S, the Big Dog defended Clayton and other players because of the way Gruden treated them. It turns out that the reason why Clayton was seemingly in Gruden’s “dog house” was not for personal reasons against Clayton but because Clayton really isn’t very good. Remember Big Dog’s uproar about the treatment of Joey Galloway? Perhaps Gruden saw something in practice the rest of us didn’t because right now Galloway doesn’t have a job. He played 3 games for New England and they let him go because he wasn’t good anymore. He probably stopped being good under Gruden’s last year but everyone wanted to think it was personal against him.
January 7th, 2010 at 8:45 am
Cut him. It’s laughable when the Coach comes out and says his #2 receiver, who’s being paid this amount of money, is better when he plays less snaps. We think so too; then we don’t have to watch all of the drops. Resign AB and reallocate some of Clayton’s money to Mo Sto…he’s the real #2 receiver on the team and can actually catch. Understatement of the day here, but we need an upgrade at the WR position with all of those draft picks.
January 7th, 2010 at 10:26 am
Joe, with the status of Clayhands contract – what happens IF the Bucs cut Michael? Are they still “on the hook” for paying him and if so how much?
Considering there will be no cap in 2010 wouldn’t it make sense to get rid of #80 now?
I’m sorry but there really isn’t a market for a ball droping, money in the back WR on the market
January 7th, 2010 at 10:29 am
Joe but you’r being a pessimist again!
Think of Clayhand’s salary this way – he was paid to block well – so assuming 12 games played and an average of 4 really GOOD blocks it only comes down to $150,000 a block – what a bargin! 🙂
January 7th, 2010 at 1:55 pm
clayton who you going to blame now ,the coach who rode your but or the one who let you listen to rap music – believe it or not less production under the rap music coach RADIO MUST GO!!!!
January 7th, 2010 at 3:27 pm
Clayton is the biggest conman there’s he’s had people believe that he’s a football player for years…he should have been cut in his 3rd year here!! it takes him 1 1/2 seasons in average for him to make a touch down what a joke!
This guy couldn’t catch the h1n1 flu even if he went to mexico for spring break…i don’t live in tampa but let me ask some of you, when he gets introduced in the stadium do people boo him?
January 7th, 2010 at 6:13 pm
It offends me that this guy is still on the roster. He needs to be cut on principle NOW. Whatever the cap hit is..