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Chiefs give Jamaal Charles a well-deserved contract bump
The Kansas City Chiefs called Wednesday "Move-In Day" as they started their 2014 training camp in earnest. Only one important player was missing, and it was arguably the most important player on the roster -- running back Jamaal Charles. Charles was absent from camp because he was unhappy with the status of his current contract, a six-year, $27.97 million deal signed in 2010 that would have paid him $2.65 million with a $1 million reporting bonus in the 2014 season. Charles had made more money than every NFL running back except for Adrian Peterson over the last five seasons, but it was his contention that he had outperformed that deal.
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The Chiefs, after one day of holdout, agreed. According to Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network, Kansas City ripped up the last two seasons of Charles' deal and gave him a new two-year structure that will pay him $18.1 million overall, with $5 million in new money. Charles had been set to make a $4.75 million base salary, with another $1 million reporting bonus, in 2015.
Given his value to the Chiefs' total turnaround last season, Charles had a point. Kansas City went from 2-14 in 2012 to 11-5 in 2013, and with new quarterback Alex Smith checking down as he usually does, Charles became the epicenter of the offense like never before. He was the only NFL back last year to lead his team in targets, catches, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns, and his productivity in an offense where the quarterback was simply directed for the most part to avoid throwing the ball deep was truly exceptional.
Charles set career highs in yards from scrimmage (1,980) and combined rushing and receiving touchdowns (a league-leading 19). According to Football Outsiders' metrics, the Saints were the only team to throw more running back screens than the Chiefs, and Kansas City's 92.9% DVOA (FO's opponent-adjusted efficiency metric) on such plays ranked second behind the Eagles. Charles accounted for a league-high 35.3 percent of his team's yards and gained 1,287 yards on the ground despite the fact that he was the main point of focus for every enemy defense, and Smith's game meant that Kansas City often faced multiple safeties in or near the box.
The 27-year-old Charles, selected in the third round of the 2008 draft out of Texas, is reportedly en route to Chiefs camp at Missouri Western State University. He's gained 5,823 rushing yards and scored 29 rushing touchdowns on 1,043 carries in his NFL career, adding 1,975 receiving yards and 14 receiving touchdowns on 222 catches.
SI.com contributing NFL writer and Seattle resident Doug Farrar started writing about football locally in 2002, and became Football Outsiders' West Coast NFL guy in 2006. He was fascinated by FO's idea to combine Bill James with Dr. Z, and wrote for the site for six years. He wrote a game-tape column called "Cover-2" for a number of years, and contributed to six editions of "Pro Football Prospectus" and the "Football Outsiders Almanac." In 2009, Doug was invited to join Yahoo Sports' NFL team, and covered Senior Bowls, scouting combines, Super Bowls, and all sorts of other things for Yahoo Sports and the Shutdown Corner blog through June, 2013. Doug received the proverbial offer he couldn't refuse from SI.com in 2013, and that was that. Doug has also written for the Seattle Times, the Washington Post, the New York Sun, FOX Sports, ESPN.com, and ESPN The Magazine. He also makes regular appearances on several local and national radio shows, and has hosted several podcasts over the years. He counts Dan Jenkins, Thomas Boswell, Frank Deford, Ralph Wiley, Peter King, and Bill Simmons as the writers who made him want to do this for a living. In his rare off-time, Doug can be found reading, hiking, working out, searching for new Hendrix, Who, and MC5 bootlegs, and wondering if the Mariners will ever be good again.