Bills Fanatics Player Spotlight: Is Charles Clay Worth his Weight in Gold?
- Icey Vick - Powered by Random Voice Archives
- Jun 28, 2015
- 4 min read
Much has been said about what the Buffalo Bills have done in the off-season including the addition of Charles Clay, who signed a whopper of a deal in March worth $38 million dollars over the next 5 years. Clay was brought in to bolster an offense that already featured the likes of LeSean McCoy, Sammy Watkins, Percy Harvin, Robert Woods and Fred Jackson. Tight end was a position of need for the Bills with the departure of Scott Chandler but, making an average of $7.6 million dollars a year, is Charles Clay worth his weight in gold?
Well, sure. At 255 pounds, his worth in gold would be somewhere in the ball park of $4.4 million dollars but how much more than that could he actually be worth? Let's take a look at Clay's past production. After being drafted in the 6th round in 2011, Clay struggled in his first 2 seasons only amassing 233 yards and 3 touchdowns and then 212 yards and 2 touchdowns in 2011 and 2012 respectively. Clay has only amassed over 605 yards in a season once. That happened in 2013 when he played a career high 16 games (the only time he hasn't missed at least 2 games in his career) and received a career high of 103 targets. Of those 103 targets, he brought in 69 receptions for 759 yards (11.0 yards per reception) and 6 touchdowns. Even at his best, his yardage production was only good for 9th in the NFL among tight ends and all but one (the aged Tony Gonzalez) of the tight ends who had more receiving yards than Clay had a higher yards per catch average. His touchdown production was good for a 3 way tie for 8th with Delanie Walker and Brent Celek.
2014 was a different story for Clay however. Charles Clay only appeared in 14 games for 605 yards and 3 touchdowns on his 84 targets producing 58 receptions. His yards per catch average dropped to a career-low 10.4 yards per reception. In fact, his yards per catch average has dropped every year he has been in the league from 14.6 in '11 to 11.8 in '12 to 11.0 in '13 to finally 10.4 last season. Clay's 605 yards last season was only good for 14th among tight ends in the NFL last season and his 3 touchdowns was good for a 8 way tie for 21st. To compare, Scott Chandler produced 497 yards from his 47 receptions on 67 targets with 3 touchdowns for 10.6 yards per catch. Chandler signed with Buffalo's nemesis, the New England Patriots, for 2 years, $5.3 million dollars ($2.65 million a year) while Charles Clay is making $7.6 million dollars a year from similar production in a “what have you done for me lately?” league. I know what you're thinking: “Clay was in a different system with different talent, why should his Miami trends continue in Buffalo?” Well let's see what Greg Roman has done with his tight ends in the past.
Since Greg Roman took over the duties of offensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers in 2011, the lead tight end, Vernon Davis (who is head a shoulders a better athlete than Clay), has averaged 69.25 targets and 46.5 receptions per season. In that time span, a Roman offense has only finished 30th or above of all NFL teams in attempts once (29th in attempts in '14). If that trend continues in Buffalo, even using Clay's career-high yards per catch total, he's looking at about 679 yards. That would have placed him 12th in yards last season yet he's the NFL's 4th highest paid tight end. True, Jimmy Graham's average yearly salary is $10 million a year while Julius Thomas just inked a $9.2 million a year contract and Rob Gronkowski is earning $9 million per year. However, while 4 years older, Greg Olson's contract is $7.5 million dollars per year and he's a proven commodity, accumulating 800+ yards each of the last 3 seasons including a 1,008 yard season last year.
At only 26 years old, Charles Clay has plenty in the tank with loads to prove and a lot of room to improve and grow. In a current Bills Fanatics poll on Facebook, the majority of Bills fans feel that Clay will finish with 600-800 yards this season. Whether or not he can live up to the expectations his contract has placed on him as he vies for targets with the plethora of weapons currently residing on the Buffalo Bills roster has yet to be seen. One thing that is certain is that he will be a integral of the offense and he will be asked to earn his keep. Is Charles Clay worth his weight in gold? Sure. The Buffalo Bills' front office is hoping he's worth double that.
Icey Vick @iceyvick
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