C.J. Anderson had been working his entire life for yesterday’s payday.
It was the one he’d been thinking about since all 32 NFL teams passed him up in the draft, as he watched 254 players (including 22 other running backs) get drafted.
The one that he visualized could someday be his after he signed as an undrafted free agent and fought to make the roster in his rookie season.
The one that had to be on his mind when he was seemingly the only player on the field “kicking and screaming” in January 2015 against Indianapolis.
The one that compelled him to be so intensely focused during training camp to the point that reporters thought he might be “big timing” them after a Pro Bowl year.
The one he fought for as he turned around a season headed in the wrong direction last year, racking up 6.35 yards per carry after the bye week.
The one that surely he considered was coming after he found pay dirt (the only Broncos offensive player to do so) in Super Bowl 50.
But with that payday comes big expectations. In fact, those expectations are going to be huge after John Elway colossally miscalculated Anderson’s value in the free-agent market.
What could have been a prudent, one-year investment for Elway eight days ago has now become a massive speculation that will pay out a hefty cash sum right now and have salary cap implications for the next four years.
What should have been a day to celebrate his newfound prosperity became a day Anderson was peppered with questions about hurt feelings and whether or not he can stay motivated after winning a Super Bowl and cashing in.
Anderson’s new contract puts him in the top 10 average salaries at his position, which means the brass at Dove Valley need him to perform in a big way. Elway’s error of judgment may have earned Anderson nearly twice as much money, but the expectations have effectively doubled, as well. This is the payday the underdog has been waiting for; now, the pressure is on Anderson to show that it was money well spent.
Elway dropped significant coin on Tuesday because of stats like this: Anderson has the third-highest yards per carry average (4.8) since 2013, behind only Justin Forsett (4.9) and Jamaal Charles (5.0).
But Elway made a lowball offer last week because of stats like this: In the first six games of 2015, coming off a Pro Bowl season, Anderson rushed for just 30 yards per game and 2.69 yards per carry.
Anderson will need to stay north of four yards per carry to keep the critics at bay over the next two years before his contract is no longer guaranteed.
The Broncos eventually pulled the trigger on a guy who was so excited about his new deal that he helped break the news on Twitter, saying, “I will be apart [sic] of the Broncos for 4 more years blessed to be apart [sic] of this wonderful Organization and super blessed for this opp[ortunity].”
Yet it’s understandable to see why the team wasn’t 100 percent sold last week. Not long after the news broke on Tuesday that the Broncos would match Miami’s offer, Anderson told ESPN’s NFL Live he had “mixed emotions” when he learned he’d be returning to Denver because he “felt disrespected, of course,” with the first offer.
He’ll have to put that behind him and continue to be the “great person who is wonderful in the community and to his young fans,” as a member of the team’s media department described him.
Denver was willing to effectively double their investment on a guy who essentially took the starting running back job and would not let go of it, one whose effort to score the game-sealing touchdown in the Super Bowl could not be denied by the Panthers or by anyone watching.
Still, the Broncos knew that this was also a guy who three weeks earlier had confessed to Eric Goodman and Les Shapiro of Mile High Sports AM 1340 that his effort was not as good as it should have been during the first six weeks of the season.
Now he’ll need to show every day that he’s the guy driven, as he said Tuesday, “to be one of the best running backs to ever play the game.”
Yes, C.J. Anderson got paid on Tuesday. And now John Elway is hoping like hell that he’s going to get the running back that earned the $18 million offer sheet from Miami that Denver ultimately had to match, not the one he tossed a $1.671 million late-round tender last week.
In the end, Anderson admitted it wasn’t just about the money. Chicago had actually made him a larger offer than Miami.
“My whole thing was [where] can I be successful… I was more worried about my success and career than I was money-wise,” Anderson told the media on Tuesday afternoon.
If that’s true, then Elway should be getting the better of those two pictures of Anderson.
He’s no longer the underdog fighting his way onto rosters and into the starting lineup. Anderson is now paid as a top-10 running back in the league. Given that Elway essentially paid almost double what he needed to in order to keep Anderson, there will be some colossal expectations to follow.
Luckily for Elway, Anderson is already one step ahead.
“My expectations are higher than his, I promise you that,” the running back said at the end of his press conference Tuesday. “I’ll leave it right there.”
