There's A Reason For Vernon Davis's Schoolgirl Smile

There's been a lot of those "first round draft pick signs a contract" stories in the past couple of days; the kinds of stories you only care about if they involve someone on your team, or if the negotiations get particularly ugly. But one such deal did stand out yesterday. Former Maryland TE Vernon Davis signed his rookie deal with the San Francisco 49ers, and immediately became the highest paid tight end in the league.

He'll make more than Jeremy Shockey, more than Tony Gonzalez, more than Antonio Gates, more even than tight end/freedom fighter Kellen Winslow. It does make the 49ers look a little silly (though no siller than the Alex Smith pick is making them look), but on this one, they really didn't have a choice. If you draft a guy 6th overall, you're going to have to pay him somewhere in between what the #5 pick and the #7 pick make. And that just happens to be more than any other tight end in the league makes.

You may argue that it's foolish to draft a TE that high when you're going to have to automatically make him the highest-paid TE in the league, before he even catches one Alex Smith wobbler. But I didn't hear any of the draft guys on TV making that argument at the time he was drafted.

49ers reportedly make Davis highest-paid TE [MSNBC]