Oakland Raiders Overpay Cornerback Not Named Nnamdi Asomugha

At this point, it’s just the Oakland Raiders being the Oakland Raiders.

After signing Richard Seymour to a ridiculous contract that will pay him about $30 million in a two-year span, the team went ahead and re-signed cornerback Stanford Routt to a three-year, $31 million deal.

I’m not sure if you took note of the name, but it wasn’t “Nnamdi Asomugha,” and that’s really all you have to know to understand the Raiders severely overpaid.

Routt received a lot of praise after the season for his low “burn percentage,” a stat compiled by Stats, Inc. Basically, the “burn percentage” is just the percentage of passes completed on a cornerback. In 2010, Routt had 99 passes thrown his way and allowed only 39 receptions with 13 passes defended and two interceptions.

Those numbers look good on the surface, but of those 39 passes completed, five of them were touchdowns. That means roughly one of every eight passes completed Routt’s way to touchdowns, and after watching some of the Raiders games this season I have the feeling those numbers might be a bit off or deceiving.

I seem to remember Routt routinely being burnt because he misread the receiver’s route and being saved by his safety. I would have to go back and re-watch some games, but that was my first impression of Routt. This comes with the disclaimer that I could be jumping to conclusions or just plain wrong.

But even if I am wrong about Routt, the numbers on the field still don’t match up with the numbers on the contract. A guy like Asante Samuel will be making roughly the same as Routt, and there’s no way the skill level matches up.

Sure, Samuel signed his deal a few years ago, but Routt is a guy who should have had a $7-8 million ceiling in a market void of corners. But, once again, the Raiders got into a bidding match with themselves and lost.

This deal, along with Seymour’s, virtually guarantees Oakland won’t be able to re-sign Asomugha, and I don’t see Routt being able to step into his shoes as the No. 1 corner — especially in the AFC West that boasts some very good receivers (Eddie Royal, Brandon Lloyd, Vincent Jackson, Malcolm Floyd, and Dwayne Bowe).

Someone needs to take the checkbook away from Al Davis before he tries giving JaMarcus Russel another $30 million.