King: Phillip Lindsay 'Most Underappreciated Skill Player in Recent NFL History'

It isn't merely Chad Jensen and Zack Kelberman — your fearless hosts of the Huddle Up Podcast — who bemoaned the Denver Broncos unceremoniously dumping Phillip Lindsay.

Consider the following from longtime NFL reporter Peter King, the scribe behind NBC Sports' weekly Football Morning In America column, from which this is pulled:

Running back Phillip Lindsay is the most underappreciated skill player in recent NFL history.

The Broncos, in rescinding Lindsay’s right-of-first-refusal tender with the team and allowing him to become an unrestricted free agent, essentially chose Melvin Gordon over him to lead the Broncos’ backfield. Why? It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, but I don’t think the Broncos ever appreciated what they had in Lindsay.

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King goes on to compare Lindsay — the only undrafted RB in NFL history with consecutive 1,000-yard rushing seasons — to incumbent Denver workhorse Melvin Gordon, whose production across the 2018-2020 campaigns (including his stint in Los Angeles) falls short of his now-former predecessor.

Finally, King closed by making the same point you might have seen floating around your Twitter timelines ...

Lindsay will make more money with the #Texans in 2021 than he did in three years — $2.009 million — with the #Broncos.

Let that sink in. https://t.co/u7mF0P7PP9
— Zack Kelberman (@KelbermanNFL) March 20, 2021

One day after the Broncos rescinded his original-round tender, last Friday, the Houston Texans signed Lindsay, who entered the offseason as a restricted free agent, to a one-year contract worth up to $3.25 million.

Lindsay received $1 million guaranteed as part of his incentive-laden deal, per 9News' Mike Klis. He'll earn $2.25 million in 2021 base salary, with a $500,000 per-game roster bonus and escalators for total scrimmage (rushing and receiving) yards: $250,000 for 750 yards and another $250,000 for 1,000.

The 26-year-old was initially slapped with a $2.13 million "low" tender by the Broncos before the team initiated its divorce, framed as mutually amicable. Had Denver placed a second-round tender on Lindsay, as many anticipated, he would have collected $3.384 million for 2021.

Instead, new general manager George Paton raided his old employer, the Minnesota Vikings, inking RB Mike Boone to a two-year, $3.85 million deal, which includes $2.6 million in guarantees. In other words: So long, Phil. Don't let the door hit ya.

Hence, King's (and many others') exasperation.

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