The Carolina Panthers were met with plenty of raised eyebrows. As free agency activity was taking off they signed cornerback Jaycee Horn to a four-year, $100M extension ($70M guaranteed). As the Panthers paid Horn, they officially made him the highest-paid cornerback in the league from an annual average value perspective.
Horn was taken in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft a little before before Micah Parsons, and the whole extension was a little bit surprising. Horn has been an okay player to this point in his career, but we are talking about making him the highest-paid cornerback in the entire NFL.