Every offseason one player always signs for way less than he’s worth. Last offseason it was Stephen Tulloch signing in Detroit for 3.5 million over a year. This year it is Brandon Lloyd and like with Tulloch, it was all about rejoining a former coordinator. Tulloch wanted to rejoin Jim Schwartz, former Tennessee defensive coordinator and current Lions head coach.

Lloyd wanted to rejoin Josh McDaniels, who has been his offensive coordinator over the past 2 years in Denver (Head Coach in Denver too) and St. Louis, as he has become a surprise breakout wide receiver. I’m sure playing for Belichick, catching passes from Tom Brady, and competing for a Super Bowl just made the deal sweeter, but Lloyd almost definitely took less money (12 million over 3 years) to sign with New England.

McDaniels and Lloyd are awesome together. Before McDaniels was fired as Head Coach in Denver in 2010, Lloyd caught 60 passes for 1153 yards and 9 touchdowns in 12 games with Kyle Orton as his quarterback. In 2011, he was traded to St. Louis, where McDaniels was the offensive coordinator. He caught 51 passes for 683 yards and 5 touchdowns in 11 games with an injured Sam Bradford, AJ Feeley, and Kellen Clemens at quarterback.

In the last 2 years, he has 111 catches for 1836 yards and 14 touchdowns in 23 games with McDaniels. Over 16 games, that’s 77 catches for 1277 yards and 10 touchdowns. With Kyle Orton, AJ Feeley, Kellen Clemens, and an injured Sam Bradford throwing him the football. Now he has Tom Brady throwing him the football.

There’s always a chance that Lloyd just doesn’t fit in the very unique culture that is New England, but this is an absolute steal of a deal. It’s absolutely insane that Lloyd got less total money than Robert Meachem and Laurent Robinson got in guaranteed money even though those two have career highs of 45 catches and 54 catches respectively with Drew Brees and Tony Romo. Lloyd is the deep threat that Brady needs and he comes much cheaper than Mike Wallace. This is a fantastic deal! What’s higher than an A? An A+? Do I give those? I do now.

Grade: A+