I was surprised to see that nobody to date has posted anything about Brian Hartline's signing. He is comparable to our own Danny Amendola, thereby making this contract the first shot across the bow as it relates to Danny's worth on the open market. This past Friday, Hartline signed a 5 year $31M contract; an average of $6.2M per year. $12.5M of that was guaranteed.

To date, Hartline has been a reliable WR for the fish and has played in 44 of a total of 48 games over the past three years. This past year he caught 74 balls for 1083 yards (14.6 ypc) and 1 TD. In each of the two previous seasons, Hartline averaged 46 catches for 685 yards and 1 TD. Hartline is listed in Yahoo sports as being 6-2 and 199 lbs.

We all know that Danny Amendola has had injury problems over the past two years; playing in only 11 games this past year and only a single game the year before. Last year his stats over the 11 games were 63 catches for 666 yards (10.6 ypc) and 3 TDs. Extrapolated out that average would be 92 catches for 969 yards and 4 TDs. Two years prior (ie, the 2010 season) he put up 85 catches for 689 yards (8.1 ypc) and 3 TDs. Danny is listed as 5-11 and 188 lbs.

In addition, 3 years ago Danny was used as a KR/PR however, this past year he was used in this role sparingly with 2 KO returns for 16 yards total (8 ypr) and 17 PR for 122 yards (7.2 ypr) and two fumbles (both lost).

So all things considered what do y'all think? In my opinion, Hartline has better stats in every category with the exception of TDs, which is NOT unimportant. Thus, the highest I could see Danny reasonably asking for would be about $6M per year. On the other hand, durability taken into consideration, he's probably more in the $4-5M per year range. In fact, maybe that's where the situation becomes a little bit sticky and why Danny is going to test the free agent market? Nevertheless, if he is willing to stay AND some clowns like the Niners don't sign him to a contract greater than his worth, we should be able to retain him for a reasonable price.

What say you?