Sometimes it’s about raw talent.

Sometimes it’s about other-worldly production.

Sometimes it’s even about time and place and happenstance.

But often—I’d argue most often—the decision to pay or not pay a player in pro sports is simpler than we make it out to be. For the Eagles and Jordan Davis, I would guess his new three-year, $78M deal falls along these lines. Expensive? Sure. Risky? Perhaps. Surprising? Maybe mildly so.

Yet, if I had to guess, the calculus was as simple as this.