NFL contracts need changing

[brettbrettr]

Today the Chargers announced that Antonio Gates would not be play in week 1. He still hasn't reported/signed his tender/agreed to a deal. (His tender, by the way, is $380k for this year.) The Chargers clearly play hardball, as they did last year when they wouldn't cave to Rivers demands and he wound up not even competing for the starting job. That worked out for them...Gates, to me, seems a different situation. I'm not sure of the demands and what-not, but the guy is clearly worthy of top 3 TE $. On the one hand, the team needs to establish that one good season doesn't entitle someone a new contract. On the other, it seems Gates is far from a one-year wonder. He has all the tools and basically dominates anyone who tries ot defend him. He is clearly not a product of the system.

There are a couple of other teams doing similiar things. The Eagles, obviously, and the Bears. While I think the Eagles have all the leverage in the world and they did the right thing with TO the Bears seem to be screwing the pooch on a yearly basis. First of all, not having a viable b/u QB is most likely going to cost them another season. Worse is their failure ot get Cedric Benson into camp. They prob odn't want to pay a young RB mega-bucks considering the high risk of injury/bust, etc. But why on god's green earth did they drfat him? Did they think he'd hire Master P to negotiate his deal? I know Jerry Angelo was the "architect" of the Bucs SB team, but I think this is a case where the FO guys head's are way too big and they just don't think. In Benson's case I read the sitcking point is the legnth of the deal: He wants 5 max, they want 6. In 6 years conventional wisdom says a RB's best years are behind him. Benson and his agents aren't dumb for in insisting on 5 b/c that could very well be the only contract this guys signs in the league. The relative non-interest in S Alexander this offseason probably scares the [censored] out of these other young backs, and rightly so. (In know it was a RB rich draft, but still...) Anyway, I hear Benson is threatening to sit out this year, and reenter the draft. With Grossman going down I imagine the leverage now shifted to Benson and they'll agree to his very-[censored]-reasonable demands. But maybe, jusy maybe, if he does sit out and reenter next year everyone will wake up and realize that they should fix this system b/c, quite frankly, it sucks.

This is a league-wide problem. I don't blame any player for asking for more money when they can b/c the team can basuically cut them at any time. Sure pro-rated guarantees prevent capricious owners from cutting players they made the mistake of signing in the first place--see, Brunell, Mark and Snyder, Dan--but the fact that the only guaranteed $ is the bonus leaves open the possibility that guys, deserving or not, will ask for more $. I also think its 100% hypocritical for the league and the media to make these guys out as being greedy when really, each side is approching it from the same angle. Both teams and players worry about money. And both worry about injuries.

I'm not sure if there's a viable solution. Maybe a % of an injured players salary wouldn't count against the cap but go into some pension sort of thing for that player? Really, I'm not a lawyer, I haven't a clue. And while the business of football is somewhat interesting and creates free agent opportunities for SB contenders (see Law, Ty [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]), the contract holdouts/tags/blah blah [censored] blah is getting annoying. If the league and the players union wanted to do something to give everyone involved a better image they'd sit down and fix it.

Anyhoo, football starts in two weeks and I'm happy. This is my two weeks til football rant. In two weeks all the talk of holdouts (see Abraham, John) will be muffled by the sound of mostrous hits (see Vilma, Jonathan) and wondering whether your or not your QB will ever make it through a season (see Pennington, Chad). Thank [censored] God.

(If anyone wants in yet another 2+2 fantasy league, PM me.)

[holeplug]

The Bears are just afraid Benson would tear his knee to shreds in a preseason game so they are making up a fake contract dispute so he doesn't have to play. There's my conspiracy theory for the day.

[bugstud]

the Bears have supposedly offered benson more than the difference between the 2 picks around them. Benson is just being a jackass, apparently.

[Sluss]

[ QUOTE ]
the Bears have supposedly offered benson more than the difference between the 2 picks around them. Benson is just being a jackass, apparently.

[/ QUOTE ]
The scariest line I heard was that Benson's agent went to him with a contract with $17 millon dollars in guaranteed money. Benson and his "small circle of friends and family" thought that this was not enough. [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] I knew this was a stupid draft pick when they made it. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[jakethebake]

This is for everyone that tries to use the "Owners can cut players whenever they want" as part of their argument that it's one-sided. You really should study a finance concept called "real options". Yes, management can cut players. But that is built into the extravagant salaries they pay them in the form of an implicit option. In other words, part of their salary is a premium paid for the option to cut them or end the contract early. Yes, the players are open to being cut, but they're also compensated for that. The current structure of long contracts that are never fulfilled is a necessity to operate within the salary cap structure.

[kerssens]

Nice, you just made me feel like I was back in a derivatives class. I liked that class.

[BreakfastBurrito]

What exactly is the problem with NFL contracts? There will always be salary disputes in any line of work. The NFL has the only system that does a reasonably good job of keeping salaries in line with performance. It seems to me that other sports screw the pooch much worse with the contracts they give out. Brian Grant will be making another $14 million next year, and Jim Thome will be making $46 million over the next 3 years one way or the other.

As far as the Gates situation goes, I've heard he wants a 3 year deal, which just makes no sense. The Chargers can tender him this year and next, then franchise him after that, so what motive would they possibly have to give him a big 3 year deal?

[kerssens]

[ QUOTE ]
As far as the Gates situation goes, I've heard he wants a 3 year deal, which just makes no sense. The Chargers can tender him this year and next, then franchise him after that, so what motive would they possibly have to give him a big 3 year deal?

[/ QUOTE ]

Speaking strictly financially, they have no reason to do anything other than what you said. But it could be good for their future to take care of Gates now. If they get a reputation as being a hardline team, other players may be less likely to sign.

[Boris]

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But that is built into the extravagant salaries they pay them in the form of an implicit option.

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Compared to other sports, I wouldn't call the NFL player salaries extravagant. First round draft picks being the slight exception. This is thanks in large part to an effective salary cap. The owners kicked the players' butt in the last CBA.

The Gates situation is interesting because the Chargers want to sign him to a long term deal and Gates doesn't want that. He also doesn't want to play one season for $350k. The reason he doesn't want a long term deal is that if a new CBA is not reached by October, the 2007 season will not have a salary cap. Many players of course want to cash in big time in '07. The stories I've seen are that the owners and the players are not even in the same ballpark in their negotiations for a CBA right now so I wouldn't expect to see a new one signed by October.

[fryKing]

It seems to me that the players need to win some concessions from the NFL. They have by far the worst deal in the major sports (and I would say that even includes the new NHL deal, at least they have no-cut contracts and unrestricted free agency at 27 in a few years). Meanwhile the NFL has been fantastically successful and the owners are getting rich while players have "7-year" contracts that everyone knows aren't worth the paper they're printed on.

I also think the NFL could survive a strike just fine. Of course it would be horrible for the fans, but how many of us would stop watching the NFL if there was a short strike? Almost nobody, I'd bet. Meanwhile the owners are really making too much money to let a strike go on too long.

With the uncapped year coming up, I don't see any reason for the players to agree on a deal early unless it's an amazingly favorable "take it or leave it".