2014 NFL Season

[elliseamos]

That hits on one of my pet peeves. I hate when fans complain about how much players make. If the money weren't being given to the players it would just be going into the owners' pockets. It's not like the players are taking money away from fans/teachers/firefighters/whoever people complain "deserves" it.

The next time I hear a left-leaning non-sports person complain about this, I should say something along the lines of "do you want RGIII to get all that money or do you want Dan Snyder to get it?" That ought to end that debate.

which debate is that?

[Mecca]

That hits on one of my pet peeves. I hate when fans complain about how much players make. If the money weren't being given to the players it would just be going into the owners' pockets. It's not like the players are taking money away from fans/teachers/firefighters/whoever people complain "deserves" it.

pay the players more and the owners raise ticket prices to get what they believe their nut should be. Regardless, I think holdouts are done with the right intentions in mind, especially if a team can for all intents and purposes kill a contract with no loyalty to the player and a holdout is the player's version of it.

[red calzolaio]

Andre Reed is awesome.

[Thejambi]

Lynch just probably knows he is about to fall apart. Their is nothing wrong with his contract in relation to his performance.

[Fuck You Jobu]

I know its a little old but....

http://www.nytimes.com/newsgraphics/201 ... milestone/

[Electromatic]

It's freaking hilarious that the league is choosing to focus on "racism" when they clearly don't seem to understand how they just crapped the bed on domestic violence.

Yeah, lets fine two guys calling each other names on the field never mind two stars just beat the crap out of their significant others.

Where's Greg? Hardy's penalty?

[elliseamos]

QUICK, EVERYBODY, HOLD-OUT!!

The Seahawks got their starting running back in camp today, and Marshawn Lynch got something out of his brief holdout.

A league source tells PFT that the Seahawks agreed to bump up Lynch’s base salary to persuade Lynch to report.

Under Lynch’s previous contract, he was due to make a $5 million base salary this year, plus $500,000 in per-game roster bonuses, and he could have earned another $500,000 in incentives if he had rushed for 1,500 yards. Now Lynch gets a base salary of $6 million (meaning the Seahawks effectively guaranteed the $1 million he previously would have had to earn), plus they’re taking $500,000 that he had been scheduled to get paid in 2015 and giving it to him now instead. In all, Lynch will make $6.5 million this year.

The Seahawks also agreed not to enforce the fines that they were entitled to dock him from the work he has already missed. We’re also hearing that the league office was pressuring the Seahawks to go after some of Lynch’s signing bonus money if he refused to report, as teams are permitted to do under the Collective Bargaining Agreement. But the Seahawks resisted that.

Instead, the Seahawks and Lynch reached a deal amenable to both sides, and Lynch is in camp, making more money in 2014 than he was scheduled to make under his old deal.

[Orpheus]

Lynch has been a phenomenal player for the Seahawks and if you really look at him he's pretty unique. He'll probably only play two more years at most so this was a smart move on his part, and it costs the Hawks very little. It's hard to replace what he provides as a runner and receiver and he's the perfect RB to complement Wilson.

[Bammer]

Here we go again for the Bills.

Even the announcers last night kept calling their quarterback a tool. That's rough.

[Green Habit]

Holy cow, PFM is looking more and more like a bargain. Russell Wilson and Andrew Luck will like this news.

[Thejambi]

What a shitty deal for Cincy.

[elliseamos]

so michael johnson gets $9m per year, and dalton gets $19m?

that seems absurd considering dalton has never seemed all that effective as a leader or even game manager.

[Green Habit]

We still need to see the details to see just how much of a bad deal this is for Cincy. If they frontload it to where all the guaranteed money is this year and next, they'll have the ability to cut him without much damage if/when he doesn't deserve an average of $19M per year.

[elliseamos]

We still need to see the details to see just how much of a bad deal this is for Cincy. If they frontload it to where all the guaranteed money is this year and next, they'll have the ability to cut him without much damage if/when he doesn't deserve an average of $19M per year.

but doesn't that still ignore the fact that he's not worth $19M (or more) now?

[Electromatic]

We still need to see the details to see just how much of a bad deal this is for Cincy. If they frontload it to where all the guaranteed money is this year and next, they'll have the ability to cut him without much damage if/when he doesn't deserve an average of $19M per year.

agents put out these numbers, This is probably a best possible scenario and there are a ton of incentives I would guess.

[red calzolaio]

Here we go again for the Bills.

Even the announcers last night kept calling their quarterback a tool. That's rough.

really? after only two series?

lolz.

[Green Habit]

We still need to see the details to see just how much of a bad deal this is for Cincy. If they frontload it to where all the guaranteed money is this year and next, they'll have the ability to cut him without much damage if/when he doesn't deserve an average of $19M per year.

but doesn't that still ignore the fact that he's not worth $19M (or more) now?

Oh I agree, but it only takes one team to disagree to make it happen. This is odd for Cincy though, as they are notorious for being cheap.

[Green Habit]

We still need to see the details to see just how much of a bad deal this is for Cincy. If they frontload it to where all the guaranteed money is this year and next, they'll have the ability to cut him without much damage if/when he doesn't deserve an average of $19M per year.

agents put out these numbers, This is probably a best possible scenario and there are a ton of incentives I would guess.

Yep. The $115M total is probably accurate on paper but it's the guarantees that count, and agents are notorious for lying about those and getting the breaking news insiders to play ball.

[Electromatic]

We still need to see the details to see just how much of a bad deal this is for Cincy. If they frontload it to where all the guaranteed money is this year and next, they'll have the ability to cut him without much damage if/when he doesn't deserve an average of $19M per year.

agents put out these numbers, This is probably a best possible scenario and there are a ton of incentives I would guess.

Yep. The $115M total is probably accurate on paper but it's the guarantees that count, and agents are notorious for lying about those and getting the breaking news insiders to play ball.

I'm seeing something like 17 million in guarantees, so its a nice gamble for both parties.

[elliseamos]

We still need to see the details to see just how much of a bad deal this is for Cincy. If they frontload it to where all the guaranteed money is this year and next, they'll have the ability to cut him without much damage if/when he doesn't deserve an average of $19M per year.

agents put out these numbers, This is probably a best possible scenario and there are a ton of incentives I would guess.

Yep. The $115M total is probably accurate on paper but it's the guarantees that count, and agents are notorious for lying about those and getting the breaking news insiders to play ball.

I'm seeing something like 17 million in guarantees, so its a nice gamble for both parties.

The most important numbers are the numbers fully guaranteed at signing. Dalton receives a signing bonus of $12 million and a roster bonus in three days of $5 million. That’s a total of $17 million out of the gates. Coupled with his $986,000 base salary (which isn’t guaranteed as a legal matter but it is as a practical matter), Dalton will make $18 million in the first year of the deal.

Then, on the third day of the 2015 league year in March, Dalton earns a $4 million roster bonus. He also has a $3 million non-guaranteed base salary in 2015. That’s $25 million over two years.

Dalton passed on the opportunity to load injury-only guarantees into the contract, since the Bengals would have wanted Dalton to buy a disability policy similar to the one that the 49ers had Colin Kaepernick buy as part of his six-year extension. The policy cost $2 million in pre-tax dollars, and (as we’ll explain in a separate post) creates a bizarre donut hole of protection for the player and the team.

The rest of the base deal is simple. In addition to annual workout bonuses of $200,000, Dalton has base salaries of $10.5 million in 2016, $13.1 million in 2017, $13.7 million in 2018, $16 million in 2019, and $17.5 million in 2020.

Unlike the Kaepernick deal, which loaded up the base value artificially and then used de-escalators based on playing time and team or personal achievements, Dalton’s deal potentially goes up, not down.