Thoughts?

(From PFT)

REVIS DEAL CLOUDS PORTIONS OF ROUND ONE

Posted by Mike Florio on April 8, 2008, 11:18 a.m.
As the 2008 draft approaches, a buzz is returning to league circles regarding the contract given last year by the New York Jets to cornerback Darrelle Revis.

The Jets moved up in round one for the ability to snag the Pitt product, who blew scouts away with stunning speed, quickness, and agility during his Pro Day workout. The Jets landed at No. 14, and jumped on Revis.

The problem arises from the posturing that the Jets did in trying to get Revis signed. The latest revision to the Collective Bargaining Agreement allows teams in the top half of round one to sign the selected player to contracts with a maximum duration of six years. For picks No. 17 through 32 (this year, 31), the max length is five seasons.

The Jets, taking a page from other franchises who have played hardball over contract length (such as the Patriots), insisted on a six-year deal, even after the player taken before Revis (Adam Carriker of the Rams) and the guy selected after Revis (Lawrence Timmons of the Steelers) signed straight five-year packages.

In the end, the Jets got their wish. Sort of. Revis has a six-year deal. But he already has met the modest triggers for voiding the last two years of the contract, shrinking the thing to a four-year, $16 million contract. And that four-year total significantly exceeds the total value of the five-year deals given to Carriker and Timmons.

The Jets can still get their six-year package by buying back the final two seasons. But it will cost $16 million to do so. In guaranteed money.

That work out to $32 million over six years. For the fourteenth overall selection.

Because the first five picks or so involve a different universe of negotiations, the teams with selections No. 6 through No. 16 will now face an extra challenge when trying to hammer a contract with the player whom they pick.

The threshhold option will be to do a straight five-year deal, or to agree to a Revis-style deal that likely will force a Fitzgerald-style gun-to-the-head extension after four seasons in order to avoid salary cap problems.

In fact, it’s possible that some agents for the players drafted from No. 6 throug No. 16 will use the Revis deal as the benchmark for negotiations. If, as the argument would go, the guy taken at No. 14 in 2007 got that kind of a package, the guy selected at No. 11 or No. 12 or No. 13 in 2008 merits at least the same deal, if not more.

For some teams, the only way around the problem might be to do a straight four-year deal, and then hold the ability to use the franchise tag for years five and/or six. (In hindsight, the Cardinals surely wish they had done that with Fitzgerald.)

Then again, perhaps the best solution will be for the teams that will hold these financially problematic selections to take the position that the Jets did a deal so bad that it should be viewed as an aberration, and thus ignored.

That might work for the Patriots, Ravens, Bengals, Saints, Bills, Broncos, Panthers, Bears, Lions, and Cardinals.

But calling the Jets stupid won’t work for all of the teams that pick in that range; this year, the Jets hold the sixth overall selection.

 

the nfl needs to go ahead an adopt the nba model for rookies. It would eliminate all of this bullshit.

 

An aberration is not precedence. To try and use that as leverage in negotiations is laughable.