Contract News

[pbmax]

The big development of the draft pick signings might not simply be offset language (which proves no CBA is leverage proof) but what teams are giving up to get offset language.

Adam Schefter ‏@AdamSchefter 5h
Dee Milliner deal with Jets: 4 years, $12.66M, fully guaranteed w/ offset language. SB $7.588M, payable $5.0M... http://fb.me/PCyVuRZL

Ian Rapapport reports that the signing bonus will be all paid by Oct 15.

Its become somewhat common in the first round for teams to pay players much of their bonuses up front rather than deferred AND a few have gotten full guarantees. Guarantees unfortunately mean one thing to agents (money guaranteed for skill or injury but not both) and another thing to the rest of the world (paid no matter what). So there is still some gray area.

But there is no doubt that teams are still willing to offer incentives to get language they want in the contract. Which means the NFL is moving closer to guaranteed contracts. The irony is that if they were guaranteed, then there would be no need to front additional money in the contract. So the money the owners saved in the CBA might end up costing them something in return.

[Patler]

Rookie contracts are no longer that large, and being only four years in length makes the impact of the guarantee somewhat insignificant. Even if it becomes common for rookie contracts to be guaranteed, I think it is a big step that is a long ways off for veteran re-signings to be fully guaranteed. It might be a step in that direction, but a small one, in my opinion.

[Guiness]

Funny that, because I remember when details of the new CBA trickled out, the feeling was generally that the changes pretty much exclusively favoured the teams. Looks like the agents found a way to swing the pendulum back their way at least a little. Seems a bit to me like the negotiators and agents are just arguing for the sake of arguing because they've got little else to do.

I'm a little confused about the CBA rules wrt guarantees in the rookie contracts, and I can't seem to find much information about it. What seems odd is why teams are guarateeing the final year, then wanting offset language?

Here's an article that gives a pretty good overview http://rulingsports.com/2012/04/25/the-structure-of-nfl-rookie-contracts/ has anyone got something better?
Here's a pretty complete chart with rookie salaries from 2012 http://www.nyjetscap.com/2012_Articles/rookiecap.php

[Guiness]

One thing that I think sucks for the players taken near the end of the first round is the way the 5th year option is set up. Drafted 1-10, they get the average of the top-10 players at their position, drafted 11-32, they get the average of the 3rd through 25th player. I wonder how often that will be exercised? A player going into his 5th year playing well enough for a team to want to keep him on, draft status should not matter anymore.