Report: Packers, Grant reach deal!!!

[bobblehead]

I guess I'm the only one who thinks they way overpaid. He hits 1500 twice and will get near 30 million for 4 years....we get ONE year of his FA for this. Seems like the pack caved big time. If he pretty much is average he will get 18 million for 4 years? honestly, 4.5 million a year if he turns out average? It doesn't smell good to me.

[HarveyWallbangers]

I guess I'm the only one who thinks they way overpaid. He hits 1500 twice and will get near 30 million for 4 years....we get ONE year of his FA for this. Seems like the pack caved big time. If he pretty much is average he will get 18 million for 4 years? honestly, 4.5 million a year if he turns out average? It doesn't smell good to me.

I sort of agree, but as I said in the other thread. You can overpay a bit if you don't play the UFA market and it's good that players know the team will fairly compensate them. Remember that a 30-year-old, busted down Ahman Green got $6.5M/year last year, so the $4.5M/year isn't exorbinant. It's probably more than he should have gotten though.

[boiga]

One other thing to remember is that most of this money is in the form of Roster Bonus instead of Signing Bonus. So, if Grant gets injured or cut, we owe nothing on the years to come.

So there is relatively little risk to the Packers. If Grant's a stud, he'll get paid. If he's a fluke, he'll get 4.5 million dollars and get cut and we won't owe him another dime.

It sounds like a great deal to me.

[Tarlam!]

I would have liked to see him earn bonus money for "wins" by the team also. In fact, I wish all player contracts had "w" s as a bench mark. If he rushes for 1500 and the team goes 1-15, what good is it?

That's how it is done in soccer contracts in Europe.

[Gunakor]

I would have liked to see him earn bonus money for "wins" by the team also. In fact, I wish all player contracts had "w" s as a bench mark. If he rushes for 1500 and the team goes 1-15, what good is it?

That's how it is done in soccer contracts in Europe.

That doesn't really sound fair to me though. Grant is still holding up his end of the bargain. What if Grant rushes for 1500 yards and the offense averages 21 points a game, but the defense stinks and allows 28 points a game. The team is going to lose a bunch of games, but Ryan Grant doesn't have any control over how many points the defense gives up. At least he's doing his job, even if others aren't doing thiers. It's really not fair to punish individual players for team failure IMO.

[The Leaper]

I guess I'm the only one who thinks they way overpaid. He hits 1500 twice and will get near 30 million for 4 years....we get ONE year of his FA for this. Seems like the pack caved big time. If he pretty much is average he will get 18 million for 4 years? honestly, 4.5 million a year if he turns out average? It doesn't smell good to me.

I generally agree...but that is what happens when you lowball a player right out of the gate and get called on the carpet publically for it. Thompson had to make it right...because players around the league, and in the Packers own locker room, were taking notice.

Offering just $1.75M guaranteed money to a guy who proved he has Pro Bowl caliber talent was dumb...especially when you just handed out $3M to Poppinga.

[MJZiggy]

I guess I'm the only one who thinks they way overpaid. He hits 1500 twice and will get near 30 million for 4 years....we get ONE year of his FA for this. Seems like the pack caved big time. If he pretty much is average he will get 18 million for 4 years? honestly, 4.5 million a year if he turns out average? It doesn't smell good to me.

We may only get one year of his FA by contract, but if he performs to make the escalators in this contract kick in, his deal will likely be redone before that last season anyway (if he doesn't repeat this stink).

[LL2]

From what I've read it seems like a good deal. If Grant runs for over 1,000 yards a year then the base 18 million is what you can expect to pay a good RB these days, and if he avg over 1,500 yards a year then $30 million is a great deal for the Packers. There are not too many backs that avg over 1,500 yard season.

[falco]

One other thing to remember is that most of this money is in the form of Roster Bonus instead of Signing Bonus. So, if Grant gets injured or cut, we owe nothing on the years to come.

So there is relatively little risk to the Packers. If Grant's a stud, he'll get paid. If he's a fluke, he'll get 4.5 million dollars and get cut and we won't owe him another dime.

It sounds like a great deal to me.

BOIGA - you are absolutely right... I think thats what people are missing about this deal - he didn't get $20 mil or $15 mil or $10 mil guaranteed - all he got is the $3 million roster bonus this year, plus this year's salary which you could probably consider guaranteed - thats the minimum the packers are on the hook for

[RashanGary]

I sort of agree, but as I said in the other thread. You can overpay a bit if you don't play the UFA market and it's good that players know the team will fairly compensate them. Remember that a 30-year-old, busted down Ahman Green got $6.5M/year last year, so the $4.5M/year isn't exorbinant. It's probably more than he should have gotten though.

A little perspective here.


Shit! UFA sucks. No wonder we're doing well. We're staying away from that mine field.

[pbmax]

I have to agree with you both on Bubba, though I always thought it was age more than the holdout.

But the one that kills me was Levens. He eventually came back and then it seemed like Holmgren was punishing him by keeping him in an early game to the end and he mangled his ankle when he seemed dead tired. That was a killer.

PIP and GBR, what did you guys used to do when ALL first round picks missed time because there was no cap or rookie pool?

And did Ken Ruettgers yearly training camp vacation cause heart palpitations as well?

The starting RB is a a little more important than a rookie. Besides, I really don't remember the last time a 1st round pick of ours wasn't into camp on time.

I just don't want to see a rehash of Bubba. The guy missed alot of practices...finally got his new contract and just wasn't the same IMO.

Ditto

[Bretsky]

I would have liked to see him earn bonus money for "wins" by the team also. In fact, I wish all player contracts had "w" s as a bench mark. If he rushes for 1500 and the team goes 1-15, what good is it?

That's how it is done in soccer contracts in Europe.

GB has pretty solid talent; you can't blame Grant if he's ok but AROD sucks

[Fritz]

I guess I'm the only one who thinks they way overpaid. He hits 1500 twice and will get near 30 million for 4 years....we get ONE year of his FA for this. Seems like the pack caved big time. If he pretty much is average he will get 18 million for 4 years? honestly, 4.5 million a year if he turns out average? It doesn't smell good to me.

I generally agree...but that is what happens when you lowball a player right out of the gate and get called on the carpet publically for it. Thompson had to make it right...because players around the league, and in the Packers own locker room, were taking notice.

Offering just $1.75M guaranteed money to a guy who proved he has Pro Bowl caliber talent was dumb...especially when you just handed out $3M to Poppinga.

Leaper, I don't know exactly, but I hope you're not one of the people who are Teddy-haters. One of the primary complaints I keep hearing about TT is that he's "cheap." He has all this money over the cap, he won't spend it, he'd rather lose the money than spend it on making the players happy, and on and on ad infinitum.

So they get a deal done...and now people are saying the Packers overpaid? Come on.

And what about when Al Harris was carping about his salary, and according to published reports, TT sidled up to him at a practice and basically said "we'll take care of you"? And he did. Al stopped complaining, and by season's end a deal - an extension - was done. What about Barnett? What about Donald Driver's extension?

What Grant missed of training camp was a drop in a bucket. My biggest concern is that he doesn't come out and try to show he's worth it at the first practice and pop a hamstring or something (God forbid).

And finally, for the poster who was complaining that if Grant hits 1500 yards he'd be getting way too much money - if he hits 1500 yards, I'll put down some money that you will be damn glad he's getting paid good money to be a happy and productive Green Bay Packer.

TT keeps the budget tight; people bitch. TT gets a player signed; people bitch. Sigh.

[Bretsky]

again, I think this is a great deal; for where the Packers are cap wise I really don't care much if they've overpaid him a bit.

[NewsBruin]

Hey, sometimes, I'm pretty good.

Looking through my posts this past week:

I've heard Grant's agent say that both sides are interested in an incentive-based contract, which I think is awful from Grant's interest. There's too much that could affect Grant's numbers that is not under his control... We're well under the cap; we can afford some wiggle room with our top players. I would like to see Grant get an escalator-based contract that rewards his effort in 2008 with pay raises in 2009 and 2010, with some guaranteed and base cash for 2008.

You know, we're pretty good with cash, and if we blow $2-4M on a signing bonus for a player who didn't play up to his first 8 games, then I don't think it's that huge of a loss. I don't think anything more than $4M at signing is necessary, but I would like to see some guaranteed cash at other intervals too.

Unless there's real assurances that a contract would be redone, Grant should not sign anything greater than a 4-year contract. Most players only get one really great signing bonus in their career, and $1.75 million is not a great bonus for a starting halfback.

I think Grant should be given a pair of roster bonuses (non-guaranteed, as I'd want that cap hit NOW, rather than over the length of his contract) and a signing bonus. He may hate his contract later (RB's are very likely to get precedent-breaking superstar contracts), but if he's paid fair now, that's going to go a long way.

Not that it matters to anyone what I think, but I like this deal for Grant and the Packers. He gets decent (but not superstar) starter money at solid early intervals; the Packers have the flexibility to terminate his contract without eating a big chunk of dead money; we have a starting running back to cheer for.