Ryan Grant thinks he’ll be the starter

[Lurker64]

Winning a roster spot on the Packers is tough enough. Ryan Grant has to win the #1 spot or he has to renegotiate his contract.

As the experienced veteran I expect him to win it. He will have to work at it.

If he isn't clearly #1, then they would talk about a pay cut. I think he will be #1.

I think, that just due to the constraints of the offseason, roster limits for the 2011-2012 season will be higher... just because teams didn't have offseasons to develop their draft picks. So I wouldn't be at all surprised if, for the 2011-2012 season only, the roster limit were something like 60 instead of 53. In that situation, I can see us keeping 4 RBs, 5TEs, etc.

[vince]

I think, that just due to the constraints of the offseason, roster limits for the 2011-2012 season will be higher... just because teams didn't have offseasons to develop their draft picks. So I wouldn't be at all surprised if, for the 2011-2012 season only, the roster limit were something like 60 instead of 53. In that situation, I can see us keeping 4 RBs, 5TEs, etc.

That would surprise me. This is about money more than anything else and adding 7 guys to every team would cost owners about $100 million. If you keep the salary cap where it otherwise would be, it would cost the top 53 on the teams that much and put teams in cap trouble.

[bobblehead]

Contractually, it was the exact same situation. He was not under contract and was offered a one year contract at a league-determined value. He had the right to accept it or negotiate something longer. He chose to negotiate.

Drafted rookies get to negotiate multi-year contracts that include guaranteed bonuses. You seem to suggest that since Grant wasn't drafted, for four years he is obligated to accept only a series of one year contracts with no guarantees, if that is what the team offers.

I suggested no such thing. He had every right to not play. All players have that right. Most guys in his situation take a slightly better one year deal and play on. He had the team by the short curlys in a PR war with the player not to be named. He leveraged that for a much better contract than TWill was able to procure a year later. Do I blame him? Not really. Do I think it will factor into the teams decision to give him his $5 million this year? You betcha!

[bobblehead]

The Packers learned from the Grant situation. They offered Williams much more than the required tender right from the start. They gave him a $375,000 signing bonus on top of it. Had they offered something similar to Grant the year before, and had they done it early in the process, something with a reasonable signing bonus, he might have accepted long before the Favre situation arose. Instead, the Packers held to the minimum tender offer, the Favre situation developed, and suddenly the Packers were at a disadvantage.



Edit: I just realized that not only did they give him a signing bonus, they gave him a salary more than required by the tender. In all, he was paid almost twice what the bare tender required, and they did it early enough that he was signed in early May

You are wrong. The first move TT made was to tender him for the minimum amount. TWill didn't sign it and later signed for more. Furthermore you dont' have any more idea than I do what they offered Grant between when they tendered him for the minimum and when they ultimately signed him. They were NEGOTIATING the entire time.

[bobblehead]

Sharpe was released only after he had surgery, not just after the diagnosis. He was released because he was going to be out an entire year, if he ever came back, he also had a big salary number and he was pushing for more money even though he was injured. I think he was able to collect on a huge insurance policy (~$3 Mil) for a career ending injury as well. Not a very good comparison to Grant at all, IMO.

I didn't mean to compare the situations, only the teams way of handling them. I could be wrong, but I think the packers were required to keep Sharpe on IR through his surgery and until the end of that season. You can't simply cut a guy who gets hurt midseason and tell him to find his own surgeon.

[bobblehead]

Sharpes "holdout" came before the first game. His neck injury occurred toward the end of the season.

As I remember it (which could be wrong) Sharpe announced his retirement shortly after consulting with specialists, saying nothing was worth the risk of potential paralysis. I don't recall any equivocation on his part, no comments about trying to come back or to catch on with another team. My impression at the time was that it was pretty serious, and he may have dodged a bullet when he was injured.

I won't swear to remember it verbatim, but my recollection was that sharpe waited until he was cut. He would have gladly spent the year on IR and collected his salary. I also believe (but can't know) that wolf would have kept him on IR for a year waiting to see if he came back if not for the holdout on the eve of the season opener. I remember reading articles in the madison newspaper at the time that alluded to it playing out that way. Maybe my vision of the whole scenario was skewed by those couple articles, but its the way I remember it happening.

[Jimx29]

Starks = Samkon Gado



I hope i'm wrong

[bobblehead]

Winning a roster spot on the Packers is tough enough. Ryan Grant has to win the #1 spot or he has to renegotiate his contract.

As the experienced veteran I expect him to win it. He will have to work at it.

If he isn't clearly #1, then they would talk about a pay cut. I think he will be #1.

This is sort of my point. If he isn't the starter what do you say to the guys who beat him out if you pay them minimum and grant $5 mill+ ?? I think if there is a camp the team will value Starks and Green quite a bit. Maybe resign BJAck because of the restricted time frame. Where does that leave Grant? In todays game, and the way TT treats RB's I just don't see Grant on the roster....unless he takes a big paycut and I don't think he will.

[RashanGary]

At first glance I would have said, "there is no way in hell Grant is getting cut" but then bobblehead made a reasonable argument.


Problem is. . . Starks is thin and runs high. Green is a rookie, without OTA's or minicamps. Jackson is the worst RB in the NFL, he's NOT coming back. I guarantee that. . . .

Grant gets one more year to groom Green. Then it's the Green/Starks show.

[Patler]

This is sort of my point. If he isn't the starter what do you say to the guys who beat him out if you pay them minimum and grant $5 mill+ ?? I think if there is a camp the team will value Starks and Green quite a bit. Maybe resign BJAck because of the restricted time frame. Where does that leave Grant? In todays game, and the way TT treats RB's I just don't see Grant on the roster....unless he takes a big paycut and I don't think he will.

What do you say to them? The same thing said to the players ahead of KGB a couple years ago when he was being paid more then than Grant will be paid now. That's just the way it goes. It happens all over the league. When the other player is in a position to negotiate, he will get his chance.

[get louder at lambeau]

Starks = Samkon Gado



I hope i'm wrong

Don't worry. You are.

[SkinBasket]

Grant is just fine. I don't think Starks is so full of himself that he has a problem with the starter returning to starter status. Of course, it's just Ol' Stumble Feet telling him he's the starter, but if it makes the manbaby feel better, then what's the harm?

[vince]

IMO, the only way Grant doesn't play this year for the Packers is if he gets injured. I think McCarthy will be excited to have 3 legitimate big, fast weapons at RB with different skills to intermix and feature at different times during games and as the season progresses. The fact that Grant almost never fumbles is itself a valuable skill. Obviously, you have to be able to run effectively, but with two young guys with a lot to prove yet backing him up, (I'm with you JH - Jackson is gone.) Ryan Grant is still an important part of this team.

Grant is a team leader and I think he will remain an asset to the team on and off the field even with a reduced role, which he'll have compared to what he's become used to here. As Patler said, Grant's pay is not that outrageous. The fact that he makes more than the other RBs with whom he shares time will be of no consequence.

[Guiness]

Tar did not...have...sexual...relations...with JH.

There may have been a cigar involved.

Zing! To quote Eddie Murphy:

"That was a good one, too ! My mouth was open."

However, I'm not sure just why JH felt the need to jump in with a mention of his mouth. Maybe he felt left out?

[Patler]

You are wrong. The first move TT made was to tender him for the minimum amount. TWill didn't sign it and later signed for more. Furthermore you dont' have any more idea than I do what they offered Grant between when they tendered him for the minimum and when they ultimately signed him. They were NEGOTIATING the entire time.

Not as I recall it. Grant's agent was complaining that the Packers wouldn't even respond to him. It was a take the tender or leave it approach by the Packers, and it backfired on them when Grant didn't sign by late July, TC started and Favre showed up.

The next year they had Williams signed by early May because they began negotiated an upscale deal almost immediately. The year before they screwed around with Grant for three more months.