DID DONALD DRIVER SIGN AN EXTENSION? RUMOR

[Bretsky]

Walker is not more talented than Sharpe. No way. Sharpe was phyiscally dominate. Walker is very, very good but he's not even in the top 5 today. Sharpe was the best at his position untill he got hurt.

I hated Sharpe, that dude was outstanding.

I mean outstanding.....

Yes, I agree Sterling Sharpe had amazing talent; the best I've seen in GB hands down and he would have went down as one of the best all time had he not been hurt.

But I'd also say Javon Walker has elite WR talent. No, he hasn't proven his eliteness in back to back years yet, but I'd take him hands down over guys like Reggie Wayne. A healthy Javon Walker was one of the top 10 WR's in the NFL in his last healthy year and was entering his prime.

Should TT have made more of an effort to use some good customer relation skills to keep him a Packer ? We really don't know. Did TT do any of this ? If the answer is no, then I agree with Wist that TT completely dropped the ball.

B

[Rastak]

From PFT:


POSTED 9:02 p.m. EDT, May 12, 2006

WOY DEFENDS DRIVER DEAL

On Thursday, we suggested that the failure of agent Jordan Woy to disclose the bonus structure of receiver Donald Driver's new contract with the Packers was evidence that the bonus structure, well, wasn't all that good.

On Friday, we heard from Woy.

"I did give a statement to the press regarding Donald Driver's new two year extension," Woy wrote in an e-mail. "However, I was asked by Driver and the team not to disclose certain information."

But Woy was candid regarding certain other information. Here's what he had to say.

"The Driver deal was outstanding under the circumstances," Woy said. "Donald is 31 years old and had two years remaining on his contract for salaries of approximately $1.36 million and $1.86 million. After witnessing what Javon Walker went through I was amazed and very happy we were able to get accomplished what we did. We did it behind the scenes without any bad blood between Donald and the front office and no bad press for Donald in a town that idolizes their stars.

"Donald had no interest in leaving Green Bay," Woy explained. "He also told the team he would NEVER hold out. Andrew Brandt and Ted Thompson knew these things about Donald and could have really squeezed us. In fact, they did for a number of months. I had meetings with both of them several times face to face just to inch up their offers. We continued to point out over and over again why it was fair for them to take care of Donald in his final years and pay him accordingly. In the end, after a lot of debate, they did. Javon Walker was 23 with a great future in front of him but he was unable to get an extension in Green Bay. Many teams would have jumped to do an extension. Green Bay is not one of those teams. They keep their salaries tight and are no big on re-doing deals until they are up.

"Donald's deal is an outstanding deal given his age. He could have played it out and been a free agent at 33. Their is no telling what could happen in those two years and how much someone would pay a 33 year old receiver. As I told the Packers, 'It is time for the good guys to get taken care of.' I think NFL players get tired of only seeing the players who make scenes of themselves in public and fight with the teams in public get deals. Players like Donald, who came into the league as a 7th rounder from Alcorn State and who has been outstanding citizen should get taken care of. A lot of times they don't. I am happy when all players get paid large amounts of money. It is just nice when players like Donald Driver can get paid without going through a public mess and threatening to hold out or be traded."

Last month, Driver denied an ESPN report that he had asked to be traded if his deal was not restructured. The fact that the team "squeezed" Driver "for a number of months" makes us wonder whether there's any truth to the notion that Woy got frustrated during the process and asked for Driver to be dealt.

[pbmax]

"Donald had no interest in leaving Green Bay," Woy explained. "He also told the team he would NEVER hold out. Andrew Brandt and Ted Thompson knew these things about Donald and could have really squeezed us. In fact, they did for a number of months. I had meetings with both of them several times face to face just to inch up their offers.

Definitely sounds like Driver really wanted one more contract before the window closed. And it sounds like Walker's likely departure shook loose the money to reach an agreement.

And its nice of the agent to carry the Packers water for them, by publicly stating they were determined not to go public and the Packers drove a hard bargain, makes it look like this is an exception.

Did Harris get redone with more than a year left on his contract? Tauscher was in the last year, but what about Al?

[Scott Campbell]

Javon Walker was 23 with a great future in front of him but he was unable to get an extension in Green Bay.

Javon is not 23. He'll be 28 in October.

[Scott Campbell]

From PFT:

POSTED 9:22 a.m. EDT, May 13, 2006

DRIVER GOT $4 MILLION TO SIGN

A league source has provided us with the real numbers regarding receiver Donald Driver's new four-year contract, which extends by two years his current deal. Previously, Driver's agent had disclosed the salaries and the total value only, without commenting on bonus money.

Per the source, Driver got $4 million to sign. He also will receive a $250,000 roster bonus and a $950,000 base salary in 2006.

It's a net increase of $3.49 million over his prior base salary of $1.76 million.

For 2007, Driver gets a base salary of $2.7 million and a workout bonus of $50,000. The net increase over his the base salary for 2007 from his old contract is $510,000.

So Driver gets a total raise of $4 million over the next two years and $4 million in cash now, in exchange for extending the term by two seasons.

In 2008, Driver will receive a $1 million roster bonus, a $100,000 workout bonus, and a base salary of $2.9 million. In 2009, he will get a $1 million roster bonus, a $100,000 roster bonus, and $3.9 million in base salary.

The total new money, then, is $13 million over four years, for an average of $3.25 million.

So it's a pretty good deal for Driver, since he was due to make $4 million over the next two years, but now will make $8 million. And he opted to take the $4 million signing bonus now, in the event that, when he is 33 in two years, he won't get that much on the open market.

But he still might be on the open market in 2008 or 2009, due to the $1 million roster bonus in each of the last two seasons of the deal. If the team decides that Driver no longer can play at a high level at age 33 or 34, the Packers will simply opt not to pay the roster bonus.

[HarveyWallbangers]

I agree with NickCollins that Sharpe was better than Walker. There's more than speed/size that comes with the position. Sterling ran great routes, was fast enough to beat you over the top, was a tough SOB that could run the underneath routes, he was one of the best after the catch (he was an RB in a WRs body). The only knock was that his hands would get shaky at times--although I'd classify his hands as good overall. Walker was a great deep threat, had good hands, ran good routes for vertical receiver, and showed toughness, and he was solid after the catch. I guess the only category that I'd truly give Walker was the deep ball, mainly because he was tall, could jump, and did a great job timing the deep balls. Sterling was better on the underneath stuff, ran better routes, and was better after the catch. Their hands were about even.

[Scott Campbell]

I'm still on the Sharpe bandwagon. Teams had to game plan around him, and he still put up huge numbers. Had he not been hurt, and if he managed to keep his head out of his ass, he could have been one of the best ever.

Walker will have to put up monsterous numbers for quite a few years before he moves into that elite status.

[chain_gang]

Yeah Sharpe was awesome. Still think back to that playoff game against detroit in 1993, I believe, in the old Silverdome when Favre found him deep in the back of the endzone. Think that pass must have traveled at least 70 yards it was cross field into the back of the endzone, and Favre hit him right in the breadbasket with it. After the game the lions coaches and players couldn't believe Favre had thrown it that Far.

Also a game in 1992 or 93 season, against the Saints when sharpe had a bad concussion and had blurred vision and still had a hell of a game. Caught the game winnning bomb, I believe. What made Sharpe so great was that teams new he was going to get the ball, but he always got enough separation. He gave opposing teams fits when he played.

[MadtownPacker]

I don't know what happened between Walker and Thompson. It's possible that Walker was too quick to force public confrontations, don't know.

One thing I strongly suspect: If Driver had not gotten his payday, he would have held-out. The man is taking a lot of hard hits, he is near the end of his career. I do not think he would wait until he is 33 to get his golden parachute.

First you say that you "dont know" when it comes to the walker situation even though he LET EVERYONE KNOW. The you say DD would have held out if he didnt get the money even though HE NEVER said that. Sounds like walker sympathizing talk to me with no facts whatsoever.

You contradict the only facts we know:

DD said he would never hold out, walker said he would never play in G&G again. What else can we expect from an assclown who has "The View" as his avatar.

Have you read ANYTHING walker has said in the last year?

[Harlan Huckleby]

Donald Driver is not a saint, he would not forgo his last chance at $5M or so. TT ponied-up because of Driver's improved bargaining position. The Walker ordeal demonstrated the cost of a holdout.

Snicker Licker.

[RashanGary]

T.T. didn't pony up.

Walker wanted 40 million dollars over 6 years coming off an injury. Driver got 17 million over 4.

That is not even close to the same thing. Lets not even go there.

What Thompson did with Driver was give him money up front but Driver had to take less to get it. According to Drivers agent, Thompson was negotiating this for months now. Maybe Walker's situation gave it more leverage but Thompson was willing to extend him at a discount regardless and that is what he did.

Walker wanted to get his money up front and not give back by taking less. Driver took less to get it. It was a fair, win/win situation. Walker's was not. Driver has been one of the NFL's top 10 WR's the last couple of years and he is not getting paid even close to that. Also, the new salary cap is much higher so you're going to see good WR's making double the $$ of Driver and not playing any better. It was not a good deal for Donald but he got his security. The Packers will probably come out on top in that one. The deal Walker was asking for, there was no way GB came out on top even if he was a star.

Not the same thing. Not even close.

[MJZiggy]

I thought this should go here.

Packers | Driver excited about new contract
Fri, 12 May 2006 21:42:16 -0700

Jeff Harding, of Packers.com, reports Green Bay Packers WR Donald Driver was excited and appreciative to have been offered a contract extension. Driver said, "I take my hat off to the Packers organization first of all for even looking into it. I really appreciate what they did because they didn't have to do it. I'm happy that I'll be a Packer for at least another four years. I've always said that once I got to Green Bay I knew I wanted to retire here and that I always wanted to be a Green Bay Packer. The tradition here is tremendous and the people here are like no other."

This doesn't sound like anyone who was even close to having an attitude about his contract. I love the way he appreciates things.

[Scott Campbell]

I hope the Packers continue to reward players who go about getting raises the right way - even if that means hurting themselves in the short term when they lose idiots like Javon.

[Bretsky]

"""Walker wanted to get his money up front and not give back by taking less. Driver took less to get it."""


This is an absolutely great analysis.

And it leads to the point that if we didn't trade JW it was going to get much uglier before it got better.......IF it ever did.

I think TT made some mistakes along this road, namely not making a better effort to communicate with Javon Walker.

[RashanGary]

Yeah...I agree Bretsky...

I think when Javon first asked for the big payday, Thompson was just entering the job. He wanted to see what he had before he even considered that. I think Javon and Drew should have realized that a little bit but if Thompson just said "no" and didn't give an explaination it would have been a mistake.

In the end, I think Walker was coming in to show TT what he could do and that awfull injury occured. Had that not happened this might be a different story. Some of the things that happened along the way where just bad timing.

Javons original request was not good timing with a new GM who didn't know the roster. The injury was horrible timing. It just was ugly all the way around and some of the hurt feelings were products of circumstance.

Could he have communicated better? I think so. I think he's said he'd do things differently.