Christl: Driver got ext w/2yrs left, why not Walker?

[Noodle]

And what's wrong with Pez?

Actually, Pez are kind of tasty. Point well taken.

I'll agree with you on this, too -- DD didn't get money because he's a good guy, but he got the opportunity to get his money because he wasn't an a-hole.

That's why I agreed with some other posters who thought that Rosenhaus's personality and tactics was a big reason they came to loggerheads.

It wasn't the principle, it was the personality.

[Harlan Huckleby]

It was all but inevitable that Driver would get his deal redone. The Packers backs were against the wall.

It's curious that Tarlam and you other "a contract is a contract" types aren't disturbed that Driver's contract was rewritten with two years remaining. The Packer had him locked into a great deal from the team's perspective. Why wouldn't you want Driver to play-out his contract for $2M rather than pay him $10M for those two years? That's money for an aditional quality free agent. According to your theory, Driver's a good soldier who would just honor the contract.

Well, in the bizarre event that Thompson had refused to redo Driver's deal, there would have been some fast scrambling here in the forum. It is unimaginable that Driver would have just turned-the-other cheek, and ended his career with a relatively small pot of retirement gold. He would have been thrown into the "bad guy" pile.

[RashanGary]

So whats the difference H.H.

Why did Walker get turned down and Driver get his deal.

[Harlan Huckleby]

That's a good damn question, NC.

It could be that Walker's specific demands were unreasonable, and he was too quick to make confrontation public. Or Thompson may have miscalculated. I really don't know.

Thompson and Walker should have worked out an extension back in spring of 2005. Don't know who is to blame for that not happening.

The Driver renegotiation was a no-brainer, given all the circumstances.

[Merlin]

You can't renegotiate a rookie deal--it just isn't done due to salary cap reasons. As a franchise, you need to know you have Player X locked in for X years at X dollars so that you can go about building your team and plan for the cap's future appropriately. What would happen if every damn rookie wanted to renegotiate after 2 or 3 years and pulled the JW bs? Mayhem. You can't redo a rookie deal--espeically when the guy goes about it like JW did. Piss on him.

I agree that this shouldn't be done. You also have to look at Walker for this too. He is the one that wanted a long term rookie deal. He got it, played like Fergeson did last year for a few years, had one good year (with a lot of dropped balls) and then wanted T.O. money. Nice try.

[RashanGary]

Do you think maybe he was asking for top 5 WR money after one good year of football and still had 2 years remaining?

I think the magnitude of the request played a part too. I think the timing and way it was approached was pretty confrontational and ultimately helped caused Walker to sign a crap fugazi deal in Denver.

I think Driver was requesting a deal that was worth consideration. Walker was asking for unrealistic expectations. There is a price you pay to get yours early. I don't think Rosenhaus was opperating within the standard procedures of early deals. I think he thought he could get his way by putting on pressure. I think that was a miscalculation right there too.

It is a fact that Driver being a very good player used his weight to get this eeal done. He didn't threaten to hold out, but having an extremely unhappy player and extremely underpaid player is not always good buisness. Walker tried to use his wieght in a different way. I think he thought he could get more than the team was willing to give and that fugazi he signed in Denver is evidence in that regard.

In the end, Driver was being shrewd, but not stupid. I think maybe Walker was asking for too much.

[MJZiggy]

In that ridiculous radio interview posted in another thread, Driver said that he told TT he wanted to retire a Packer and how can we make that happen. I'd be willing to bet Walker walked in asking for lots more money and there's a big difference between the two.