NFL Offseason 2012: Because contract negotiations are part of the excitement

[sbr]

I'm not sure offering 18 million instead of 23 million is a sign of disrespect.

[CountDeMoney]

The Saints refuse to pay Drew Brees so they franchised him.  What is up with that guy?  No matter what he does people never respect him.

A franchise tag is not a dis;  more often than not, it allows the negotiations to continue to July.  He'll have a long-term deal before the season starts.  If they didn't franchise him, they'd have to come to an agreement by March 13, when UFA season starts.
A long term contract for someone like Brees' can't be done overnight.  Now they have until July 16th to come to terms before he's playing under the franchise tag.

[MadBurgerMaker]

I'm not sure offering 18 million instead of 23 million is a sign of disrespect.

Yeah, wasn't he wanting the same amount of $$ that Peyton would get over the first big money part of his contract, except for the whole thing?

[CountDeMoney]

Quit freaking, Val.  Drew will get his payday.

[MadBurgerMaker]

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/7653897/sources-indianapolis-colts-part-peyton-manning-wednesday

Peyton Manning's 14-year career as a member of the Indianapolis Colts is coming to an end.

Sources close to the team told ESPN senior NFL analyst Chris Mortensen that the announcement will come at a press conference in Indianapolis on Wednesday with both Manning and owner Jim Irsay in attendance.

The decision to pass on the $28 million bonus owed Manning and not to pick up the four remaining years on his contract means Manning will become a free agent, and sources told Mortensen that he intends to continue to play.

Gonna be some big numbers flying around.

[Neil]

Well, looks like the era of relevance of the Colts has come to an end.  Another couple of decades of Indy futility will be good for them.

[Ed Anger]

Jeff George is tanned, rested and ready.

[MadImmortalMan]

Quit freaking, Val.  Drew will get his payday.

I'd be holding out if I were him too.


What exactly does franchise tagging do? Make it so they can't go free agent while under negotiations or something?

[ulmont]

Quit freaking, Val.  Drew will get his payday.

I'd be holding out if I were him too.


What exactly does franchise tagging do? Make it so they can't go free agent while under negotiations or something?

The exclusive franchise tag means Brees can't negotiate with anyone else, and in a worst case scenario, the only offer he could accept would be a set amount (like $16 million, IIRC) for a 1-year deal with the Saints for the 2012-13 season.

[Admiral Yi]

Well, looks like the era of relevance of the Colts has come to an end.  Another couple of decades of Indy futility will be good for them.

I would not want to be the GM in charge of rebulding that club.

[CountDeMoney]

Quit freaking, Val.  Drew will get his payday.

I'd be holding out if I were him too.


What exactly does franchise tagging do? Make it so they can't go free agent while under negotiations or something?

The exclusive franchise tag means Brees can't negotiate with anyone else, and in a worst case scenario, the only offer he could accept would be a set amount (like $16 million, IIRC) for a 1-year deal with the Saints for the 2012-13 season.

The franchise tag requires the team to pay him the average of the top 5 salaries at the position for the year.
But it won't get to that point.

[crazy canuck]

I could handle a 16 Million dollar slap in the face for one season's work.

[Ed Anger]

http://deadspin.com/5891303/hines-ward-signs-with-ravens-reports-pittsburgh-tv-station-that-fell-for-obvious-parody

lolz

[MadBurgerMaker]

Andre Johnson has supposedly agreed with the Texans to rework his contract, freeing up $4.5 million in cap space.  They're also talking to Manning and Joseph to see if they'll do the same.  They're turning guaranteed $$ into a signing bonus instead.  McClain is saying it didn't happen though, so   

e: a link: http://blogs.nfl.com/2012/03/08/texans-johnson-cowboys-bryant-restructure-contracts/?campaign=Twitter_blogs

e2:  As a side note, I'm really glad AJ got a taste of the playoffs and a playoff W last season.  For a little while there, I was kind of thinking maybe it would be better if he went to another team.  It would suck for the Texans, but the guy is about as anti-douche as a WR can get, and it just seemed like he deserved to have some success for all the shit he quietly put up with.

[Alcibiades]

Thanks for the memories

Thank you, Peyton Manning.

This might be the beginning of something better. Might be the end of everything good. But before we slog into what happens next, where you'll go, what you'll do, we owe you a thank you for what you've done and who you've been.

So thank you, Peyton Manning, for never showing up in the VIP section of Cheerleaders, overserved and under-mannered.

Thank you for never ending up on Court TV, or Page Six or with parts of somebody's nose on your knuckles.

You came to a nowhere franchise and made it Somewhere. Greatness poured out of your fingers because you put in the hours and the study and the pain to let it. Two Super Bowls, four NFL MVPs, 11 Pro Bowls, 11 playoff seasons and more records than a used CD store.
It was trendy to make fun of your "Yes, sirs" and "No, sirs" and your 1950s haircut but many of us secretly admired it.

You played a violent game and yet somehow held on to that southern gentility. In the middle of the worst time of your life, you took the time to write a hand-written note of sympathy last week to Fox's Chris Myers upon the death of his son.

Thank you for watching more film than Martin Scorsese. Thank you for always being the last one to go home at night, for knowing more about what defenses were going to do than some of the players on those defenses themselves.

That Super Bowl win was classic you. Every day that whole week, you made your center, Jeff Saturday, spend an extra 15 minutes snapping you balls you'd soaked in a bucket of water. "It might rain," you said. So when it did, and Chicago Bears quarterback Rex Grossman looked like he was throwing greased watermelons, you looked like you were throwing rocks.

Fourteen years in the league and the worst we can say about you is that you made a lot of castor-oil faces and your helmet left funny marks and one time you laid into your "idiot kicker." Fourteen years and you didn't sext anything, wreck anything or deck anybody.

You were a 10,000-watt bulb in a small city, and yet you never seemed to tire of it. If you did, you rarely showed it. There's a fan website -- peytonmanning18.com/encounters.html -- where everyday people tell how you were with them. It's hard to find a rotten one.

"Peyton was so nice and down to earth," one wrote. "He was just as polite and nice as I've always heard," wrote another. "He was getting ready to leave and wanted to take a picture with me and thank me for driving his golf cart," said a third. It's a lousy site if you're a cynic.

I have no idea how much time and money you have to give to a hospital to have it renamed in your honor, but they did that for you in Indianapolis. Peyton Manning Children's Hospital at St. Vincent. Says a lot.

How many times can one man change an entire city? Well, without you there's probably no Lucas Oil Stadium. Without Lucas Oil Stadium, there's no Super Bowl this year in Indy. Without the Super Bowl, there's no brand-new, drop-dead gorgeous JW Marriott downtown. Forbes figures you improved the Colts' value by $233 million. Compared to that, $28 million to keep you doesn't seem like much, does it?

Thank you for showing up at podiums in your shoulder pads some nights because you knew some of us had early deadlines. Thank you for making us laugh in all those ads. If there's ever been a funnier jock on "Saturday Night Live," I'll keep a ham in my pants.

Thank you for showing up to work every day, every week, season after season. You started 208 straight games -- through purple thumbs and black eyes and stomach flus that left you green. You get paid either way, so thanks.

Hell, you even tipped great. The other night, in North Carolina, you left an extra $200 on a $740 check that already had an 18 percent tip in it. According to my abacus, that's 100 percent class.

Lastly, thank you for the way you left. Always thought you'd go out as a Colt, and go out the way you wanted, but if it had to end this way, "I truly have enjoyed being your quarterback" is as good an exit line as I've heard. You made it sound like it was an elected position, an honor, a job where you knew people were depending on you. You were right.

You came to the line and changed the play 1,000 times, but you never changed your team, your city, your fans. Jim Irsay did all that for you Wednesday.

That would've gone down most guys' throats like a porcupine, but you took it and you smiled and you stood there with your arm around Irsay like he wasn't the one dumping you, like there wasn't a thing he could do about it.

That's grace. You had it in the huddle and you had it in the pocket and you had it at the end.

So thank you, Peyton Manning. And bravo. You wore the horseshoe, but it was us who got lucky.

http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/7660415/thanks-memories-peyton-manning


Class act the whole way through.