Rodgers says "I would love to finish my career here"

ivo610

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This is what every player says. I'll believe it when he takes only $10 mil a year.

Doesn't make him a bad person, but lets be realistic about the comments.
 

adambr2

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Really doesn't mean anything. Greg Jennings has said he would love to be back since he put his house up for sale.

It's kind of a given anyway that a franchise QB like Rodgers will be here either A) his whole career, like Marino or Elway or B) until the point comes where his original organization moves on from him but he still wants to play, like Montana or Favre.

It's still nice to hear, but Rodgers isn't staying on a hometown discount for $15M a year just because he likes it here. Whether we like it or not, those guys are competitive over who is top dog, and thus it would be a slap in the face to him to take less than Brees. The NFLPA wouldn't be thrilled, either.
 
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HardRightEdge

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This warms my heart! I LOVE that he is ALL ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION and the FANS and NOT looking for a giant payday!

http://www.yardbarker.com/nfl/artic...lay_another_eight_years_in_green_bay/12880876

YESSSSSSS!

I think you've misread his comments. "Not being in a hurry" does not necessarily translate to taking a discount.

Here's a related quote, that I find somewhat telling, from ESPN:

"I think everybody is going to see what Joe [Flacco] ends up signing for," Rodgers said Tuesday on his weekly radio show on 540 ESPN. "I'm sure they want to lock him up. He's a great player -- had an incredible run in the playoffs -- and I'm sure they want to keep him around. A guy like that, with the postseason success he's had, you want to keep a guy like that around for a while."

I would interpret these comments collectively to mean he's not in a hurry because it's rumored that Flaco's deal will be for top-of-the-heap money (though I remain skeptical of that). However, if such rumors come to pass ($20 mil average), it will raise the bar for Rodgers, providing he bides his time until the other guys get their deals done.

There's nothing wrong with trying to make as much as you can, within some reasonable bounds. It's a business.

In Flaco's case, if the rumors are true, you'd have to conclude he's using the SB and the arbitrary exclusive tag $ figure as a kind of extortion. That's a game I would hope the Ravens don't play.

But if a player's agent comes in saying player W (Brees) makes $X, and player Y (Flaco) makes $Z dollars, and my guy is younger than W, and better/more proven than Y, and thinks his guy should get more as a result, that is a fair argument.

Rodgers will end up with at least a tie for the #1 contract in the league, and likely alone at #1 after factoring in the size of the signing bonus and the guarantees. The more Flaco (and the other top QBs who will be extended) can extract, the more Rodgers can legitimately claim for himself, provided the other guys sign before he does.
 

HyponGrey

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Technically, it's none of their business what he agrees to.
Well, it actually devalues the position a bit. The best QB in the league agrees to a pennies contract, it sends the message (intentionally or not) that the other QB are overpaid (however true or untrue) and if the highest paid player is overpaid, it could then be argued so every other position. The other players in the league and the union they are a part of wouldn't like him insulting their market value. It gives the league leverage to lowball, essentially contract capping. Now they'll never put their foot down on it, players are a commodity that franchise owners are greedy over, but if the owners collectively decided, they'd have the precedent, not that they'd need it.
 
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mayo44

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Well, it actually devalues the position a bit. The best QB in the league agrees to a pennies contract, it sends the message (intentionally or not) that the other QB are overpaid (however true or untrue) and if the highest paid player is overpaid, it could then be argued so every other position. The other players in the league and the union they are a part of wouldn't like him insulting their market value. It gives the league leverage to lowball, essentially contract capping. Now they'll never put their foot down on it, players are a commodity that franchise owners are greedy over, but if the owners collectively decided, they'd have the precedent, not that they'd need it.

None of this matters. Just because the greedy player's union might want him to get every penny possible, regardless of how it might impact the rest of the team, doesn't mean individual players have to follow suit. Most players tend to settle somewhere in the 80-85% range of their original asking price. If the union doesn't like that, they can pretty much [potsy]sit on it[/potsy].
 

adambr2

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None of this matters. Just because the greedy player's union might want him to get every penny possible, regardless of how it might impact the rest of the team, doesn't mean individual players have to follow suit. Most players tend to settle somewhere in the 80-85% range of their original asking price. If the union doesn't like that, they can pretty much [potsy]sit on it[/potsy].

Sure it does. As someone who has been in a union, they do instill a sense of responsibility to the union. If I make $22 an hour, and I negotiate my new contract for $20 an hour to help the company, I've just screwed over all my other co-workers who now have to work against the leveraging that I've just given to the company.

Now that's not necessarily a realistic example and the NFLPA is one on a much larger scale, but the point is that there is a general understanding among these guys to look out for each other's interests.

In recent history, has there been any marquee player who has taken a clearly below market deal to stay with his hometown team? I can't think of one.
 
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HardRightEdge

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Well, it actually devalues the position a bit. The best QB in the league agrees to a pennies contract, it sends the message (intentionally or not) that the other QB are overpaid (however true or untrue) and if the highest paid player is overpaid, it could then be argued so every other position. The other players in the league and the union they are a part of wouldn't like him insulting their market value. It gives the league leverage to lowball, essentially contract capping. Now they'll never put their foot down on it, players are a commodity that franchise owners are greedy over, but if the owners collectively decided, they'd have the precedent, not that they'd need it.

This argument would have merit if the NFLPA's responsibility is to the elite players only, or if there were a soft salary cap and arbitration as in MLB, where high end salaries have the affect of dragging up the middle.

Most fans are not aware that there is a new minimum cap that kicks in for 2013 that requires all teams to pay out at least 89% of the cap in cash.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/07/30/per-team-spending-minimum-doesnt-apply-until-2013/

So far, the general affect of the new CBA is to channel the substantial savings from the rookie salary scale into continued salary inflation for the star players, under a stagnant cap. If this trend continues, it's not hard to see where this heads if the cap continues to stagnate: the vast mass of competent, middle ground players will get squeezed in their second contracts.

Seeing more money channeled to the upper ranks does not serve the union rank and file, not that they have any say in it one way or the other at this point. The CBA sets the terms and formulas, then the teams decide how they want to distribute their 89%+ cap-in-cash.

All the NFLPA can do until the next CBA is make sure the owners follow the rules and don't cheat.
 
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mayo44

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Sure it does. As someone who has been in a union, they do instill a sense of responsibility to the union. If I make $22 an hour, and I negotiate my new contract for $20 an hour to help the company, I've just screwed over all my other co-workers who now have to work against the leveraging that I've just given to the company.

Now that's not necessarily a realistic example and the NFLPA is one on a much larger scale, but the point is that there is a general understanding among these guys to look out for each other's interests.

You do understand that some people are in a union because they have no choice, right? The fact remains that a player can sign for whatever he wants.
 

adambr2

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You do understand that some people are in a union because they have no choice, right? The fact remains that a player can sign for whatever he wants.

Okay. So do you have any example of an elite player in the modern era who took clearly less than market value to stay with his hometown team?
 
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mayo44

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Okay. So do you have any example of an elite player in the modern era who took clearly less than market value to stay with his hometown team?

Who said anything about less than market value? But "market value" is a range, not a set number. Otherwise, there would be no such thing as contract negotiations.
 

HyponGrey

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You do understand that some people are in a union because they have no choice, right? The fact remains that a player can sign for whatever he wants.
A player can sign for whatever he's offered. He can take the highest offer though.
 

adambr2

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My point is this:

If Joe Flacco signs for $21M a year, Rodgers is not taking less than that. That's what I mean about "market value".

He's going to say "Not only do I have the same amount of Super Bowl wins and Super Bowl MVP awards as Flacco, I also have multiple Pro-Bowls, a regular season MVP award, and elite statistical numbers every year, none of which Flacco can say".

And he will be right. In our world, giving Aaron Rodgers $18M a year right now is more than generous, making him very rich, if he really wants to stay in Green Bay. In the NFL world, if Rodgers takes $18M right after Flacco gets $21, he's conceding that he's not worth as much as Flacco. Not going to happen. Just how it works.
 
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HardRightEdge

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No I was quite aware of the salary floor, though I only learned about it about 2 months ago.

So, my point was that team-by-team payouts, and by extension the league payouts in the aggregate, are confined to a fairly narrow range because of the new minimum cap under the new CBA. Any wage inflation at the top end is stealing from Peter (the mass of second-contract and third-contract B and C level players) to pay Paul (the A level players). That's not in the rank-and-file's interest. If the NFLPA is pleased with A player inflation, then it's just pandering to the stars.

We've seen some interesting examples in recent weeks.

The Giants cut Bradshaw, Canty and Boley. The Bills cut Barnett and Wilson. While these guys have age and/or injury issues, they're B level players, give or take, with some tread left on the tires if healthy. You'd think these teams would have preferred to keep some of these guys around if not for cap considerations.

The Bills' situation is particularly transparent. If they re-sign Byrd, they'll have two guys who are the highest paid in the league at their positions, or very close to it, on a losing team. Cap space must be cleared. That leaves the aforementioned cuts looking for work, and they'll probably find it. But it will be at sharply reduced pay, perhaps as low as league minimum.

If not for the pay escalation at the high end, some of these kinds of guys might play a little longer at higher pay. The NFLPA bears little resemblance to an industrial union.
 

realcaliforniacheese

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I take away from this whole thing that Aroge realizes he needs a team around him to have a legacy. That he will get his money but not in a way that is going to bust the team CAP.
 
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mayo44

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My point is this:

If Joe Flacco signs for $21M a year, Rodgers is not taking less than that. That's what I mean about "market value".

He's going to say "Not only do I have the same amount of Super Bowl wins and Super Bowl MVP awards as Flacco, I also have multiple Pro-Bowls, a regular season MVP award, and elite statistical numbers every year, none of which Flacco can say".

And he will be right. In our world, giving Aaron Rodgers $18M a year right now is more than generous, making him very rich, if he really wants to stay in Green Bay. In the NFL world, if Rodgers takes $18M right after Flacco gets $21, he's conceding that he's not worth as much as Flacco. Not going to happen. Just how it works.

The Ravens wouldn't be the first team to overpay a player.
 

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