44Champs

Cruize

I just hope he finds a way to feed his family for 7+ million a year. Poor fellow.

saintsfan1976

Not this again.....



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SaintFanInATLHELL

The NFL is a $9 billion/year industry that less than 2000 actual employees. On average that's $4.5 million a player. Note that the minimum salary ranges from about $500K to $1 million for rookies to 10+ year vets.

The CBA and the salary cap requires that the money be spent on player salaries.

I understand that the salary is a lot of money. But everyone needs to understand how vast the pool of money that it's being drawn from is.

Given that you cannot really use absolute numbers for comparison. It has to be relative to the scales of comparable employees.

JG is the best TE in the league. He's one of the best receivers in the league regardless of designation. The top TE is current being paid on average $9 million a year. Top receivers (who JG has better numbers than) are being paid over $12 million a year.

So while in absolute numbers the $7 million is a lot, in comparison to similar (actually lesser) production to others in the profession, it's woefully inadequate in terms of relative salary.

Whether it's $8/hr or $7 million/yr, it's unfair if someone is doing superior work to others and getting paid a lot less.

And considering that JG made only $1.2 million last year, which is 1/10 of the of the salary of top guys that he's put up better numbers, to ask that he take a depressed salary relative to his production is a laughable proposition.

If JG were a free agent, there are teams that would pay him $12/million a year in an open market. He wants to be a Saint. He'll most likely take $10/10.5 million a year to do so in a long term contract. That's already a hometown discount.

Frankly to ask him to take even less is just ridiculous.

SFIAH

Super Bowl Championships: New Orleans Saints:1, Carolina:0, Atlanta Chokers: STILL ZERO

Only Atlanta choked in an unchokable situation... Life is definitely good.

QBREES9

Ok, so now it's over. Get a deal done. It will get done.

jeanpierre

Graham, or at least his agent which is still Graham by default, was asking 12 mil/annum...

voodooido

He will never get 12 mil a year now. We could Franchise him and get the next 2 years and just let him go if he wants that much. At the least we could resign him in 2 years for a lot less because of his age.

AsylumGuido

His agent never mentioned anything about $12M. That figure was floated out there because of the NFLPA's interest in pursuing the tag designation battle. That is basically the WR franchise tag amount. Graham's agent isn't an idiot. He knows that figure is totally out of the question. Salary escalation by position is marginal even under ideal conditions for the player in question. There would be no way that the annual rate for the top TE would move from $9M to $12M in one quick jump.

jeanpierre

Biggest threat to Graham's leverage now is Kenny Stills/Brandin Cooks and the overall production of the Saints offense...

IF the sophomore or rookie lights things up then fan frustration over Graham's status will dissipate; and IF that happens, then Graham (similar to Gates) will get tagged this year AND next year with the Saints more than willing to take two (2) first round draft choices for compensation should another team sign Graham; this is some cold-hard business reality...

Seer1

Well put, jeanpierre.