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Re: Michael Thomas agrees to 5 year 100 million extension

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Originally Posted by RefsRobbedUs (Post 849182)

I might get flamed but I hate paying this kind of money to a WR especially with our HOF QB at the end of his career. We are a SB contender now though and we were not going to risk this going into the reg season.

I'll repost part of my argument I posted on Monday:

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We should all know by now that NFL contracts are not worth the paper they are written on. The Saints could deliver CGM a 6 year $126 million with $66 million guaranteed and all of the following would not be true: not 6 years, not $126 million, not $21 million a year, and not blow up the cap. In fact the only real number that's there is the $66 million. With NFL contracts the only numbers to pay attention to are the guaranteed money. The rest is monopoly money that will either get restructured, or extended, or completely cut depending on the performance of the player after the guaranteed dollars are delivered. As I pointed out in my other post, that $21 million eventual cap hit is actually less percentagewise than cap hits for WR in the past. Larry Fitzgeralds 2011 cap hit of $16.8 million was 13% of the 2011 salary cap. By the time CGM gets anywhere near a $20 million cap hit, the cap will be above $200 million, meaning that the hit would be less than 10% of the cap.

Note that my numbers were right in line with the real contract and that those numbers are just as true as my hypothethical ones. It isn't a 5 year contract. It isn't $100 million. It isn't $20 million a year. The only eye popping number is the $61 million. That's CGM's money. And that's the money most easily managed, as it can be restructured or extended at any point likely after the first two years of the contract. If CGM falls off after Brees' eventual exit, the last $40 million and the last 2 years of the contract will never be seen. If CGM continues to beast after 2022, he'll get new guaranteed money because by that time his contract dollars will look like chump change in the NFL market with a $200+ million salary cap at that time.

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Let's hope Kamara doesn't hold out next year which I can see happening now that it worked for Mike.

Kamara is up next. Likely the same will happen and for exactly the same reasons: a superior elite player outplayed his contract.

I'll hopefully close up shop on this for this year reiterating some observations about the business of the NFL:

1. Holding out isn't a protest. It's a safety issue. Everyone talks about holdouts blowing up team chemistry, or blowing up the cap. Look at AJ Green this year. Getting injured in practice for a player in contract negotiations literally blows up that player's life and their financial stability, especially if it's their first big contract. It's best for all involved for the player to stay out until the contract is signed.

2. Track the salary cap. Use percentages of the salary cap to decide if someone is being overpaid. Raw dollars are meaningless numbers.

3. The only number that matters is the guaranteed money in a contract. All the rest of it is fluff. Look at how much the guaranteed money is and over what timeframe is it delivered. The year that the salary outstrips the cap hit is the last real year of any NFL contract. And it's a minimum of two years out from the actual end of the contract.

4. Elite players outplay their salaries. Those salaries need adjustment. The money spent by the team is in exchange for retaining the services of elite players by keeping control and not letting that talent get to free agency. Just remember that there are less than 5 people on the planet that can do what CGM, Kamara, Ram, and other elite Saints players can do at their respective positions.

5. While it's about fandom for you, for everyone in the business, it's about business. Let the players, and Loomis, and Payton, and Benson take care of the business of the NFL without you as a fan getting caught up in the emotion of how getting business done impacts the team, which it didn't, or how you'd spend other people money, which is not yours to spend.

6. See you next year with AK. And the year after with Ram, though I think the Saints will likely stick a franchise tag on him.

SFIAH

Re: Michael Thomas agrees to 5 year 100 million extension

Posters .. please READ what SFIAH is stating above ^^ .

FACTS.

Re: Michael Thomas agrees to 5 year 100 million extension

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Originally Posted by ScottF (Post 849191)

We got off cheap.
It's a good day.

It's wasn't cheap. It was market. But it's a fast moving market. This contract is just as eye popping as Julio Jones last contract. Or OBJ's contract from last year. Each of the three does/will look small 3 years in. That's why Jones is griping about being restructured now. His extension will top CGM's likely in average salary and the guaranteed dollars per year. Something like a 3 year extension with $40 million in new guaranteed money.

Then CGM will look like a bargain. Watch for it this week.

SFIAH

Re: Michael Thomas agrees to 5 year 100 million extension

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Originally Posted by K Major (Post 849206)

Posters .. please READ what SFIAH is stating above ^^ .

FACTS.

Ditto!

Re: Michael Thomas agrees to 5 year 100 million extension

Hopefully he doesn’t show up to camp in a hot air balloon

Re: Michael Thomas agrees to 5 year 100 million extension

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Originally Posted by The Dude (Post 849209)

Hopefully he doesn’t show up to camp in a hot air balloon

I'm just kind of curious as to what would give you that impression :rolleyes:?

Michael has never been a DIVA. EVER. He's just a stone cold killer on the field... like his teammates Brees, Cam and Kamara.

Re: Michael Thomas agrees to 5 year 100 million extension

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Originally Posted by K Major (Post 849211)

Well, he has a little DIVA. Let's not forget the flip phone incident...

But nothing that rises to the level of AB with the balloon or Jalen Ramsey with the money truck and the hype man. I just hope the team is ready for CGM's intensity in camp.

SFIAH

Re: Michael Thomas agrees to 5 year 100 million extension

Anther observation. CGM's contract is almost an exact mirror of Brees' record breaking (at the time) 2012 contract. Same years, same total, same guarantees. Now Brees gets paid in the upper $20 million range and we all marvel on how cheap a bargain he is when NFL QB salaries topping out near $35 million.

SFIAH

Re: Michael Thomas agrees to 5 year 100 million extension

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Originally Posted by K Major (Post 849211)

What SFIAH said. He hasn’t been near as bad as Brown, Moss or Owens but he is a little Divaish. Hopefully it doesn’t get that bad and I doubt it will especially under Payton.

He’s also the biggest smack talker in the NFL. I kind of like that.

Re: Michael Thomas agrees to 5 year 100 million extension

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Originally Posted by SaintFanInATLHELL (Post 849207)

It's wasn't cheap. It was market. But it's a fast moving market. This contract is just as eye popping as Julio Jones last contract. Or OBJ's contract from last year. Each of the three does/will look small 3 years in. That's why Jones is griping about being restructured now. His extension will top CGM's likely in average salary and the guaranteed dollars per year. Something like a 3 year extension with $40 million in new guaranteed money.

Then CGM will look like a bargain. Watch for it this week.

SFIAH

Semantics.
The WR price tag is about to explode, and I agree that in 3 years (or less) this contract won't be top 5. So in my eyes, it's cheap.