Miguel

MLR and Dhamz pretty much answered my question. IMO, I will just add that giving Givens the franchise tag will greatly affect any Branch negotiations. Givens will immediately sign the franchise tag. Why?? Because it ensures him a very good payday and unless he suffers an major injury in 2006 another very good payday in 2007. If he is tagged, why would any major wideout (ARE, Moulds, Bryant) come here?? They can easily be paid more money to be a #2 elsewhere.

Edited to correct a typo - replaced payday with injury.

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Miguel

Right now, David is not being paid at all. So he can't be underpaid. Givens in his 4-year career made $2.39 million or about $600,000 per year. According to page 38 of the belowmentioned NFLPA research document the average cap number for a WR in 2005 was 826,000. According to page 55 the average cap number for a STARTING wideout was $2.2 million.
600,000 is about 27% of $2.2 million. 1.43 million is 65% of $2.2 million. Either number shows me that Givens was underpaid in 2005. He has been paid less over his career than has Bethel Johnson. 88 wideouts took home more than $2.39 million from the years 2002-2004. So even after his $1.4 million take in 2005, there will be at least 100 wideouts who have taken in more money than Givens since 2002. There is no way that 100 wideouts have performed better than Givens over the past 4 years. In 2002 there were 82 wideouts with a cap number of $600,000 or higher. In 2003 there were 93 wideouts with a cap number of $600,000 or higher. In 2004 there were 102 wideouts with a cap number of $600,000 or higher. USAToday has not provided the numbers for 2005 but it seems safe to safe that there will be at least 100 wideouts with a cap number of over $600,000. These numbers tell me that Givens has indeed been substantially been underpaid during his career. There is no nice young #2 wideout playing under a deal that pays him just $600,000 a year that is not also playing under his rookie deal.

Footnotes:
http://asp.usatoday.com/sports/footb...=CapValue+desc

http://www.nflpa.org/PDFs/Shared/200...ember_2005.pdf

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BelichickFan

I think Deion and his agent are smart enough to realize that a one year deal will have a totally different dollar value per year than a 4 or 5 year deal.

ilduce06410

i'm pretty sure i read it in one of cafardo's mail things last year.
of course that's not take-it-to-the-bank stuff like mcdonough always had.
i really really like givens.
i like what he's done to make himself the receiver he is.
there is still upside there. he has a way to go, on his deep patterns and on situational awareness.
i wonder who's telling him he's worth so much money.
for that matter, how do we know how much he wants?

MoLewisrocks

Guess for openers I should have said was. And in my mind I was comparing him to others playing under their rookie contracts although his was shorter than Deion's and he'd already been a mid level tender RFA.

Sometimes after I say something and then you say something I have a feeling we are conversing in in two different languages - and neither one of us fluently speaks or understands the others'.

I think in comparing things like salary to cap numbers or all WR to one WR (who only really played 3 seasons thus far and never a complete one as a starter) as opposed to WR in als in their 4th year perhaps, you can end up comparing apples and oranges. You could also correlate stats as well as salary or cap and perhaps develop a more meaningful comparison, though even within that comparison, some of the apples may be overpaid and some of the stats may be skewed by any number of variables. Doesn't mean the oranges deserve to be overpaid too or have been underpaid as a result. IMHO anyway.

Triumph

Couldnt the Pats Franchise Givens and retain his rights until July 15 working out on a deal and keeping him off the FA market? If no deal is reached thats acceptable to NE and Givens, cant NE recind the Franchise tag and let Givens go in July?

dryheat44

Givens would most likely sign the tender, giving him a top-five WR salary and hitting the FA market next year.. I don't think we're prepared to pay him that much.

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ilduce06410

pricey, shmicey.
bob kraft would have put $10 million down on the barrelhead for that 45-yard punch, off snow, in a swirling win, against oakland.
he'd have signed another cashier's check, 10 million with not an ounce of regret, for the 47-yarder, right down the g*ddam middle, no suspense, no intrigue, no pressure. just run on the field, line it up, and knock that baby through.
worthy of minnesota fats.
pay the man. too much. it won't break the bank. this is too cute, by half.

dryheat44

You are aware of the salary cap, right? What Kraft is willing to pay is irrelevant.

Don't forget that Adam missed two figgies from very makeable range in SB38, and two in the Denver playoff game.

Were those not important kicks? He's hardly automatic.

__________________
When it's third and 10, you can have the milk drinkers and I'll take the whiskey drinkers every time. -- R.I.P. Max McGee

Triumph

Yes, but AV made the FG that mattered the most in SB38. The missed FG's in Denver werent the reason why NE lost that game. Brady's INT put the game 2 scores out of reach @ NE 6 - DEN 17. Brady shoud have just thrown it away and let AV kick the chipshot FG making the game NE 9 - DEN 10.