Chris

Jaguars | Team extends Henderson's contract
Tue, 21 Mar 2006 10:43:32 -0800

The Associated Press reports the Jacksonville Jaguars have agreed to a six-year contract extension with DT John Henderson. Financial terms of the deal were not released, but Henderson's agent, Tim McGee, said the new contract gave Henderson more guaranteed money than any other NFL defensive tackle.

DefenseRules

Chris it seems like the standards for his contract are constantly changing. This won't be an easy deal to make, IMO. They are going to have to show Seymour the money, PERIOD.

arrellbee

Seymour is after the highest DE money, which is significantly higher than DT money - so this probably doesn't have much relevance.

Chris

true but i wouldnt put it past us to try and pay him as a DT..

broadwayjoe

Just as long as we keep him he's to the defense what Brady is to the offense.

mgteich

What we try to do is irrelevant. Seymour won't take $1 less than being the highest paid DL in football, and it will be for real, not just phoney years at the end. He'll get it from someone, and I think it will be from us.

dryheat44

This is false. And he's (Seymour) said repeatedly, and as recently as this week, that it's false. To paraphrase what he's said at least four timesHe's not looking to be the highest paid DE, he's looking to be among the highest paid DE, as befits his standing as among the best DEs. We will offer him such a deal, and I think he'll take it.

__________________
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

arrellbee

There is probably little doubt that the Patriots would 'like' to. However, if they let him go to free agency, the bidding will certainly be for DE numbers. And if he considers any extension offers from the Pats, you can bet that he's looking for DE money. And if they franchise him, Miguel put me straight about how it's determined which position he'll be franchised for - CBA: "at the position at which he played the most games during the prior League Year" - which almost certainly would be as DE.

hwc

I don't know. Right after he said he doesn't need to be the highest paid, he said that he is more valuable than a DE because he plays both DE and DT. I got the sense that just being the highest paid DE in the league wouldn't be showing him sufficient "respect". I'm hoping that Wrong Borges garbled Seymour's intended meaning in the retelling. One would think that topping Jevon Kearse's 8-year $66 million, $16 million bonus deal would be enough to pique Seymour's interest. But, ya never know once they start blathering about "respect".

The good news is that there is a finite upper limit. The Pats can keep him for three years: 2006-2008 for a total cost of about $27 million, or $9 million a year, with a team option of a fourth year at roughly $12.5 million. The repeated franchise tag approach has very significant benefits to the Pats in that they can trade him at any time after 2006 with zero cap hit and the entire injury risk falls on Seymour's shoulders. That's huge. The risk to the team of paying a $20 million bonus and having the player suffer a career ending injury is catastrophic. The downside is that the Pats would have to listen to him bellyache and threaten to hold-out every year.

In any case, the Kearse deal and the upper limit of the franchise tag options should serve to focus the negotiations with Seymour towards a fairly narrow range - averaging $8 to $9 million a year, with the harder issues being length and bonus structures. With 5-year proration this year and 6-year proration next year, if the Pats want to do a 7 year contract, they will need to do a split bonus as in the Brady and Manning deals -- a signing bonus this year and an option/roster bonus next year -- in order to maximize the proration.

Given that the franchise tag option is pretty attractive to the Pats, my hunch is that they will try to get a deal done this year. If they can't, I think that will be the end of the story and the Pats will just go the franchise tag route, exploring options for a blockbuster trade deal along the way. With a year left on contract at a low cap cost to a new team, Seymour would have monster trade value right now.

dryheat44

True enough. What a player says and how he feels are often not the same. However, if we offer him a deal of sufficient length that gives him more guaranteed money that all DEs except for two other highly regarded DEs, for example Peppers and Freeney, I think Seymour would call that a fair deal. Just my impression.

__________________
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