* This analyst also spoke with Seau re Moss and the Pats-Seau said the only real way a player can fail in NE is if he wants to. According to Seau,BB only asks you to do what he knows you can do well,and as long as you do what Belichick says,you will succeed.
If the Asante report is accurate,it feels like deja vu all over again.
There is one other way you can fail in NE, and that is to overvalue youself and/or miscalculate your value to this team. If getting every last dollar available matters more to you than winning championships with this team, then you eventually prove to Bill that you never really belonged here to begin with.
The contract they offered him last fall had a $7.5M signing bonus. That pales in comparison to some of the idiotic bonus money bad teams are often willing to throw at guys they expect to come in and be impact players. Of course when those players don't impact bad teams as expected, they don't see the backend of their deals - or often anything like them ever again. With a bonus that size, which remains near the top of what the Patriots have paid (save for Brady and Seymour and now Thomas), they were likely looking to pay Asante in the $4.5-5M per range as a quality piece of an ensemble cast - which is what he is. He apparently was insulted. I'm not convinced they weren't overvaluing him slightly at that price (although with the final year of his rookie deal to include in it's amortization - like the Seymour deal - it would have worked fine for me...).
Since then they have raised their offer to a deal that reportedly averages $6M per. No reports of how that offer was structured, but it likely included a double digit (albeit split) signing bonus which is what he reportedly wanted last fall.
Only now his parameters have vaulted upward and he reportedly wants a deal that includes in the vacinity of $30M in bonus and guarantees. The only players who have received deals approaching that level on this team are Brady and Seymour. If Asante sees himself as their peer, he's beyond delusional.
Few consistently successful franchises can afford to have more than a couple of players in the top 5 in earnings at their positions not only from a financial positions but from a risk management position. And they damn well better be bodafide top 5 talents at that. Brady and Seymour earned their deals through consistent performance over a span of 4-6 seasons. Brady's deal also evolved in increments even after winning 3 superbowls and being named MVP of 2. And his deal remains a below market one. Seymour's deal is about at market, although by signing it a year early the team was able to benefit from it hitting the cap at below market terms. Thomas' deal is top tier although he left a million per on the table to sign here. I think that's our quota for now.
I don't see this team overcommitting to this player simply to placate him on the way to a championship - as many here say they want them to. Nor do I see this team or this player doing the franchise tag dance in back to back seasons. And I don't see this player coming around to their way of thinking given his and his agents recent comments. Ergo I don't see Asante here beyond this season, if that.
I think they either settle on a one year deal that guarantees him his freedom next season as a UFA, for which we likely get a 3rd round comp pick in 2009, or they trade him in August much like they did with Deion when they finally realized he wasn't going to show up despite an $8M signing bonus on a 3 year $19M deal (or reportedly an $11M signing bonus on a 5 year $31M deal) that was sitting on the table - because he wanted several million more. And at least on paper, he got it. Asante appears to want several million more. And if he believes it's out there, as it could well be through camp given the current cap situation of several teams who have done little with their abundant cap to date, he'll hold out for his big payday via trade.
And I don't see the Pat's waiting 9 weeks to see if he decides to sign his tag at any point and still pocket more just for showing up than many of his current teamates will earn in a career. They weren't willing to wait for Deion, and he would have been skulking back with is tail between his legs, potentially oweing money and playing for free just to get a year of service credit. Asante could hold out until the bye week and still get half of his franchise tag or almost $4M. And his only concerns in the interim would be slipping in the shower or having the tag rescinded and becoming an immediate UFA.
