Herald: Seymour has the letter

TheKraftyOne said:

Seymour was scheduled to make $3.685 million this year, but carry a $9.79 million cap charge, as the result of pro-rated workout and bonus payments. [/url]

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Wow -- I don't think I focused on this. The Patriots just cleared $10 million in cap space, in addition to getting a first rounder?

What are we going to do with the money?

And does this also mean that the Raiders just put $10 million on their cap and gave away a first round draft pick for a one-year (possibly 15/16 of a year) rental? Wow. Just wow.

Satchboogie3 said:

Again, if he doesn't report, he will have to sit out the season and the Raiders would still be stuck with him.

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Seymour will probably report. Otherwise, he will not be a free agent

until March 2011.

PatsFaninAZ said:

Wow -- I don't think I focused on this. The Patriots just cleared $10 million in cap space, in addition to getting a first rounder?

What are we going to do with the money?

And does this also mean that the Raiders just put $10 million on their cap and gave away a first round draft pick for a one-year (possibly 15/16 of a year) rental? Wow. Just wow.

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I don't think so - I think we only saved 3.65m
off our cap.

This is unfortunate. I'm satisfied BB did what is best for the team; but Sey did well by us, I'd prefer to see him prosper in the future. This is no way to go about doing so.

sdaniels7114 said:

This is unfortunate. I'm satisfied BB did what is best for the team; but Sey did well by us, I'd prefer to see him prosper in the future. This is no way to go about doing so.

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It's not unfortunate, it's all up to Seymour. The only thing that will prevent him from prospering (other than the obvious injury) is if he doesn't quit acting like a spoiled brat. If he cares about money or football, he will suck it up for a year playing for a bad team. I mean, who in their right mind's would want to get paid ONLY $3.6 million to play for a losing NFL team . Oh, the torture.

PatsFaninAZ said:

Wow -- I don't think I focused on this. The Patriots just cleared $10 million in cap space, in addition to getting a first rounder?

What are we going to do with the money?

And does this also mean that the Raiders just put $10 million on their cap and gave away a first round draft pick for a one-year (possibly 15/16 of a year) rental? Wow. Just wow.

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First thought is to sign AJ Feeley. My bet is that a contract is already worked out with him. All there waiting on is for Seymour to show and pass physical. That way Seymour will officially belong to the Raiders and the Pats wont have to worry about a NFL ruling that might bring Seymour back to the Pats.

PatsFaninAZ said:

Wow -- I don't think I focused on this. The Patriots just cleared $10 million in cap space, in addition to getting a first rounder?

What are we going to do with the money?

And does this also mean that the Raiders just put $10 million on their cap and gave away a first round draft pick for a one-year (possibly 15/16 of a year) rental? Wow. Just wow.

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Absolutely not.

The Patriots ate that $6mm bonus for 2009, recognizing that amount against the cap. The Patriots have a $6mm 'dead money' charge for Seymour against the salary cap.

The only savings was the salary, the ~$3mm figure. And, since another player replaces him on the roster, the actual savings against the cap is only the difference between the ~$3mm salary and the salary of the replacement player.

The Raiders only recognize the salary.

That's the way it works for every trade. When the Raiders traded Moss to the Patriots, they ate whatever signing bonus Moss had remaining. When the Patriots traded Vrabel, they ate the Vrabel bonus. And so forth.

If, in fact, Seymour never reports and the Raiders collect that $6mm that the Patriots originally paid, as they would be entitled to, you could say that the Raiders traded a first round pick two years from now for $6mm in cash.

Who's Harold Seymour?

TheKraftyOne said:

It looks like Big Ben began ticking for Big Sey on Thursday:

The Pro Bowl defensive end, who is engaged in a well-publicized Sit Out instead of reporting to Oakland, got the five-day letter from the Raiders on Thursday. It was hand delivered to him, according to a friend of Seymour.

BostonHerald.com - Blogs: Rap Sheet Blog Archive Defensive end Richard Seymour has received the letter from the Raiders

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What if he can't read?

Urgent said:

Absolutely not.

...snip...

The only savings was the salary, the ~$3mm figure.

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Ok, thanks. That was my impression. I misread the quote from the article.

chillinvillin said:

First thought is to sign AJ Feeley. My bet is that a contract is already worked out with him. All there waiting on is for Seymour to show and pass physical. That way Seymour will officially belong to the Raiders and the Pats wont have to worry about a NFL ruling that might bring Seymour back to the Pats.

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Better reason to wait past Monday: his salary isn't guaranteed if he isn't on the Week 1 roster.

ctpatsfan77 said:

Better reason to wait past Monday: his salary isn't guaranteed if he isn't on the Week 1 roster.

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Good point, EXCEPT the Raiduz aren't gonna cut a guy they spent a #1 pick on. Fortunately for them they have other ways of saving the $ PLUS retaining his rights.

Seymour got a signing bonus of $5.34M when he redid his deal. A portion of that would probably be recoverable (one quarter or one third).

The $18M+ option bonus is not. An arbitrator ruled in the Ashley Lelie case that only signing bonus is subject to proportional recovery for failure to perform. Option or roster bonuses are deemed earned when received even if they are pro rated (including roster bonuses converted to signing bonus) for cap purposes. Signing bonus is considered like a down payment on the entirety of the deal. That's why fewer players are accepting them lately and more are inclined to go for the guaranteed language.

Not that there is any question left on whether the letter was sent, but Rodney confirmed it today on his twitter account by talking to the source:

Rodney Harrison said:

@Adam_Schefter I talked to Richard, he did receive the letter from the Raiders.

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Rodney tweeted this as well, which is good to hear:

@patriotscpfc Well, Chung reminds me of myself in a way, you can count on him in run support.

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This is the best possible development (other than Seymour just manning up), I am totally excited to get that pick. I understand its certainly possible the draft won't be as deep as other drafts, but I can't imagine what BB is doing with the pick!

Seymour will be missed, and I believe he well do in oakland, but he was more than likely gone next year anyway.

MoLewisrocks said:

Seymour got a signing bonus of $5.34M when he redid his deal. A portion of that would probably be recoverable (one quarter or one third).

The $18M+ option bonus is not. An arbitrator ruled in the Ashley Lelie case that only signing bonus is subject to proportional recovery for failure to perform. Option or roster bonuses are deemed earned when received even if they are pro rated (including roster bonuses converted to signing bonus) for cap purposes. Signing bonus is considered like a down payment on the entirety of the deal. That's why fewer players are accepting them lately and more are inclined to go for the guaranteed language.

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Not exactly. The arbitrator ruled that all bonuses must be considered to be EITHER signing bonuses OR performance bonuses, and that only the former are recoverable.

The rules for determining whether or not a Roster or Option bonus should be treated as a signing bonus or a performance bonus (for the purpose of recoverability) are in flux.

In the Lelie case, the Broncos never claimed that the option bonus was a signing bonus, so the arbitrator never had to rule on this.

In the Vick case, the owners did make this claim. The arbitrator, based on a very narrow reading of Vick's contract, sided with the owners. It is likely that if the arbitrator's ruling is upheld, each contract will have to be carefully parsed to determine which type of bonus a payment is.

The arbitrator's ruling in the Vick case was reversed, and appealed to the eighth circuit where I believe it is still pending. Vick has since entered into a settlement concerning all but a token $1M of the disputed amount. The terms of this settlement imply a roughly 20% chance of the arbitrator's ruling being upheld, but this figure was most likely determined by the structure of Vick's bankruptcy and may bear little resemblance to the actual probability of either side prevailing. (It could be higher or lower).

So, is Seymour's bonus safe from recovery? Probably, but he shouldn't bank on it. If the Seymour situation gets ugly (and it really isn't yet), and the Vick arbitrator's ruling is upheld, I'd bet that management will pursue substantially more than just the prorated portion of Seymour's signing bonus.

robertweathers said:

There are still too many variables.

1. Raiders flunk 'em (see Suggs trade).
2. Goodell has prooven to be consistient in not being consistient.

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Neither of those are variables in this case. Raiders could flunk him but because he isn't injured, the Pats would have the other two docs check him out and he'd be back with the Raiders as healthy. And Goodell doesn't get to rule on this, it's plain and simple in the rules.