Reviewing Brady's Contract - Will Brady Really Play For $8M A Year?

During that time, the Dolphins filed, and won, a lawsuit against Williams for $8.6 million of his signing bonus.

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http://www.thephinsider.com/2012/2/...dolphins-running-back-ricky-williams-retiring

If Brady decides he wants to take the money and run after this season. He'll probably find out that the law won't support his view that the 5 year 74M contact was really a 2 year 33M one.

mgteich said:

We all knew how old Wilfork and Mayo would be. Why are we discussing new contracts for them?

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Because the teams have the options to cut them. That's the way contracts work in the nfl.

mgteich said:

I think that you would think that Manning would really want to win if he reduced his slaty to $1M when the market was $20M or more. And perhaps Brady will do the same. The market is say $21M. Let's see if he plays at 1/3 his worth. If he really wants to win, he will ask the team to reduce his salary by another $6M to $1M.

BTW, please list the players who have done this in the NFL. Obviously, some players like Bruschi volunteered to play for less. But this is very rare, and is not done by top players.

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Brady's situation is unique in that he doesn't need the money and he wants to win. I think winning is more important to him. We'll see.

Please list all the qbs with 3 superbowls and looking for another on consistently playoff bound teams, age 33+, who held out or *****ed about a contract they signed 2 years ago.

If Brady wants to be paid more than the team will restructure. If he let it be known that he felt he was being disrespected the team would bend before it ever came to a holdout situation. I do not understand why people feel that revis is worth 12 to 15 mil a year plus a huge signing bonus but Brady should play out a stupidly team friendly contract.

Jack Handy said:

If Brady wants to be paid more than the team will restructure. If he let it be known that he felt he was being disrespected the team would bend before it ever came to a holdout situation. I do not understand why people feel that revis is worth 12 to 15 mil a year plus a huge signing bonus but Brady should play out a stupidly team friendly contract.

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Revis turns 30 after the season.
Brady turns 38 after the season.

hwc said:

Revis turns 30 after the season.
Brady turns 38 after the season.

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You've already been outed as a Brady troll. Best not say anything else to avoid further embarrassment.

Jack Handy said:

If Brady wants to be paid more than the team will restructure. If he let it be known that he felt he was being disrespected the team would bend before it ever came to a holdout situation. I do not understand why people feel that revis is worth 12 to 15 mil a year plus a huge signing bonus but Brady should play out a stupidly team friendly contract.

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Because it was the contract he wanted. Or he wouldn't have signed it. If his play had been putrid would he have given back the guaranteed money?

Revis is being asked to sign a new contract (assumedly). He's fine playing under the existing one.

I think that the team will do right by Brady. I expect his contract to be adjusted as part of a restructure and/or extension. Most of us thought that Brady would turn $6M into salary into a bonus, saving $4M of cap room. Another poster told Miguel and me to hold our horses. The poster thought that Brady might get an increase and/or extension as part of the extension. No one listened. So, I brought the discussion up again. So, I won't count on any savings from a Brady restructure. Converting $6M of salary to an $18M bonus makes more sense to me, having no effect on the 2015 cap.

In a sense, I was a bit bored looking forward to watching the jets and buffalo and rooting for no injuries.

My conclusions are
1) Many here think that there is no market for 38 old Brady. I think that these folks missed Manning moving to DEN for $20M a year, even when it was not clear that he would ever recover his form.
2) Many here take the team's side in every situation. This is nothing new. Whenever there is a dispute, it is almost always the player's fault. The team should have all the rights and the player shouldn't even dare ask for a raise.
3) Finally, the animosity toward someone being underpaid daring to ask for a raise was pretty interesting.
After all, someone suggested that if Brady asked for a raise, he should be traded to OAK for a couple of draft choices.

BOTTOM LINE
I never suggested that Brady would be traded. I simply suggested that Brady deserves more than he is getting. As I said above, I expect the team to take care of Brady.

kennyb said:

Because it was the contract he wanted. Or he wouldn't have signed it. If his play had been putrid would he have given back the guaranteed money?

Revis is being asked to sign a new contract (assumedly). He's fine playing under the existing one.

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No, we wouldn't. But after two years, Brady would have been cut if he were putrid. The contract was structured with almost no salary for the first 2 years, just the signing bonus. Brady's body of work was good enough for the team to guarantee two years of pay. And if Brady were cut, he would have gotten a lot less than Manning in those two years.

A player has to play out his contract. A team doesn't get signing bonus money back but has the right to cut.

If a player out plays the contract it's not fair to ask for more money. It would be like a team asking for signing bonus money back.

That's the symmetry and the way the contracts are structured.

Jack Handy said:

If Brady wants to be paid more than the team will restructure. If he let it be known that he felt he was being disrespected the team would bend before it ever came to a holdout situation. I do not understand why people feel that revis is worth 12 to 15 mil a year plus a huge signing bonus but Brady should play out a stupidly team friendly contract.

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Because the situations are nothing alike.

What disrespect? Brady has $24 million guaranteed from the New England Patriots. Guaranteed. Not funny money. Not cut him next year money. Guarandamnteed money.

Brady is not a free agent and won't be for three more seasons. If he were, how much more than $24 million guaranteed do you think he could get?

mgteich said:

I think that the team will do right by Brady. I expect his contract to be adjusted as part of a restructure and/or extension. Most of us thought that Brady would turn $6M into salary into a bonus, saving $4M of cap room.

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I don't think it's in the Pats' interest to convert Brady salary into amortizable bonus. Sure, it saves a little bit on the cap short term, but his cap numbers are reasonable going forward. There's real value to the Pats, with a 38 year QB, to be able to have him retire or trade him and not take a bigger amortized cap hit. The Brady contract is perfect from club's perspective and advantageous for the player who is cut-proof. The team is not forced to release him -- a very unusual situation for an aging player nearing the end of the line.

An extension makes no sense. Not an extension with bonus.

I'm excited that Brady bounced back from the bad start. He's now solidly penciled in as the starter next year. That's perfect. A second year for Garoppolo to develop. The longer Brady is playing at a high level in the final three years of his contract, the better. Ultimately an injury is most likely to dictate when the torch is passed.

mgteich said:

3) Finally, the animosity toward someone being underpaid daring to ask for a raise was pretty interesting.
After all, someone suggested that if Brady asked for a raise, he should be traded to OAK for a couple of draft choices.

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Purely talking "should", Brady "should" be traded this offseason to a team willing to fork over multiple first round draft picks. It's the Patriots way. Move on a year too early, particularly if you can get something big in return. See Mankins, Logan. Seymour, Richard.

Despite the fact that the Pats "should" do this, they can't. Brady is too iconic. The fans would go ballistic. It's better to have him play out the final three years of his contract and ride off into the Hall of Fame, having played his entire career as a Pat.

All I said was that, if Brady starts bellyaching about his contract and holding out for more money, he would be giving the Pats permission to honor his wishes and dealing him to a team that might be willing to offer him a bigger deal. I don't expect Brady to complain about his contract, either in public or in private, but if he did, trading him wouldn't be to punish him. It would be because trading him is really the way to max out the club's value in the player.

Would you rather have one more year of Brady or two #1 draft picks from a team near the top of the draft?

ThatllMoveTheChains!!! said:

http://www.thephinsider.com/2012/2/...dolphins-running-back-ricky-williams-retiring

If Brady decides he wants to take the money and run after this season. He'll probably find out that the law won't support his view that the 5 year 74M contact was really a 2 year 33M one.

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You're assuming that the contract allows them to do that. For all we know there's a clause that prevents that from happening.

Random thoughts:

1) Brady works too hard every hour of every day to play backup. If that were to come, the Patriots would trade him -- not to earn more money, but more importantly to be a starter elsewhere. If his skill declines too much to play with average receivers, some team stacked with great receivers would still want to take him and he's too competitive not to take that opportunity.

2) Brady built his own medical complex across the street from Gillette stadium a couple of years ago. You could say he put all the money from the new contract towards building a health facility across from the Patriots headquarters just to be able to play longer.

3) Brady is a leader who wants each player to be their best. Playing for too cheap sends a bad signal to the rest of the team, even if that leaves more money for them. He needs to be on the side of the player ("be the best you can and earn good money"), not the organization ("I'm taking a pay cut, so should you!"), or the team will lose faith in him as a leader.*

4) All of this points to the fact that Brady will start in Gillette next year, and they will pay him something reasonable. Making 7m when Manning makes 20m is too low. Maybe 14m as a one-year contract. And that will also encourage Revis to take a 14m one-year contract as well.

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* Regarding #3:

The top 10 quarterbacks in the NFL have an age range of 25 to 38, I'm guessing. The top 5, maybe 29 to 38. That means there's an elite quarterback once every 3-5 years, on average (never-mind Hall of Fame).

What percentage of NFL players are in their early twenties (<= 25?) You're taking a bruising to get paid the veteran minimum hoping you'll be playing for more money at 26, if at all. They're looking up to him to copy his worth ethic so they can also be the best they can be. If his actions are to earn 30% of what he's worth, and he's already rich, it sends the signal to the players that the Patriots are cheap and he's encouraging them to work harder than anyone else in the NFL just to earn 1/3 of what they're worth. If he made 85% (instead of 30%) of what he's worth and made sure the players know that's his own personal decision, that's definitely a positive statement.

hwc said:

Purely talking "should", Brady "should" be traded this offseason to a team willing to fork over multiple first round draft picks. It's the Patriots way. Move on a year too early, particularly if you can get something big in return. See Mankins, Logan. Seymour, Richard.

Despite the fact that the Pats "should" do this, they can't. Brady is too iconic. The fans would go ballistic. It's better to have him play out the final three years of his contract and ride off into the Hall of Fame, having played his entire career as a Pat.

All I said was that, if Brady starts bellyaching about his contract and holding out for more money, he would be giving the Pats permission to honor his wishes and dealing him to a team that might be willing to offer him a bigger deal. I don't expect Brady to complain about his contract, either in public or in private, but if he did, trading him wouldn't be to punish him. It would be because trading him is really the way to max out the club's value in the player.

Would you rather have one more year of Brady or two #1 draft picks from a team near the top of the draft?

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If Brady started is a big if. Should do it also seems a little odd, I mean the patriots don't just trade a player as soon as they think they can get a good draft pick for him and Jimmy G's one series against the Chiefs doesn't mean he is ready to be the starting QB for a team that views itself as a perennial super bowl contender

hwc said:

Would you rather have one more year of Brady or two #1 draft picks from a team near the top of the draft?

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The problem with your question is that you're operating under an assumption that few of us on this board share: namely, that Brady only has one quality year of play left. It's certainly possible, but it's by no means certain.

And by that logic the Patriots should have traded Asante Samuel in 2007 rather than keep him under the franchise tag that year.

PatSunday said:

4) All of this points to the fact that Brady will start in Gillette next year, and they will pay him something reasonable. Making 7m when Manning makes 20m is too low. Maybe 14m as a one-year contract. And that will also encourage Revis to take a 14m one-year contract as well.

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I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I think the only way Brady can get a new contract this offseason is if the Pats win the SB.

The Pats don't have many 38 year players they could conceivably trade for multiple first round draft picks!

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BTW, before we start worrying about Tom Brady's contract, it should be noted that, in addition to the $24 million in new guaranteed money over the next three years, he also has $6 million in pro-rated cash-up-front bonus money for each of those three years. His cap number is $42 million over those three years.