Pat_Nasty
Third String But Playing on Special Teams
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- Aug 20, 2006
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We absolutely know what the franchise salaries are. Those ARE the ACTUAL numbers.
$7.7 million is the Frachise salary for a CB this year... and he'd be due a 20% bump next year if they franchised him again - for $9.24 million.
That's just under $17 million over two years - and I think most everyone would agree that that amount - of $8.5 million a year is more than fair.
It's not unusual for signing bonuses to be stretched over a few years either, just like in Brady's case... however in this case the $7.7 million would be guaranteed this year and $9.24 wouldn't be guaranteed until next season.
That's the incentive for Samuel and why the Patriots would expect him to take somewhat less than that guaranteed over the next 2 years... because they can mitigate their risks with the Franchise tag, and if Samuel gets injured he only gets one year salary.
With $17 million guaranteed over the next 2 years on the table, there is no way Samuel - who hasn't seen a fraction of that in his entire career thus far - is going to walk away from it - no matter how he postures right now.
Sure - he'll hold out from camp - I would too - but he's not going to sit out the season, or even a game getting paid $500k a game.
I have a feeling that if the Pats were offering Samuel a two year contract worth $17 mil, all guaranteed, that he would jump on that in a heartbeat.
But that's not the situation at all. He's being offered $7.8 million for one guaranteed -- and that's it. There's no point in talking about a 2nd year of franchise compensation, because if Samuel has an off year or gets hurt, he won't get that 2nd franchise deal, and is value will be significantly diminished going into free agency.
In fact, the only way he'd be likely to get franchised again is if he has as good or better a year in '07 as he did in '06 -- which would make his market value through the roof next off-season, meaning the franchise compensation would again be significantly less than he'd get on the open market.