How much is it going to cost us to keep Talib?

[Brady6]

1. How do you know he has a chronic hip problem? Have you seen his x-rays?

Your question has a flip-side which is how do you know it isn't? If you look at what we as fans are privy to it unfortunately indicates a higher likelihood that it is chronic. The biggest indication of this in my opinion was when Talib's reaction when he suffered it in the Saints game - he slammed his helmet on the sideline as if to say WTF this again and then he tried to play through it without a lot of medical attention as if they knew exactly what it was.

We don't know that it is chronic just like we don't know that it isn't but as I said the evidence is more supportive that it is chronic.

 

[Brady6]

2. LOL, 1-2 years would not get Talib signed or ANY other of the top free agent CBs for the 2014 season.

I don't know that this is true at all, last season to defensive players like Avril, Bennett, Grimes and others considered to be top free agents signed contracts in the 1-2 year range. I guess the question you'd have to ask yourself is why did a 1 year deal get Talib to resign this past offseason but it's laughable this season? Yes he has played at a higher level but he is also an older player now and the concerns that existed still exist if anything the concerns teams may have around his hip have just been reinforced.

 

[Ivan]

Talib is at the very LEAST a top 10 corner in the NFL when healthy. And you think the Pats are going to offer him 5.2 million per season? WTF are you smoking, cos that must be really good $!#&!!!



I think to keep Talib you've got to give him a long term deal, and tie a lot of it into incentives. If the agent can claim he got 5/45m for his client, then everyone can be happy, even when in reality maybe he's only likely to achieve 8m of it per season and that only if he stays healthy at least 85% of the time.

In actuality a 5 year deal isn't a bad idea, because it allows you to spread out the cap hit n the bonus money/signing bonus which would need to be at least double digits. Or if you want to keep the deal shorter and frontload it, you give him like a Randy Moss contract - 3/27 with about half up front.



These are the same people who negotiated the Amendola deal. I think they KNOW how to structure contracts for injury risk players by now!! Talib's deal would be like Amendola's but plus sized to reflect the higher market demand for corners.

Actually i was talking about 6.5 but could see them going a little higher than 7. I think Talib is a top 5 corner when healthy, but he's on the sidelines too much of the time. If he finishes the season the way he started it then someone may be willing to pony up 50 million, I just don't believe it will be the Patriots. If he goes down again i think it is really going to hurt his market value, you can think otherwise but it certainly isn't an unreasonable position. I'm well aware that they know how to structure injury clause deals and have cited the Vollmer deal several times when discussing future deals for players with significant injury histories, however none of those deals involve 50 million dollar players. They could always structure it more like Gronkowski's but if Talib is looking to max out then any of these scenarios are unlikely. At this point i think the tag is the most likely route they will have to go if they are going to keep him another year, but i hope I'm wrong and they get a long term deal done.