OhExaulted1
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CLICK HERE to Register for a free account and login for a smoother ad-free experience. It's easy, and only takes a few moments.In rethinking this, I'm inclined to propose a different possibility: Suppose BB knew he had to cut two TEs to work the roster in his favor later. Suppose he really wanted to re-sign one of the TEs and was concerned that some team very lean in TEs would claim the one he wanted to re-sign. So, he calls Childress and appears to propose an agreement for the one he doesn't want in a bit of a diversion. Knowing Childress would be intrigued with whomever the Pats thought was worth re-signing, BB floats Mills' name rather than Rivers' name and asks to make a deal. Knowing Childress' recalcitrant personality, BB banks on the fact that whichever name he floats, Childress is going to bite and grab the player he thinks is favored by the Pats. Well, Brad bit for Mills, and BB re-signed Rivers later. Just the way he planned . . . .
I'm fairly sure he can be cut anytime, but Minnesota is still on the hook for three weeks salary. I suspect it's a mechanism built in to make a team commit to giving the player at least that long to work with the team.Not true. He can be cut any time, including before the first game.
Icy glares
It was 84 degrees outside the press room at Gillette Stadium, but Belichick and former Sun Chronicle correspondent John Tomase, a Mansfield native who's now the beat writer for the Boston Herald, engaged in an icy stare-down at the end of Monday's press conference.
Already annoyed by persistent questioning about Rodney Harrison's suspension, Belichick was further put off when Tomase asked about a published report from Minneapolis that said the coach had asked Vikings' coach Brad Childress over the phone not to claim tight end Garrett Mills on waivers because the Patriots wanted him for their practice squad, and Childress made the claim anyway.
According to the report in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Belichick told Childress that he was interested in one of the Vikings' young players but would not claim him off waivers if the Vikings passed on Mills.
"I said, 'Well, I'm really interested in your guy, so we'll have to let our guy slide,'" Childress told the newspaper. "He didn't really care for that. He was trying to leverage. You always find out who is honest and straightforward."
Belichick then claimed linebacker David Herron, who had signed with the Vikings as a rookie free agent and was among 22 players cut Saturday.
Belichick refused to get into specifics when asked Monday.
"I talked to a lot of people in the league over the course of the last few days," he said. "That's part of the whole process of player transactions and so forth. I'm sure that all of the coaches in the league are trying to get their team ready for opening day and the regular season and I'm trying to do the same thing. That's what I do and that's what all of the other coaches do too."
Tomase tried to ask a follow-up question, but Belichick walked away from the podium. As he was leaving the press room to enter an ante room between it and the Patriots' weight room, he stared at Tomase until he disappeared through the door - and the stare was returned in kind.
Belichick's goal, lest the 'cheap cheap' Danny Boy idiots misinterpret this, would not be to save money. Belichick was trying to save roster spots. The effect, though, would have been to deny Mills several hundred thousand dollars. That ain't chump change for the likes of you and me.
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Yates was a single instance from which you're enthusiastically predicting a pattern. If it happens for Mills, you'll be right, but not until then.Not quite. The Patriots have and probably will again, paid a player on the PS thier full salary in order to incetivise them to stick it out on the PS and improve in the system. If BB decided that Mills needed some more seasoning, or was good insurance should Thomas be set back from the injury then the PS is a good spot for him to grow. IIRC Yates last year got a full salary to sit on the PS, and is now on the roster.
That is the problem with having too much talent, just not enough spots for everyone.
Brandon Gorin was also paid full salary while on the practice squad. There was also a guy (I forget who) that the Packers tried to sign to their 53 but he declined, partly because he was being paid rookie salary for being on the practice squad, but also because he believed he would eventually stick on the Pats 53.Yates was a single instance from which you're enthusiastically predicting a pattern.
Two coaches tried to make their teams better - one option required a gentlemen's agreement to allow each club to keep a player they liked and develop them on the Practice Squad, another option led to both players being claimed off waivers and carried on the roster. Yes, the roster pays better, but it's also not a guaranteed position, especially with the added financial burden from players considered borderline developmental projects by their former clubs. Both may now be kept on roster in response to a coaches feud, but they could just as quickly be dumped given the coaches emotional, vice professional, involvement - emotions are funny that way. As a player I think I'd be just as happy to be on the Practice Squad of my original club and working with the position coach who has already voted for my retention. The Union fussing over my salary would be a pain in the assets, with no assurance it would be to my benefit in the end.Yates was a single instance from which you're enthusiastically predicting a pattern. If it happens for Mills, you'll be right, but not until then.
OTOH, roster salaries are real and are a lot more than PS salaries. If (and this is a big if) coaches across the league, not just BB and Childress, have a pattern of colluding to deny roster spots, it can hurt specific players. It won't lower salaries in general, but a specific player who lost money as a result would have a grievance. The NFLPA, which is charged with representing individual members in their disputes, might well be forced to act. People here have been arguing that the NFLPA doesn't care because it's not a general problem, but they're a union and they're supposed to care about individual members and act on their behalf. That's what unions are for, to protect individuals from the greater power of the corporation (you're hearing this from a conservative republican).
The other reality, of course, is that this is simply alleged in the media by quoting a disgruntled coach who is something of a jerk anyway. Nothing can be proved and nothing will be done.
I'm seeing all sorts of arguments that wander into a murky forest of generalities. It's not about that. It's about two players who might have landed on practice squads instead of rosters if the alleged attempt at collusion had succeeded.
Everything you say is true, until you get to the part of projecting what a player wants. I have no more insight into a player's desires than anyone else, but it seems reasonable to think that a TE/FB stuck behind Watson, Brady, Thomas, and Evans and offered a roster spot on another team might prefer that.Two coaches tried to make their teams better - one option required a gentlemen's agreement to allow each club to keep a player they liked and develop them on the Practice Squad, another option led to both players being claimed off waivers and carried on the roster. Yes, the roster pays better, but it's also not a guaranteed position, especially with the added financial burden from players considered borderline developmental projects by their former clubs. Both may now be kept on roster in response to a coaches feud, but they could just as quickly be dumped given the coaches emotional, vice professional, involvement - emotions are funny that way. As a player I think I'd be just as happy to be on the Practice Squad of my original club and working with the position coach who has already voted for my retention. The Union fussing over my salary would be a pain in the assets, with no assurance it would be to my benefit in the end.
Scorecard for full salary players on the Practice Squad: Gorin, Yates.
From the story on Kyle Eckel linked in the thread on him:Everything you say is true, until you get to the part of projecting what a player wants.
You're right, we certainly can't project for the player, but it seems there is some effort to survey their thoughts beforehand - at least by this organization. Good luck to Mills, wherever he winds up.Eckel cleared waivers after being released by the Miami Dolphins on Friday, and Sunday evening got the call from Belichick to see if he had any interest in playing for the Patriots.