Waters' Locker Cleaned Out (Update: Reports Nameplate Taken Down)

[Danger Zone]

They'll have to cut back from the Dom Perignon to 'just' the Moet and Chandon with dinner

Its like looking at that big, block of money in Walter's storage car and thinking.. oh just for one tiny, little portion of all that money, I could get so much done around the place.

Anyone ask Brady if he'd take 500,000 off this years contract to get Waters paid? lol

 

[Jimke]

Re: Waters Locker Cleaned Out

Connolly or Thomas at RG then?

The only good thing from Waters not returning? Give Hightower #54!

Funny thing about your comment. I purchased a Hightower jersey last Saturday. The number was 45. Almost immediately after this, the
Patriots changed the numbers on about 10 players. It was also pointed
out that Hightower had to have a number in the 50's or 90's.

I immediately put a hold on the jersey. A day or so ago, Hightower was awarded number 54. Today, Waters locker was cleaned out. I
released the order with an amended number (54).

 

[fumbrunner]

Top him up a bit and get it done. What is his price going to be when Olinemen start going down to injury or the line struggles to protect Brady?

 

[jason423]

The whole story seems a bit weird. Based on the information I have Waters has a base salary of 1.4 million and incentives for playing time of 750K. For cap purposes the incentive is LTBE because he never misses a play, snap, etc... Bringing him down to 925K isnt just a 500K decrease its a much larger one. The only way the team would recognize the MSB for the cap is for him to have a contract worth no more than 990K and he would have to agree to not sign with another team in the interim for that to happen.

Now if the story that they are willing to let him re-earn the money is true I dont even get the purpose. I cant picture a way the incentives would be NLTBE since the team is so good and he played all the time. Even if they could the way adjustments wold work out the same way on the cap come years end.

The whole story seems a bit strange especially since it seems that Belichick takes care of certain veteran players financially (see Ochocino and Ellis). I wonder if this is one of those deals where they are leaking things out to the press to have everyone in line if the Patriots line falters or if they agree to take him back.

 

[Dodie]

hmm I'll wait and see how BB will utilize the TE to protect Brady, Waters presence doesn't really concern me..for now

 

[nowayback]

nexttttttttttt ............ as BB says, " i only talk about players who are here"

 

[12ClutchFactor]

Gronk better be ready to do some serious blocking as well this year.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[Haley]

Not at all surprised, more amazed that anyone thought he was going to be back. As soon as I heard there was a "secret wink-wink agreement" for Waters return, I knew it wasn't going to happen.

 

[Bobs My Uncle]

They'll have to cut back from the Dom Perignon to 'just' the Moet and Chandon with dinner

which they keep "in her pretty cabinet"

 

[Snake Eyes]

hmm I'll wait and see how BB will utilize the TE to protect Brady, Waters presence doesn't really concern me..for now

If that TE is in pass protection than he's not getting open to catch a pass, there's a poss there. Apparently the Pats want to convert a decent portion of his salary to being a per game bonus. Since he's making very little in salary is seems a very stupid move to disincentivize the guy who was the best player on the O-line last year.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

Felger is saying on air that both Bedard and SMY are reporting that the Waters absence is about money....on both sides....and Waters is hiding his true intentions behind the being close to family excuse
The report states the Pats thought they had an understanding with Waters that Waters woud get the guaranteed vet minimum as a salary....and then receive per game bonuses that would make up the difference up to $1.4 mill. Waters apparently changed his tune using the "I want to play closer to my family....but...but for more money , I'll return to the Pats" excuse.
Looks like neither party trusts the other....thus the contract restructure idea to protect the Pats.... and Waters not trusting he would get all $1.4 mill from the Pats.
Come on Bill.....bump the All Pro up and lets get this done. PROTECT BRADY

This sounds a lot like the time they claimed they thought they had an agreement with Tom to split his signing bonus into something like 8 increments...

The way it works Waters was in line to make $1.4M in base salary and $750K in LTBE earned incentives based on playing time (considering he played all 16 games last year and went to the pro bowl and earned $1.75M in incentives in addition to his salary. On what planet does that guy say sure, Bill, I'm down for a $500K paycut and some reworking of my incentives that makes them NLTBE... And I don't have to report and collect my $100K workout bonus, either? Hot damn, that's a deal.

Pahleeeeeeese.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

Good job jumping to conclusions, guys:
Update on Brian Waters situation - Extra Points - Boston.com


There we go. Minimum salary, sure. But also a good amount of money in bonuses.

Sorry, that doesn't fly. They can't renegotiate his contract unless he agrees. He could do that from home without reporting. That didn't happen. Probably because they assumed he would to something that made no sense... He was already under contract for $1.4M plus $750K in likely to be earned (based on his playing time last season) incentives or $2.15M. The incentives in Koppen's deal were NLTBE, and they were put there because he was coming back from a season ending injury that cost him and them all of last season. Even so, they gave Danno a $350K signing bonus which he has taken to the street having been cut.

 

[sly24]

Come on man.. Are the Pats really arguing over 500k? This is a pro bowl O-line and we NEED him.

 

[English Patriot]

No, no, no, no. Not good news, maybe he is just moving locker?

 

[MoLewisrocks]

But..but..everyone on patsfans told us that Waters wasn't getting fined. They even went as far as to bring it up every single day in argument that he'd be here at the end of TC

It was 'never' about the money, right?

I don't think you can fine a player when you go on record as saying he is excused for personal reasons. Bedard seems to think you can. At any rate the fines in total would be less than the amount they are asking him to take a pay cut to.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

I understand your frustration, but let's remember a couple of things:

1) The incentives for being an active gameday participant (not that hard for Waters to achieve) could have brought it up to an actual raise in pay from last year. There are still somewhat limited reports, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if his incentives would have netted him a 20-25% or so pay raise.

Not close, because he EARNED $1.75M in incentives on top of his salary last season.

2) No one wanted him last year when he was cut from the KC squad early in camp, yet the team reached out and gave him a very reasonable deal

And he gave them their money's worth and then some.

3) From what I understand, he and his agent even went as far to want something more than the 1 yr/vet minimum deal that the team likely used as a starting point, where they agreed to make it a 2 yr deal worth more. Like many other players who had a good year, now it isn't good enough.

Seems like it was really the other way around... He was fine with the existing deal and they for some reason wanted to adjust it to the tune of minus half a million.

With 10 million in cap space, one would have to believe that they aren't putting much of a priority on this, or they would have bumped his salary up another million dollars or so. Another thing to keep in mind is that we don't know for sure what Waters is asking for.

That's right. He may be asking for nothing more than what he agreed to last season. What we do know is they are asking him to play for less. And for some reason they assumed he would be fine with that.:ugh:

 

[MoLewisrocks]

I think that both Ocho and Fanane had the potential to be a future part of the team moving forward though, whereas Waters would be here for one last season.

I do think that the team reached what they thought was a reasonable and realistic view in helping to give him an added incentive to...finish out his 2 yr contract this year, which should not have been that big of a deal.

He already had incentives. They were offering him less guaranteed (after week 1) money, plain and simple. Just not logical. Would be different if he were a guy who missed 4-6 starts last season as opposed to a guy who missed none and made a pro bowl.

 

[Sciz]

Sorry, that doesn't fly. They can't renegotiate his contract unless he agrees. He could do that from home without reporting. That didn't happen. Probably because they assumed he would to something that made no sense... He was already under contract for $1.4M plus $750K in likely to be earned (based on his playing time last season) incentives or $2.15M. The incentives in Koppen's deal were NLTBE, and they were put there because he was coming back from a season ending injury that cost him and them all of last season. Even so, they gave Danno a $350K signing bonus which he has taken to the street having been cut.

You missed a key line there:

and at the time, it did not seem there was an issue with that on Waters' side

And now he's done a 180, asking for a raise in return for playing another season.

 

[Sciz]

I don't think you can fine a player when you go on record as saying he is excused for personal reasons. Bedard seems to think you can. At any rate the fines in total would be less than the amount they are asking him to take a pay cut to.

What Belichick says at a press conference has absolutely nothing to do with whether they can fine him or not. And even then, we have no idea how much Waters is excused for. Maybe he was excused for the first week and nothing more. Belichick isn't going to proclaim to the media when Waters suddenly isn't excused anymore.

 

[Dodie]

If that TE is in pass protection than he's not getting open to catch a pass, there's a poss there. Apparently the Pats want to convert a decent portion of his salary to being a per game bonus. Since he's making very little in salary is seems a very stupid move to disincentivize the guy who was the best player on the O-line last year.

you're right, but maybe BB is up to something with these TEs, so I guess we'll just wait and see