What does Branch gain by sitting out till week 10??

[BradyManny]

Can someone explain to me what Branch is hoping to gain by potentially sitting out until week 10?

At the end of the day, isn't this guy a football player who loves the game and wants to be on the field helping his team? Is he really so selfish and stupid that he would punish his team for 10 weeks, deprive himself of playing the game he loves all to make a point? Does he not care about the fact that this team has a great chance at another championship run and making history once again?

Does he think sitting out for 10 weeks like some selfish child makes him more desirable to other teams? Does he think having 10 less weeks of statistics this season will help his cause as a FA?

I don't how sitting out 10 games makes any sense from ANY point of view including his own childish self-centered one.

 

[BelichickFan]

Nothing other than a lower risk of injury.

 

[Infinsible]

Can someone explain to me what Branch is hoping to gain by potentially sitting out until week 10?

At the end of the day, isn't this guy a football player who loves the game and wants to be on the field helping his team? Is he really so selfish and stupid that he would punish his team for 10 weeks, deprive himself of playing the game he loves all to make a point? Does he not care about the fact that this team has a great chance at another championship run and making history once again?

Does he think sitting out for 10 weeks like some selfish child makes him more desirable to other teams? Does he think having 10 less weeks of statistics this season will help his cause as a FA?

I don't how sitting out 10 games makes any sense from ANY point of view including his own childish self-centered one.

He won't get shutdown for 10 weeks. That's always a plus, I guess. He won't be part of the numerous losses they will experience during that time either.

 

[p8ryts]

His agent sold him a bill of goods that by taking the approach he has the Patriots will somehow be forced to let him go so he can get the bonus money. The reality of his deals mean that he might get 4 or 5 million more up front so spread over 6 years he probably makes close to a million more each year. The only objective was to get to free agency next year. If he gets his money from another club this year all the better.

The reason there were no counter offers was the agent always believed he would get more money somewhere else and it was only about the money. Deion may enjoy his extra million, but I would prefer to see him in GB or NO one of the purgatory teams, maybe send him to TN with Givens.

 

[RI Pats Fan]

His logic being is that he stands nothing to gain by getting injured while playing for a million a year. When he comes back, who knows whether he sees the field or not.

 

[mikey]

Nothing other than a lower risk of injury.

I thought that is a very real concern.

Look at what happened to Ty Law. The dude played hard, got injured, and almost ended his career. Law lost more than half of the money he could have gotten in free agency.

Is injury a concern for Deion? The guy is 27 and is not getting any younger.


.

 

[ATippett56]

Nothing other than a lower risk of injury.

Deion Branch also plays out the season from week ten, thus becoming an unrestricted free agent in 2007.

 

[Welker83]

1. sticks it to the patriots.
2. No worries about injury.
3. Gets his last year of eligability with the least amount of time invested.
4. Becomes a locker room issue that the media will never stop bothering the team about.

 

[PatsFan37]

Can someone explain to me what Branch is hoping to gain by potentially sitting out until week 10?

Short term:
If he plays w/o extension, he gets $1 million and risks injury for 16+ games.
If he takes the Pats extension offer, he gets $4 million now, risks injury for 16+ games, and gets another $4 million after the season.
If he holds out, he gets nothing now, risks injury for 6+ games, and gets $10+million after the season (based on a reasonable expectation of a signing bonus).

Infantile comments about his attitude aside, what would you do? As a purely business decision, with millions of dollars at stake, would you play without an extension? Really?

Seems to me it's reasonable to take the Pats contract extension offer. It's also reasonable to hold out for ten games.

BTW, I DO think it was unreasonable for him to refuse to negotiate the extension before the start of TC, but this is looking at his alternatives now.

 

[Jimke]

He is simply depriving us of his services for 10 weeks and hopes

our passing attack will suffer and the Pats will give in to his demands.

 

[Kdo5]

He gains loads of fines.

 

[old 55]

Can he come in and play at that point?

Will he be lagging behind the other guys in conditioning and timing?

If he shows up and is a lesser impact player, it hurts his marketability.

BB could just make him inactive or suspend him.

It's a huge rsk with little reward other than trying to hurt his team.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

What he gains in theory is unrestricted FA, although because of the franchise tag there is no guarantee he sees that before 2008 unless he chooses to sit out another entire season foregoing all compensation (as is his right at that point) at which time he would be approaching 29 years old and out $8-10M or so in unrealized earnings he would need to recoup in FA.

The knee jerk theory here is that his holdout so hurts the teams chances that they cave in and give him his money. The risk is (particularly on this team) that they forge on without him and barely miss a beat. If that were to happen he would likely show up in week 4 or 5 desperate to prove they would still be better with him than without him because otherwise his FA value would certainly come under further scrutiny. The 2006 schedule vs. the rough start due to injuries last season plus the offensive additions in this years draft and the emergence of Watson may not work in Deion's favor.

 

[GoWesleyan]

I tried to understand that in a thread (http://www.patsfans.com/new-england-patriots/messageboard/showthread.php?t=39815) and only came up with four things:

1) Avoid injury
2) Might gain leverage on negotiations if the Pat's start off the season losing.
3) Publicity - I see it much more as a plus for Chayut than for Branch, but perhaps Chayut is convincing Branch that this media coverage is like free advertising for the Branch brand. GM's will be talking about this and becoming familiar with you, etc.
4) Ego/pride, i.e. he just feels that he shouldn't be paying for this low salary this year and needs to sit out on principle.