Brady has started a trend: NFL QBs restructuring contracts

[Kid~Brady]

Drew Brees open to restructuring Saints contract

The wave of teams restructuring contracts before free agency has already started. After Tom Brady signed an extension to free up cap space for the New England Patriots, seemingly every big-money quarterback is being asked if he would rework his contract.

New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, whose team is in woeful salary cap shape, told WWL-AM he'd be open to restructuring his contract if it would aid the team.

link: Drew Brees open to restructuring Saints contract - NFL.com

 

[Rob0729]

Except I think Brees will just turn base salary into a bonus. Different animal.

 

[Steve102]

What are these guys supposed to say? Pull a Lawyer Milloy and say "I don't care, as long as I get mine"? Brady changes the landscape, even if they won't restructure, they have to say they will or look selfish in the process.

I'm waiting on the Sanchez pay cut.

 

[BTTA]

Except I think Brees will just turn base salary into a bonus. Different animal.

And none of the other QB's have Brady's killer advantage in that he's the minority wage earner in his marriage. I'll be stunned if any of them takes half a salary like he has.

 

[PatsSox363804]

There's been an interesting debate down here since Brady signed his extension about Brees hurting the team with his contract. You have a segment of Saints fans that think he's greedy and hurt the team last year holding out and you have another segment downplaying Brady's extension and saying Brees walks on water, etc which you of course expect from fans of a guy that won them their only Superbowl. Not surprised he was asked the question.

 

[chasa]

What are these guys supposed to say? Pull a Lawyer Milloy and say "I don't care, as long as I get mine"? Brady changes the landscape, even if they won't restructure, they have to say they will or look selfish in the process.

I'm waiting on the Sanchez pay cut.

sanchez knows hes done with the jets after this year, a paycut would be stupid in his case

 

[ausbacker]

Drew Brees trying to copy someone else. There's something new.

 

[tonyto3690]

Restructuring =/= extending.

Restructuring means the money gets moved around (backloaded), but he's still being paid. It's what the Jets did for the past 3 years and now all those back loaded contracts are hitting their cap which is why they're so screwed. Same with the Steelers.

What Brady did was extend his contract and on this years he took significantly less than he could have. Unless Brees adds years to his deal for 9 per year and makes his cap hit go down ~7 per year, he won't be taking a paycut at all, merely changing how he's getting paid.

 

[signbabybrady]

Some trends are destined to fail.


Something tells me that giving away leverage toward earning 8 figure salaries is a trend that wont last.

 

[strngplyr]

Restructuring =/= extending.

Restructuring means the money gets moved around (backloaded), but he's still being paid. It's what the Jets did for the past 3 years and now all those back loaded contracts are hitting their cap which is why they're so screwed. Same with the Steelers.

What Brady did was extend his contract and on this years he took significantly less than he could have. Unless Brees adds years to his deal for 9 per year and makes his cap hit go down ~7 per year, he won't be taking a paycut at all, merely changing how he's getting paid.

This. Completely different situations, Brady restructures on a regular basis, its never a paycut though, its usually a big upfront bonus and the rest of the money backloaded.

Like stated, extending for less than half the market value and backloading the money to have less of a cap hit in the current season are entirely different beasts.

It'll only be a trend if we see PM, EM, DB, and AR give back a few million of what they're making each season to help the team. None of them will. They'll all continue to compete for the 'highest paid player' award every season until they retire.

 

[ralmat55]

The question really is: would they be willing to play for $9 million a year when they know their current team or some other team would be willing to pay them $20 million a year?

I love the spin coming from the Mike Florios of the world and ESPN that this isn't a wise and generous act by Brady. The truth is he left money on the table to have control of his situation, finish his career with the team he started it with, and give that team some additional resources to surround him with good players.

Even if he wasn't married to a super rich fashion model, he has, on his own, earned enough money to live more than comfortably for several lifetimes. In this grab every dollar you can on your way to the grave world we live in, what Brady did might be the wisest thing I've seen a pro athlete do in my many,many years of following sports.

Shame on us fans if we don't appreciate it and double shame on the Patriots front office if they should do him wrong.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

It'll only be a trend if we see PM, EM, DB, and AR give back a few million of what they're making each season to help the team. None of them will. They'll all continue to compete for the 'highest paid player' award every season until they retire.

Even Brady didn't do that: he just took less in future years to help the team, but he didn't reduce what they're paying him on the current deal.

 

[Steve102]

sanchez knows hes done with the jets after this year, a paycut would be stupid in his case

that was kind of where I was going, but my sarcasm flippant attitude failed me for a moment.

 

[BradyFTW!]

"If it would aid the team" is the operative term. I may be mistaken, but I don't think that there's much that can be done with Brees' contract, short of extending it and pushing the cap hits out across the extension, that would significantly help the Saints.

 

[1960Pats]

I heard that this was Brady's idea, and not the Pats. I wonder if they knew that this would get under the skin of some of their opponents.

Why is it that whenever the topic of Tom Brady comes up that there will be Manning rumpswabs that want to compare what P6 to Tom? This time, luckily, there is no comparison that can be made.

 

[BradyFTW!]

Even Brady didn't do that: he just took less in future years to help the team, but he didn't reduce what they're paying him on the current deal.

He did allow his current and next year cap hits to be spread into future years without creating a major cap burden, though, and he did that by only adding $27M in new money for those three years.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

He did allow his current and next year cap hits to be spread into future years without creating a major cap burden, though, and he did that by only adding $27M in new money for those three years.

He lowered the cap hits by agreeing to convert salary into signing bonus. That's not the same thing as "giving back" money that he had agreed to, as the OP I was responding to suggested.

 

[patfanken]

I'll believe its a "trend" when I see another NFL player actually be willing to be paid half their market value for a series of 3 years. None of the contract redo's that have been reported recently (most notably the Steeler and Cowboy deals) have cost the players a penny. They've just created space THIS year and added money down the road.

What's so remarkable about the Brady contract is not that it provided the Pats significant cap relief the next 2 years, but that it provided the Pats cap relief for the ENTIRE duration of the contract. So while the Brees and Manning deals are going to hitting a $30MM/yr cap hit, Brady's will be HALF that

Apples and oranges.....so far at least.

 

[mgteich]

Brady could have done the team a huge favor by simply extending at $20M instead of $9M. The caps savings for the next two years would have been the same. The extension year cap hits would have been in the mid twenties.

Instead, Brady gave the team near AND long-term cap relief. The long-term relief will give the team flexibility to sign top players to long-term contracts. This is in addition to Welker, who likely will be here for two years. Welker's contract may have a 3rd or 4th year, but the amounts will not be very relevant.

 

[DarrylS]

Talk radio is trying to make this controversial, and failing miserably, just like "the cheap patriots and Wes Welker as he was franchised for 9+ million last year" and Brady for 57 Million guaranteed, does not compute.

Epic fail is a better way to phrase their efforts..