He may have had more leverage in this instance than if he was on the open market. The cardnals were faced with a choice of trading him for what would prolly be low compansation because of the money the other team would spend, or they could have just cut him getting nothing, or they let him play for 14 mil a year. Those 3 are not very good options. Somehow the cardnals pulled off the 4th option without having to go anymore crazy than the market is.
Good point
What part of guaranteed don't you understand...
The other thing you can't lose sight of is length of contract. The longer the deal generally the more the money - it represents partial payment for the player being bound to the team for the whole length of the deal. He remains theirs if they so choose for x number of years. And they have more time to amortize that money.
Like I said I was waiting for the reports on Fitzgerald to shake out... there were some reports that made some of his gurantees sound more like signing bonuses... i.e. they were only guranteed if he remains with the team.
Trust me - I understand how the additional years allow for the guaranteed money to be spread out.
My point on the guaranteed money being the only "real" money is in this day and age we've seen a lot of guys who have for one reason or another - be they malcontents, get into trouble with the law, lose their passion and stop working hard - be in jeorpady of being cut.
As such, the guaranteed money is all they or we can count on.
Any NFL player can become a turd - and I would think that if GMs know a player has a history of being a malcontent, or of drug use and the possible suspensions, or at risk for not playing hard, that might cause them to limit their guranteed money and/or the number of years they are signed for.
That's just being smart, prudent and exhibiting common sense.
So if Stallworth turded-out, become injury plagued or whatever after two years, at $10 million guaranteed you've committed about $5 mil a season to him (not sure what his salary is)
Moss and Berrian after two years? A bit more but obviously there's a risk/reward at play with everyone and that's a decent gamble.
Committing $30 million to Fitzgerald? I'm not saying he's not worth the money, given his performance, potential and general demeanor - but the risk is a lot higher in his case, whether it be injury or other turdish behavior, not that I'm asserting he's a high risk player in that regard, but it has and does happen.
