2017 Cap Space

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(06-02-2017, 03:39 PM)Au165 Wrote: So couple issues, one your basing your tag number on this past year expect it to be about 10% higher next year. The other issue is that second year tag will make him far and away the highest TE in the league, what if thats the year he gets hurt again? The smart thing is to structure it incentive based with a decent base salary. Sign him to 4 years with a 6.5 million a year base (putting him around 15th in league), with games played incentives allowing him to be a top 3 TE. Base it that way for the first two years with a decent signing bonus and an out after year 3 in case he does end up hurt again. This gives him motivation to sign and gives us good value if he misses time or it means we have one of the top TE in the game and he is paid like it.

If we go the tag route all your doing is rolling the dice every year while paying him as the top TE in the game. Also understand going for the multi year deal, we can stretch the cap number making it a lot lower as we go where as each year we tag him we eat the full cap number which hurt the rest of our roster.

(06-02-2017, 03:46 PM)Au165 Wrote: I think the patriots literally laid out the road map for often injured highly talented TE's recently with what they did for Gronk. Eiffert's agent is going to know that and I think it is a fair approach for all those involved. Even if we get Eiffert for 10 games a year he is worth 6.5 million, it is when we get 15/16 out of him he is worth that 9/10 Million that top TE's get.

The first issue is answered by the tilde (~) I put in the $10m bit. Be it $10m or $10.8m.. it'll be around there.

The second issue is answered by the fact that if Eifert is healthy for all of 2017 and 2018 (which is what he'd need to be in order to reach that $12m) then there's absolutely no problem paying Eifert like one of the highest paid TE, because that is what he'd be if he could just be constantly healthy.

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As for your contract suggestion, just because it makes sense for a team financially doesn't mean that it makes sense for a player. There's almost no way that Eifert signs for $6.5m/yr base. Much like the Guard market, the TE market has been absolutely destroyed as far as reasonableness goes.

-Charles Clay just got $7.6m/yr and has a yardage high of 605 yards in the last three years, while catching no more than 4 TD in any of the last three years.
-Kyle Rudolph reached 500+ yards for the first time in his 6 year career and got $7.3m/yr.
-35-year-old Jason Witten just signed a $7.4m/yr deal.
-Dwayne Allen hasn't had more than 406 yards in the last 4 years and got $7.35m/yr.
-Jermaine Gresham got $7m/yr!!!

Eifert isn't going to accept a $6.5m/yr deal, even if there's incentives to raise it, because the market has dictated that mediocre TE now get $7m/yr+ in FA without incentives. If Eifert hits FA, even with his injury history, he will make a lot more, and he knows it.

Comparing his situation to Gronkowski is different because Gronkowski has openly admitted he doesn't care about maximizing his contract in favor of staying with the Patriots in order to win Super Bowls. He has never won less than 12 games in the NFL, he has never missed the playoffs, he has played in 6 AFC Championship games, played in 3 Super Bowls, and won 2 of them... and he get passes thrown to him by Tom Brady. The Bengals can offer none of that to Eifert. Plus Gronkowski was still under contract for multiple years, compare to Eifert's contract year. They're just different situations.