Hostile
06-28-2004, 05:07 PM
Whipping them into shape
June 27, 2004
The Patriots recently exercised their options for 2007 and 2008 on Ty Warren. The defensive lineman was due $2 million of the $3.25 million option bonus by May 31 and is to receive the rest by July 15. He was to earn $955,000 in base salary this year, $1.145 million next season, and $1.335 million in 2006, and had the Patriots not picked up the options, Warren's '04 and '05 salaries, and all but $185,000 of his '06 salary, would have been guaranteed. The option included new base salaries of $305,000, $495,000, $685,000, $875,000, and $1.05 million (Warren can increase his 2007 salary by $3.7 million and his pay in 2008 by $5.6 million through individual and team performance clauses.) The Patriots have included option bonuses in the contracts of their last three first-round picks (Richard Seymour, Daniel Graham, and Warren) and likely will try to do the same with this year's first-rounders, Vince Wilfork and Benjamin Watson . . . While we're on the subject of contracts, the four-year, $8.1 million extension Tedy Bruschi recently negotiated for himself continues to draw criticism from agents, media, and players, including some teammates. It certainly falls in the "below market" category, considering the contract Houston's Jay Foreman signed last year averages $2.4 million, and the long list of linebackers who signed richer deals this offseason but aren't wearing two Super Bowl rings. But the chances are good that Bruschi will play out the entire contract because the extension doesn't have years with huge salary cap numbers added strictly for proration purposes. He'll get his wish and do what Laywer Milloy didn't do and Ty Law won't do -- play his entire career as a Patriot. Bruschi always reaches his incentives, and he's never been asked to take a pay cut. As for what he could have commanded on the open market, keep in mind he'll be 32 years old next offseason, and some within the league question whether he would be as effective in another system. Still, from the perspective of other players, Bruschi's deal effectively has created a cap within the cap at Gillette Stadium. If Bruschi, a second-team All-Pro last year, averages just a little more than $2 million a year, the Patriots can and will use that as justification for refusing to pay David Givens and Tom Ashworth like an average starting receiver and right tackle. So Givens and Ashworth will play for the one-year, $380,000 tender and like it. Players talk among themselves, and some of the younger Patriots are beginning to realize that if they want to get theirs, they'll have to get it elsewhere.
Survey said . . .
Where does Bruschi rank among his peers? He's right up there, as Bill Belichick would say. From May 12-26, the Sports Xchange surveyed 22 personnel directors for USA Today Sports Weekly, and they rated Bruschi as the league's seventh-best inside linebacker, behind Carolina's Dan Morgan and ahead of Pittsburgh's Kendrell Bell, with whom the Steelers happen to be negotiating an extension. The personnel directors surveyed also voted Seymour as the league's top defensive tackle. Sports Weekly's series on the top 10 players at each position continues through Aug. 4 . . . Patriots offensive linemen Adrian Klemm and Brandon Gorin weigh a combined 620 pounds, but somehow they'll fit together under a microscope this season. The decision-makers in Foxborough will be watching the pair closely because left tackle Matt Light is entering the final year of his rookie deal and will command an eight-figure signing bonus, especially after right tackles John Tait (Chicago) and Todd Wade (Houston) and guard Damien Woody (Detroit) got bonuses of $9 million or more this offseason. Russ Hochstein and Dan Koppen helped make Woody expendable here. Whether Klemm and Gorin finally step up may help determine whether the Patriots pony up for Light. "With any other team, [Klemm] would have been cut," a league source said of the oft-injured 2000 second-round pick. "They're going to look at him hard this year, I promise you." Light and Woody have the same agents but, fortunately for the Patriots, different values. If the sides don't come to an agreement soon, that doesn't mean Light is going anywhere; New England simply will use the "franchise" tag, which this year costs a reasonable $7.021 million for offensive linemen . . . With 13 rookies to sign, Tennessee was $523,000 under the cap as of June 15. Only the Raiders, with $313,628 to spare, were in a tighter cap situation. Pretty soon, it's going to be crunch time for the Titans and running back Eddie George. "The money's got to come from somewhere," said a source within the organization, who handicapped the chances of George staying with the team this year at 50-50. George, whom the Titans paid a $1 million roster bonus in March, is scheduled to make $4.25 million this season and count $7.3 million against the cap, so the Titans want to reduce the 30-year-old's salary to $1.5 million. Tennessee needs about $4 million to sign its rookies. "Where does it come from?" the source said. "We've already renegotiated damn near everyone. There's only one more place for it to come. It's not like we can afford to pay him that." At the end of last week's minicamp, coach Jeff Fisher expressed optimism that George would remain a Titan. "I think everyone expects it to be resolved by [July 30]," Fisher said, referring to the start of training camp. "I've got confidence it's going to work out." If it doesn't, Tennessee's workhorse will be working elsewhere this fall.
The Titans lost Jevon Kearse (Eagles) and Robaire Smith (Texans) to free agency but reloaded, drafting five defensive linemen, including ends Travis LaBoy out of Hawaii, Antwan Odom from Alabama, Randy Starks out of Maryland, and Texas Christian's Bo Schobel. Titans coaches like LaBoy's consistency, effort, and pass-rush ability and Odom's raw physical skills. Throw in a committed Albert Haynesworth, Carlos Hall, Rien Long, and veteran Kevin Carter, and the Titans have a defensive line situation similar to that of the Patriots, meaning good (and cheap) . . . There seems to be an epidemic of broken fifth metatarsals in right feet. Schobel and the Giants' Jeremy Shockey both recently had surgery to repair such an injury, and Cowboys receiver Dedric Ward joined the club Thursday. Shockey and Ward are expected to be available for the start of the regular season. Fisher said last week that Schobel's injury was "worse than anticipated," though he still could be back by September. Schobel had impressed with his polished rush skills. Kearse suffered the same injury two years ago . . . The Patriots had $1,670,168 in cap room before the signings of rookies Marquise Hill and Dexter Reid -- more than only four teams. But a team source familiar with the cap status estimated Thursday that the Patriots needed only another $1.4 million or so for their six unsigned rookies. To create cap room, New England may add "fake" years to a few contracts and guarantee portions of those players' base salaries, the way it did with Troy Brown. Or the Patriots may do extensions with Tom Brady and Adam Vinatieri, who own two of the team's higher base salaries ($5.5 million and $1.425 million, respectively) and are in line for new deals, Vinatieri entering his contract year . . . Cleveland, Philadelphia, and New Orleans each had more than $10 million of spending space as of June 15. The Giants had $5.5 million free; once they sign No. 1 overall pick Eli Manning, they will have the most expensive quarterback depth chart in the league, what with Kurt Warner's free agent deal and Kerry Collins's "dead" money. Plus, they'll have to pay a third-string QB, likely Jesse "The Bachelor" Palmer.
Deals not done
While much of the league's football personnel are vacationing before training camps start up late next month, its business folk are busy negotiating simultaneously with the networks over a new television contract and with the Players Association on an extension to the collective bargaining agreement, which runs through 2008. At issue in CBA discussions are, among other things, the players' percentage of the league's revenue and the future of the "franchise" tag . . . The Saints have upset fans, especially the Falcons', by packaging tickets for the Dec. 26 game against Atlanta at the Superdome with tickets for the Sept. 12 opener against Seattle. The two-game packages cost $120-$300. Indeed, times are hard. In other money matters involving the Saints, the Louisiana legislature passed a bill Monday that allows the Superdome Commission to borrow up to half of the $15 million payment due the team July 5 from the Department of Economic Development. Last month the state said it was in danger of failing to come through with this year's installment of a 10-year, $186 million plan the team and former Gov. Mike Foster agreed to three years ago. If the state did not fulfill its obligation by tomorrow, it would have had 75 days to do so or else the Saints would be free to leave -- and free of an obligation to pay a $75 million exit fee. The bill was but a temporary solution. Owner Tom Benson needs/wants a new, smaller stadium, and privately has said he would like to be in Los Angeles. The league, which plans to have a team back in LA by 2008, would prefer to have a current one relocate (the Colts are another possibility) but has not ruled out expansion . . . Speaking of LA, Brady, Brown, Givens, and Deion Branch, along with John Madden, were at the Coliseum two weeks ago to film a national ad for the new NFL Radio Network. Last year, the league reached a seven-year agreement with Sirius Satellite Radio to broadcast the entire regular-season schedule, plus select preseason and playoff games, and launch an around-the-clock NFL channel similar to DirecTV's NFL Network . . . On Tuesday, Tampa Bay receiver Sylvester Morris lost a fourth consecutive season to injury less than two weeks after welcoming his first child, daughter Sydni Madison, into the world. A first-round pick of the Chiefs in 2000, Morris tore his left ACL running pass routes the first day of minicamp and was scheduled to have surgery this weekend. He spent the '01 season on injured reserve after tearing his right ACL, the following season on the physically-unable-to-perform list with a left hip injury, and was out of football last year. Morris, a high school buddy of yours truly whose nickname is "Cat," says he isn't quitting. Here's hoping he has nine lives in pro football.
June 27, 2004
The Patriots recently exercised their options for 2007 and 2008 on Ty Warren. The defensive lineman was due $2 million of the $3.25 million option bonus by May 31 and is to receive the rest by July 15. He was to earn $955,000 in base salary this year, $1.145 million next season, and $1.335 million in 2006, and had the Patriots not picked up the options, Warren's '04 and '05 salaries, and all but $185,000 of his '06 salary, would have been guaranteed. The option included new base salaries of $305,000, $495,000, $685,000, $875,000, and $1.05 million (Warren can increase his 2007 salary by $3.7 million and his pay in 2008 by $5.6 million through individual and team performance clauses.) The Patriots have included option bonuses in the contracts of their last three first-round picks (Richard Seymour, Daniel Graham, and Warren) and likely will try to do the same with this year's first-rounders, Vince Wilfork and Benjamin Watson . . . While we're on the subject of contracts, the four-year, $8.1 million extension Tedy Bruschi recently negotiated for himself continues to draw criticism from agents, media, and players, including some teammates. It certainly falls in the "below market" category, considering the contract Houston's Jay Foreman signed last year averages $2.4 million, and the long list of linebackers who signed richer deals this offseason but aren't wearing two Super Bowl rings. But the chances are good that Bruschi will play out the entire contract because the extension doesn't have years with huge salary cap numbers added strictly for proration purposes. He'll get his wish and do what Laywer Milloy didn't do and Ty Law won't do -- play his entire career as a Patriot. Bruschi always reaches his incentives, and he's never been asked to take a pay cut. As for what he could have commanded on the open market, keep in mind he'll be 32 years old next offseason, and some within the league question whether he would be as effective in another system. Still, from the perspective of other players, Bruschi's deal effectively has created a cap within the cap at Gillette Stadium. If Bruschi, a second-team All-Pro last year, averages just a little more than $2 million a year, the Patriots can and will use that as justification for refusing to pay David Givens and Tom Ashworth like an average starting receiver and right tackle. So Givens and Ashworth will play for the one-year, $380,000 tender and like it. Players talk among themselves, and some of the younger Patriots are beginning to realize that if they want to get theirs, they'll have to get it elsewhere.
Survey said . . .
Where does Bruschi rank among his peers? He's right up there, as Bill Belichick would say. From May 12-26, the Sports Xchange surveyed 22 personnel directors for USA Today Sports Weekly, and they rated Bruschi as the league's seventh-best inside linebacker, behind Carolina's Dan Morgan and ahead of Pittsburgh's Kendrell Bell, with whom the Steelers happen to be negotiating an extension. The personnel directors surveyed also voted Seymour as the league's top defensive tackle. Sports Weekly's series on the top 10 players at each position continues through Aug. 4 . . . Patriots offensive linemen Adrian Klemm and Brandon Gorin weigh a combined 620 pounds, but somehow they'll fit together under a microscope this season. The decision-makers in Foxborough will be watching the pair closely because left tackle Matt Light is entering the final year of his rookie deal and will command an eight-figure signing bonus, especially after right tackles John Tait (Chicago) and Todd Wade (Houston) and guard Damien Woody (Detroit) got bonuses of $9 million or more this offseason. Russ Hochstein and Dan Koppen helped make Woody expendable here. Whether Klemm and Gorin finally step up may help determine whether the Patriots pony up for Light. "With any other team, [Klemm] would have been cut," a league source said of the oft-injured 2000 second-round pick. "They're going to look at him hard this year, I promise you." Light and Woody have the same agents but, fortunately for the Patriots, different values. If the sides don't come to an agreement soon, that doesn't mean Light is going anywhere; New England simply will use the "franchise" tag, which this year costs a reasonable $7.021 million for offensive linemen . . . With 13 rookies to sign, Tennessee was $523,000 under the cap as of June 15. Only the Raiders, with $313,628 to spare, were in a tighter cap situation. Pretty soon, it's going to be crunch time for the Titans and running back Eddie George. "The money's got to come from somewhere," said a source within the organization, who handicapped the chances of George staying with the team this year at 50-50. George, whom the Titans paid a $1 million roster bonus in March, is scheduled to make $4.25 million this season and count $7.3 million against the cap, so the Titans want to reduce the 30-year-old's salary to $1.5 million. Tennessee needs about $4 million to sign its rookies. "Where does it come from?" the source said. "We've already renegotiated damn near everyone. There's only one more place for it to come. It's not like we can afford to pay him that." At the end of last week's minicamp, coach Jeff Fisher expressed optimism that George would remain a Titan. "I think everyone expects it to be resolved by [July 30]," Fisher said, referring to the start of training camp. "I've got confidence it's going to work out." If it doesn't, Tennessee's workhorse will be working elsewhere this fall.
The Titans lost Jevon Kearse (Eagles) and Robaire Smith (Texans) to free agency but reloaded, drafting five defensive linemen, including ends Travis LaBoy out of Hawaii, Antwan Odom from Alabama, Randy Starks out of Maryland, and Texas Christian's Bo Schobel. Titans coaches like LaBoy's consistency, effort, and pass-rush ability and Odom's raw physical skills. Throw in a committed Albert Haynesworth, Carlos Hall, Rien Long, and veteran Kevin Carter, and the Titans have a defensive line situation similar to that of the Patriots, meaning good (and cheap) . . . There seems to be an epidemic of broken fifth metatarsals in right feet. Schobel and the Giants' Jeremy Shockey both recently had surgery to repair such an injury, and Cowboys receiver Dedric Ward joined the club Thursday. Shockey and Ward are expected to be available for the start of the regular season. Fisher said last week that Schobel's injury was "worse than anticipated," though he still could be back by September. Schobel had impressed with his polished rush skills. Kearse suffered the same injury two years ago . . . The Patriots had $1,670,168 in cap room before the signings of rookies Marquise Hill and Dexter Reid -- more than only four teams. But a team source familiar with the cap status estimated Thursday that the Patriots needed only another $1.4 million or so for their six unsigned rookies. To create cap room, New England may add "fake" years to a few contracts and guarantee portions of those players' base salaries, the way it did with Troy Brown. Or the Patriots may do extensions with Tom Brady and Adam Vinatieri, who own two of the team's higher base salaries ($5.5 million and $1.425 million, respectively) and are in line for new deals, Vinatieri entering his contract year . . . Cleveland, Philadelphia, and New Orleans each had more than $10 million of spending space as of June 15. The Giants had $5.5 million free; once they sign No. 1 overall pick Eli Manning, they will have the most expensive quarterback depth chart in the league, what with Kurt Warner's free agent deal and Kerry Collins's "dead" money. Plus, they'll have to pay a third-string QB, likely Jesse "The Bachelor" Palmer.
Deals not done
While much of the league's football personnel are vacationing before training camps start up late next month, its business folk are busy negotiating simultaneously with the networks over a new television contract and with the Players Association on an extension to the collective bargaining agreement, which runs through 2008. At issue in CBA discussions are, among other things, the players' percentage of the league's revenue and the future of the "franchise" tag . . . The Saints have upset fans, especially the Falcons', by packaging tickets for the Dec. 26 game against Atlanta at the Superdome with tickets for the Sept. 12 opener against Seattle. The two-game packages cost $120-$300. Indeed, times are hard. In other money matters involving the Saints, the Louisiana legislature passed a bill Monday that allows the Superdome Commission to borrow up to half of the $15 million payment due the team July 5 from the Department of Economic Development. Last month the state said it was in danger of failing to come through with this year's installment of a 10-year, $186 million plan the team and former Gov. Mike Foster agreed to three years ago. If the state did not fulfill its obligation by tomorrow, it would have had 75 days to do so or else the Saints would be free to leave -- and free of an obligation to pay a $75 million exit fee. The bill was but a temporary solution. Owner Tom Benson needs/wants a new, smaller stadium, and privately has said he would like to be in Los Angeles. The league, which plans to have a team back in LA by 2008, would prefer to have a current one relocate (the Colts are another possibility) but has not ruled out expansion . . . Speaking of LA, Brady, Brown, Givens, and Deion Branch, along with John Madden, were at the Coliseum two weeks ago to film a national ad for the new NFL Radio Network. Last year, the league reached a seven-year agreement with Sirius Satellite Radio to broadcast the entire regular-season schedule, plus select preseason and playoff games, and launch an around-the-clock NFL channel similar to DirecTV's NFL Network . . . On Tuesday, Tampa Bay receiver Sylvester Morris lost a fourth consecutive season to injury less than two weeks after welcoming his first child, daughter Sydni Madison, into the world. A first-round pick of the Chiefs in 2000, Morris tore his left ACL running pass routes the first day of minicamp and was scheduled to have surgery this weekend. He spent the '01 season on injured reserve after tearing his right ACL, the following season on the physically-unable-to-perform list with a left hip injury, and was out of football last year. Morris, a high school buddy of yours truly whose nickname is "Cat," says he isn't quitting. Here's hoping he has nine lives in pro football.