Twitter: Stephen’s take on negotiations with agents

Pantone282C

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I wish they would take it a step forward and go sign or trade for a legit RB and come out saying they are prepared to go into the season with him and Pollard. Then take the offer off the table and don’t mention his name again until he’s willing to sign a realistic deal or you’re announcing he has been traded.
I really don't understand why Zeke and his hemorrhoid agent are pushing like this with 2 years left. Maybe trying to get the most before the next NFLPA wrecks it for them or a strike sets in?
 

CouchCoach

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The Joneses struggle with some agents and the end game for every agent is the same, get the best deal he can for his client because others are watching. They only care about the team as to how that affects their client.

The idea that players care more about winning a ring than getting paid is preposterous, they are the driving force behind the agent. Jones is just pissed because the agents are smarter than he is and they understand leverage better.

Kid walks into a store and buys a Snicker bar for 75 cents. Comes back in 5 minutes and buys a Barq's Cream Soda for 75 cents. Comes back in another 5 minutes and gets a Drumstick out of the ice cream freezer walks up to the store owner and hands him 50 cents. The owner says "that's 75 cents for the Drumstick" and the kid replies '"I only have 50 cents left". The owner replies "not my problem, the Drumstick is 75 cents, you spent $1.50 on a candy bar and a soda when you knew you only had $2". The kid walks out without the Drumstick and the owner turns to his wife and says "there goes the next cap manager for the Dallas Cowboys".

He's walking a fine line with all agents on those comments and even though he's trying to be careful, he is a Jones and they don't have good brain traps. And I certainly hope for Booger's sake, he's not the smartest kid they have.
 

bandfan

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Interesting,
My counter as an agent would be, "will you guarantee my client a championship if I take less for the team?'
If you can't, then why should I?
And the response should be "Will you guarantee that he will never get hurt if we give more to you?"
 

xwalker

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I really don't understand why Zeke and his hemorrhoid agent are pushing like this with 2 years left. Maybe trying to get the most before the next NFLPA wrecks it for them or a strike sets in?
He is a very low level agent as compared to some the bigger name agents.

Zeke is by far his biggest client.

In fact it appears that Zeke's rookie contract is the biggest active contract for this agent.

The top 3 NFL agents have over 1 billion each in active contracts.

Zeke's agent has about 50M in active contracts and Zeke's rookie contract is half of the total.

The agent probably needs the money.

The agent also want to make this very public to get free publicity to recruit more clients.

If he can appear to win a showdown with the Cowboys, it will help him get more clients.
 

xwalker

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The Joneses struggle with some agents and the end game for every agent is the same, get the best deal he can for his client because others are watching. They only care about the team as to how that affects their client.

The idea that players care more about winning a ring than getting paid is preposterous, they are the driving force behind the agent. Jones is just pissed because the agents are smarter than he is and they understand leverage better.

Kid walks into a store and buys a Snicker bar for 75 cents. Comes back in 5 minutes and buys a Barq's Cream Soda for 75 cents. Comes back in another 5 minutes and gets a Drumstick out of the ice cream freezer walks up to the store owner and hands him 50 cents. The owner says "that's 75 cents for the Drumstick" and the kid replies '"I only have 50 cents left". The owner replies "not my problem, the Drumstick is 75 cents, you spent $1.50 on a candy bar and a soda when you knew you only had $2". The kid walks out without the Drumstick and the owner turns to his wife and says "there goes the next cap manager for the Dallas Cowboys".

He's walking a fine line with all agents on those comments and even though he's trying to be careful, he is a Jones and they don't have good brain traps. And I certainly hope for Booger's sake, he's not the smartest kid they have.
Stephen Jones has an Engineering Degree.

The vast majority of Cowboys fans couldn't get past the freshman level math classes in an Engineering Degree Plan.
 

Bullflop

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pretty sure the standard is ten pct

No. Actually, agents are limited by a rule that limits his % of his client's contract to a mere 3%. This isn't a guess -- it's an NFL rule.
 

Chappy

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I really don't understand why Zeke and his hemorrhoid agent are pushing like this with 2 years left. Maybe trying to get the most before the next NFLPA wrecks it for them or a strike sets in?
I agree and he can piss off before he attempts to cripple our team.

Zeke is very replaceable behind our OL.
 

Melonfeud

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Convicted? :huh:
Ya,it was a brief befuddlement for me as well, but I'm still pretty resilient & recovered rather quickly after Rollin' over it and ya know? From that "Less pie left" USA TODAY article, it had left me in the belief that those were the FOOTBALL DAD'S words,,,:huh:
 

DandyDon52

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I do agree with Stephen. And even though I rarely say this.....

The owners don't necessarily care about making sure the players get everything they can. This is the most profitable league, yet no guaranteed contracts? I totally understand why the owners wouldn't want to do away with the salary cap. It keeps the league (except New England) pretty even. But, if you raise the cap significantly, or relax the rules somewhat, then you could pay the players more.

I have always thought that the cap punishes a team that drafts well. I firmly believe a team should be rewarded for drafting well. Let the team that originally drafts a player count less against the cap. If the player truly wants to leave....they can....but if a team drafts well, then they have a better opportunity of keeping their good players.

I usually am very reluctant to put down big bucks for a player's jersey. It seems it's such a transient league. You never know how long a player will be with your favorite team.
Good post, some good points. They are punishing teams that draft well.
 

HanD

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Stephen Jones has an Engineering Degree.

The vast majority of Cowboys fans couldn't get past the freshman level math classes in an Engineering Degree Plan.

reading that made me feel good to start this thursday morning. thanks!
 

BourbonBalz

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Is Stephen Jones trying to lecture players about putting the team and it's success first?

Stephen, Mr. Director of Personnel for 20 plus years of failure? That Stephen? Wants the players to think of the team first?

The unmitigated gall of these Joneses.

Typical response from the likes of you. You never disappoint.
 

X550i

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And the response should be "Will you guarantee that he will never get hurt if we give more to you?"
Look, we all understand there are risks on both sides. However, Management (aka SJ) put the premise out there as the basis for the agent to take less on behalf of his client, not the other way around.
 

Chocolate Lab

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For the first time in forever, the team has so many talented players it's facing a hard time paying them all.

And the Joneses aren't handling it well.

Just pay the ones you've decided to keep and let the others go on down the road. That's the way teams like the Patriots do it. You don't need all this bluster in the media. These little tantrums and attempts to bully players through the media aren't a good look.
 

Future

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I mean, duh. Agents have no reason to care about team success while players do. No agent ever built a legacy on how many super bowls their clients won.
Well I think you could make a pretty good argument that they should, because if a contract gives a team cap constraints, they're more likely to cut that player in the future.

So say Zeke gets 5x$100m, with $60 guaranteed, he'll get the $60 no matter what. But come year 5, Dallas might be too tight to the cap and cut him, costing Zeke $20m.
 

X550i

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Stephen Jones has an Engineering Degree.

The vast majority of Cowboys fans couldn't get past the freshman level math classes in an Engineering Degree Plan.

If you really look at this from the business lens, the Jones' mishandled these negotiations with their public statements. (i.e. JJ saying they are all in on Dak as the franchise QB, Amari will get his money after his big game against the Commanders; and SJ saying that Zeke's contract starts at Gurley money).
Also, IMO they waited too long; if they really believe this core can take them to a championship, they should have tried to lock them up before other teams secured theirs. Letting them 'play this out' was the wrong play, IMO.

Is SJ dumb, of course not, but that doesn't mean they didn't mishandle these negotiations.
And before you ask, yes I have an Engineering degree if that's your litmus test to opine on SJ's business skills.
 

EPL0c0

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Patriots have avoided paying top dollar for the best talent & still manage to win

Superior coaching helps though.
 

xwalker

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If you really look at this from the business lens, the Jones' mishandled these negotiations with their public statements. (i.e. JJ saying they are all in on Dak as the franchise QB, Amari will get his money after his big game against the Commanders; and SJ saying that Zeke's contract starts at Gurley money).
Also, IMO they waited too long; if they really believe this core can take them to a championship, they should have tried to lock them up before other teams secured theirs. Letting them 'play this out' was the wrong play, IMO.

Is SJ dumb, of course not, but that doesn't mean they didn't mishandle these negotiations.
And before you ask, yes I have an Engineering degree if that's your litmus test to opine on SJ's business skills.

No, I don't judge business or football management skills strictly by having an Engineering degree.
- However, having a real Engineering degree from a fully accredited University (not online & not engineering technology) establishes that he has a reasonably high IQ.

I understand why you would say this about comments to the media; however, I disagree that it's an issue.
- The agent already knows that Dak is going to get a big contract.
- The agent also likely knows that Cooper is going to get a big contract.
- Both Dak and Cooper have only 1 year remaining under contract. Zeke has 2.

The problem appears to be that they offered Zeke a contract well below what his agent is seeking.
- That gave the agent a 1 or 2 year advance notice of what the team has in mind with regards to the contract.
- They could have implied that they plan to give him a super-mega-contract, but not until 2020 or 2021.
- Once they made an actual offer, they lost the ability to make that implication.
- Would the agent have Zeke holdout if the agent thought a super-mega-contract was on the horizon for 2020 or 2021?

Having said all of the above, that's based on how big time legit agents would likely see the situation.
- Zeke's agent is a low level agent and Zeke's rookie contract appears to be about half of his total dollars under contract.
- That's about 50M under contract vs over 1 billion for the Agents of Dak and Cooper.
- It appears that Zeke's agent (Arceneaux) is small operator trying to get into the big boys league.
- Arceneaux has lured guys like Marshall Faulk in to working with him by offering to train them to be agents.
- He used Faulk to recruit Zeke because apparently Zeke was know to be a fan of Faulk.
- Arceneaux also has a history of shady dealings with regards to covering up player crimes.

The motivations of a bottom feeding type agent might be completely different than the big time agents.
- He might just need the money now.
 

Melonfeud

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No, I don't judge business or football management skills strictly by having an Engineering degree.
- However, having a real Engineering degree from a fully accredited University (not online & not engineering technology) establishes that he has a reasonably high IQ.

I understand why you would say this about comments to the media; however, I disagree that it's an issue.
- The agent already knows that Dak is going to get a big contract.
- The agent also likely knows that Cooper is going to get a big contract.
- Both Dak and Cooper have only 1 year remaining under contract. Zeke has 2.

The problem appears to be that they offered Zeke a contract well below what his agent is seeking.
- That gave the agent a 1 or 2 year advance notice of what the team has in mind with regards to the contract.
- They could have implied that they plan to give him a super-mega-contract, but not until 2020 or 2021.
- Once they made an actual offer, they lost the ability to make that implication.
- Would the agent have Zeke holdout if the agent thought a super-mega-contract was on the horizon for 2020 or 2021?

Having said all of the above, that's based on how big time legit agents would likely see the situation.
- Zeke's agent is a low level agent and Zeke's rookie contract appears to be about half of his total dollars under contract.
- That's about 50M under contract vs over 1 billion for the Agents of Dak and Cooper.
- It appears that Zeke's agent (Arceneaux) is small operator trying to get into the big boys league.
- Arceneaux has lured guys like Marshall Faulk in to working with him by offering to train them to be agents.
- He used Faulk to recruit Zeke because apparently Zeke was know to be a fan of Faulk.
- Arceneaux also has a history of shady dealings with regards to covering up player crimes.

The motivations of a bottom feeding type agent might be completely different than the big time agents.
- He might just need the money now.
Sounds like Rocky Is the perfect agent for the #21 then.o_O
 
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