Orton a "No Show" at Minicamp Practice today **Contract Details Post #36**

[waving monkey]

keep him on the roster till every penny is retrieved ,probably not smart but screw him

 

[DFWJC]

I'm saying he did honor the deal. You can't say teams can cut a player at anytime and then say players have to follow the contract to it's completion. In the NFL contracts mean very little, all that matters is the guaranteed money. The 5m dollar signing bonus was 80% his pay for the last 2 years. Just because Dallas likes to add voidable years to help against the cap, that money was earned. Would they like to get another year out of Orton, probably. But if he doesn't want to play, he shouldn't have to give back money he actually earned. His base salary this year is 3.25m, so that is what Dallas thinks a backup QB is worth and that is what they paid him for 2012 and 2013.

It sets a bad precedent the other way. You want guys that will allow you to rework their contracts when you need salary cap space. If you start going after money that meant as pay, but accounted for over 5 years for cap purposes, players will not rework their deals anymore. The amount is so small, 1.6m that it's not worth the bad press. Ratliff was a completely different animal. He hadn't earned all of his signing bonus yet and then just quit on the team after milking his injury for as long as he could.

What you don't want is Orton showing up to camp, being pushed hard out of spite and then getting injured in camp. Then he not only keeps the signing bonus money, but they have to pay his 3.25m salary as well.

The counter to being able to cut a player is that they can quit.
But the guaranteed parry of the contract still stands and nothing more.
Fair both ways.
Orton didn't have to rework his deal but it was giving a little more money IF he played out the deal. He and his agent knew exactly what they were doing ....just follow the contract as written and do t try to manipulate it.