[News] Late For Work 2/23: Joe Flacco Contract Negotiations To Kick Off This Weekend

[RavensDieHard21]

2 hours ago, rmcjacket23 said:

This is true. However, again, look at it from Joe's perspective....

What are the fans REALLY asking for here? They are asking for our QB to take less money so that we can resign a player to replace a player the FO already gave a large contract to and hasn't performed well for it.

So is it now Joe's responsibility to bail out the FO who gave Monroe a good sized contract and he got injured and hasn't played that well for it? Can any fan with a straight face say that they feel the responsibility of the starting QB is to take less money so that he can bail out the FO who gave out some (in hindsight) bad deals?

Why not ask Suggs to take a paycut? Or Jimmy? Or Pitta? Or Monroe? or Webb? How about everybody just slash their salary by $1M... wouldn't that be good for the team?

If I'm Joe, I'm asking the simple question... why me? Because I make the most money? Cool, I'm also clearly the most valuable.

The FO obviously paid big money for a guy that hadn't even played a full season for us yet and also made the contract so lopsided for Flacco where his cap hit would range from $14 million to $31 million, so that is where it falls on them, but Flacco knows as well as everyone else knows that the point of playing the game is to win. No one is asking him to take a cut, I think 99% want and realize the FO is seeking and extension, which will keep him here an extra few years and will allow them to take that huge # they have now and evenly distribute it over the years as well as put it towards a signing bonus. at $28 million you could almost fit suggs, jimmy, monroe and pitta's cap hits in there. Which is a whole other set of obstacles, but for now let's just say that the offseason of 2012-13 continues to haunt us until our cap is back in balance.

[RavensDieHard21]

2 hours ago, fusuymada said:

Flacco needs to do the team a favor and not push for a cap restrictive restructure. He said he wants to win and I guess when Linta meets with Newsome (rumor is they don't like each other) Flacco needs to let Linta know he works for Flacco not the other way around and Flacco needs to let Linta know he wants to do Baltimore a favor. Baltimore did Flacco a favor for paying him top dollar for a super bowl win and he has not been able to lead the offense and actually didn't play as well as the people who filled in for him last year. As far as safety goes, Elam is on his last leg and any injury or failure to start looking like a number 1 pick and he needs to go. Same goes for Webb and Kendrick Lewis was a waste of cap space. I know no one agrees with me but we need to move from 6 to 3 and grab Ramsey and give us some flexibility in the secondary and snatch up the best player in the draft.

Trust me there is a lot of players we would like to part ways with on this team or work new deals with, but just like every year we will watch numerous young players leave our team. I think that the huge savings that comes from a post June 1st cut should be moved to March 1st so team can better prepare themselves for Free agency and the draft, but that would make it too easy I guess lol 

[Ravenous_Ravens]

Flacco's contract was by design back loaded. Both sides knew they would be back here at the negotiating table. This time around there is a larger body of work for Ozzie to negotiate with. And for Flacco there have been more Qb's to sign contracts. Always a good measuring stick of fair market value when negotiating. Linta may play hardball but that's his job. Joe ultimately makes the decision to sign or not, Linta does not have that authority. Joe said he wants to win now, so trust Joe to be Joe cool and make it happen.

[WNC-Raven]

Also keep in mind that Flacco's 2013 Cap hit was only 6.8 mil., 2014 & 15 were a mere 15 mil. I assume they did this to try and win another quick SB but it didnt work out that way and we now have huge cap hits for the remainder of his contract. They will get something done but this is the consequence of that early low cap hit.

[JacktheRaven]

Joe is not going to take less money to help the team. Brady didn't either. They extend the contract and the player makes more in the end. There is no proof that teams with lot's of cap space translates to WINS. Just look at Cleveland, among others. They have 40 mil in cap space and the 2nd & 32nd picks in this draft. Trust me, Ravens are not losing games because of Joe's contract.

[rmcjacket23]

1 hour ago, Ravenous_Ravens said:

Flacco's contract was by design back loaded. Both sides knew they would be back here at the negotiating table. This time around there is a larger body of work for Ozzie to negotiate with. And for Flacco there have been more Qb's to sign contracts. Always a good measuring stick of fair market value when negotiating. Linta may play hardball but that's his job. Joe ultimately makes the decision to sign or not, Linta does not have that authority. Joe said he wants to win now, so trust Joe to be Joe cool and make it happen.

Backloaded ONLY from a salary cap perspective... not from a cash perspective. Joe received mostly a "flat" contract structure in terms of how much he is receiving year over year (he made $62M in the first three years).

[RavensBaltimore]

  12 hours ago, WNC-Raven said:

Hey rmc, everything you are saying is true but also obvious. I credit you with being one of the more knowledgeable members on this board when it comes to using deduction and facts to discuss issues. Some of us however are more open, forward thinkers that enjoy discussing issues in a more rhetorical way. In the spirit of this I presented a "possible" consequence of Joe refusing to agree with a team friendly restructuring. All that I am saying is if Joe doesn't deal it will mean that we will most likely have less talent at WR and OL during the rest of his tenure. You can see the frustration on a QB's face when their line doesn't hold up. This would be Joe's life. WR's that cant get open and a line that cant hold up protection. If he truly enjoys playing football then he would need to think about more than money. Life sucks when you hate your job. Linta will only be thinking about money. That is why I believe he does not hold all of the leverage. Just my opinion, nothing more.

And normally, I'd buy and agree with this concept. In theory, a high cap number from Joe means you spend less on other players. That could mean bad offensive lineman, bad receivers, etc., which would obviously directly impact Joe's production. A decline in production makes him less valuable, and as such, when new contract negotiations come up, the Ravens may get more leverage. Most of the time... I'd agree wholeheartedly with this.

The problem I see is simple... the market for QBs is sky high, the demand is sky high, and the supply coming out of college of one's as good as Joe is almost non existent from what I'm seeing. In a good year, you'll find ONE QB better than Joe in the draft, and its incredibly difficult many times to figure out who that is.

So if I'm a smart agent (and Joe Linta definitely is), I'm just showing the Ravens the market. I'm showing them that Kirk Cousins gets $20M a year on the franchise tag, and that QBs as good or worse than Joe are making similar money to what he is now. Once you show that... its pretty much checkmate from a negotiation standpoint. You've set a floor, and the floor is what he is making now. 3 years ago it was a big deal... now its largely a standard deal. Joe is going to get an extension that slots him in the range of an Eli, Big Ben, Rivers type contract. In theory, if he was real crappy in 2016, we might save $1M a year on negotiations. That's relatively chump change in the grand scheme of things.

Not to confuse anybody, but let me be clear... its in Joe's best interest to sign an extension in the next couple weeks. He will undoubtedly make more than the $18M hes scheduled to make in 2015, he gets more guaranteed money (which technically he has none remaining on his current deal) and he gets more years added to his deal.

My point is that his desire to do so doesn't have a whole lot to do with the Ravens reducing his cap number, because that's not a priority for him. That's up to the organization to figure out.

 

How do you know that reducing his cap number isn't a priority to him? Did you ask him? I would think that it would be a major priority. Joe seems like someone who wants to play well and win, and reducing his cap number would be conducive to both of those things.

[rmcjacket23]

9 hours ago, RavensBaltimore said:

How do you know that reducing his cap number isn't a priority to him? Did you ask him? I would think that it would be a major priority. Joe seems like someone who wants to play well and win, and reducing his cap number would be conducive to both of those things.

Maybe it is. I'm making an assumption, given that if his cap number was a priority to him, he probably doesn't sign the original deal to begin with. I would also think that if reducing his cap number were such a high priority for him, he wouldn't be waiting until basically a week before FA opens to start negotiating to bring it down.

Seems like the kind of thing that could have easily been done in the last two months wouldn't it? While I'm sure he's someone who wants to play well and win, he's also the kind of person who basically signed a "max" deal last time out knowing that his cap number was this high at this time. I think he's also the kind of person that is confident in the intellect and plan of the Ravens FO that they can structure the salary cap the way they want it to be.