[News] Late For Work 3/22: Tony Jefferson's Major Hat Tip To Lardarius Webb; Dennis Pitta's Restructure

[bioLarzen]

  3 hours ago, Bat-mite said:

I don't understand Pitta's restructure. Guy comes off a major injury where he sat out most of two seasons and collected injured pay, then comes back and has the best year of his career and leads all TEs in receptions, and gets asked to take less money?

I am happy about it in that it frees up cap room so we can get some talent at WR and OL, but I really don't get it.

Maybe he realizes that because of his injury history it won't be easy to find a new team despite being the leading TE and that he kinda owes the Ravens for keeping him on the team all that time (getting paid without contributing).

This is probably it: Pitta simply has no leverage. His camp probably knows that it would be very hard to find any kind of market for him with his hip history - his 2016 season notwithstanding.

[rmcjacket23]

  35 minutes ago, billiejean said:

There has been a total of zero starting QBs in recent memory who have decided to take less money than the amount that was agreed upon at the time when they signed their contracts. QBs have shuffled their money around to give teams more cap room but they are still getting the amount of money that was offered to them in their contract. And really all that does is kick the can down the road. Joe is not going to going to take a paycut. It's really an unprecedented move.

What a load of hogwash.

First, restructuring does not necessarily mean a player gets paid less. Converting base salary into bonus money pays the player the exact amount as before, just now some of that money is guaranteed. It's always risky for a team, but it's a common tool to lower a player's cap hit.

Secondly, plenty of QBs have done it. Brady and Big Ben have both done it at least 2 times in the past 5 years if I remember correctly.

You actually just proved his point. Players move the money around, but they don't eliminate it completely. That's the point.

His statement was that no QB has agreed to take a straight paycut, meaning no bonus conversion, etc.

While I wouldn't say nobody has done it, I don't recall any big name, franchise QB doing it.

Restructuring a salary into a bonus to create short term cap space is just like putting something on your credit card. It doesn't go away... you just pay it later.

This is all moot on Joe, because only $6M this season would be subject to this anyway, so converting a portion or all of that into a bonus wouldn't even yield that much cap space.

In short, its not happening.

[roamingcharges]

Okay so remind me again: How did Ed Reed drop all the way to the Ravens in 2002?

[RavensBaltimore]

I don't understand Pitta's restructure. Guy comes off a major injury where he sat out most of two seasons and collected injured pay, then comes back and has the best year of his career and leads all TEs in receptions, and gets asked to take less money?

I am happy about it in that it frees up cap room so we can get some talent at WR and OL, but I really don't get it.

I don't think he had the best year of his career. He had the most catches because he caught so many meaningless dumpoff passes, and as someone mentioned, he wasn't getting many yac or picking up enough 1st downs. He only had 2 tds, and they were in the same game. It was inspiring just to see him back on the field and contributing, but there's no need to pay someone that much if he's not an explosive playmaker or a consistent chain mover.

[Ravenous_Ravens]

Good move. It appears the FO has been re-aligning their current contracts to bold well moving forward. Restructure does not mean earn less per se, but it does allow for better cap space management which is always important. Removing potential log jams is always a smart move, if done ahead of time.

[Utah_Raven]

So we have 5 TEs and 2 WRs? Weird.

[MadStorkSociety]

Okay so remind me again: How did Ed Reed drop all the way to the Ravens in 2002?

Exactly!

[MadStorkSociety]

Okay so remind me again: How did Ed Reed drop all the way to the Ravens in 2002?

You might enjoy this article when Ed Reed was drafted. We were as excited as the Patriots when they drafted Brady. Neither team knew what they got...
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2002-04-21/sports/0204210199_1_ed-reed-ravens-jamal-lewis

[roamingcharges]

  3 hours ago, roamingcharges said:

Okay so remind me again: How did Ed Reed drop all the way to the Ravens in 2002?

You might enjoy this article when Ed Reed was drafted. We were as excited as the Patriots when they drafted Brady. Neither team knew what they got...
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2002-04-21/sports/0204210199_1_ed-reed-ravens-jamal-lewis

Umm pardon me but you don't pick off 21 passes in division 1 college ball (playing in the ACC) by accident... Again, did you say they didn't know what they got...? What else could they have been expecting???

[stuckonaboat13]

Love to have Webb back at slightly above vet min , solid safety depth

[20306cab]

  6 hours ago, RaRaRavens said:

What a load of hogwash.

First, restructuring does not necessarily mean a player gets paid less. Converting base salary into bonus money pays the player the exact amount as before, just now some of that money is guaranteed. It's always risky for a team, but it's a common tool to lower a player's cap hit.

Secondly, plenty of QBs have done it. Brady and Big Ben have both done it at least 2 times in the past 5 years if I remember correctly.

Heavens to Betsy 

You are remembering incorrectly Brady and Ben restructured, but they still got the amount of money agreed upon when signing their contract.

Unless I'm mistaken, I think that's exactly what he just said. It's pay me now or pay me later. This whole salary cap crap in the NFL is mindboggling.

[MadStorkSociety]

1 hour ago, roamingcharges said:

Umm pardon me but you don't pick off 21 passes in division 1 college ball (playing in the ACC) by accident... Again, did you say they didn't know what they got...? What else could they have been expecting???

I'm agreeing with you - it should be a no brainer. But did you read the article? Unless the whole article was sarcastic, they don't sound too enthused...

"But no one was jumping up and down at the team's Owings Mills complex when Reed's name was called"

"But there was no magic yesterday, just Ed Reed"

"When Ravens team officials walked into the news conference to talk about Reed, there wasn't much excitement. Last year, Newsome and Phil Savage, the team's director of scouting, traded high fives across the table when they found out Heap was still available. Owner Art Modell cracked a lot of jokes, and coach Brian Billick once asked to be pinched because he thought he was dreaming. Yesterday, it seemed like they were in Mudville."

"Safety. Ed Reed. It was a good choice, but just didn't create the buzz of past No. 1 selections."

[bioLarzen]

Dunno if anyone else has realized - but with Aiken saying interesting things about the Ravens offensive situation - but I cannot help noticing that in 2 years this was the second time a free agent says negative things about the Ravens offensive management. Last year KO said that he never felt that the O-line is appreciated - and now Aiken... You never hear anything bad like that about the D...

Yep, it may be nothing more than a bitter player... but still.

[MadStorkSociety]

6 minutes ago, bioLarzen said:

Dunno if anyone else has realized - but with Aiken saying interesting things about the Ravens offensive situation - but I cannot help noticing that in 2 years this was the second time a free agent says negative things about the Ravens offensive management. Last year KO said that he never felt that the O-line is appreciated - and now Aiken... You never hear anything bad like that about the D...

Yep, it may be nothing more than a bitter player... but still.

Hopefully, it's nothing. But if it is, that means we probably have a couple more years of offensive dysfunction.

[whobilly]

  8 hours ago, billiejean said:

There has been a total of zero starting QBs in recent memory who have decided to take less money than the amount that was agreed upon at the time when they signed their contracts. QBs have shuffled their money around to give teams more cap room but they are still getting the amount of money that was offered to them in their contract. And really all that does is kick the can down the road. Joe is not going to going to take a paycut. It's really an unprecedented move.

What a load of hogwash.

First, restructuring does not necessarily mean a player gets paid less. Converting base salary into bonus money pays the player the exact amount as before, just now some of that money is guaranteed. It's always risky for a team, but it's a common tool to lower a player's cap hit.

Secondly, plenty of QBs have done it. Brady and Big Ben have both done it at least 2 times in the past 5 years if I remember correctly.

If Joe's wife made 40 mill a year like Gizele was maybe he would look at restructuring like Brady.

[sizzlingdoom]

Sidney Jones potentially available for this season?🤔 Ozzie make the moves to grab this guy in the second!! Hopefully teams sleep on him and he end up in our laps 

We have a couple thirds. This draft is going to be super interesting, and nobody knows how its going to shake out. But I wouldn't mind trading back from 16, to not only pick someone of similar value 10 picks later, but to pick up an extra pick or two so we can grab Sidney in the second. I wouldn't mind if we didn't even get to use him til next year. But the playoffs this year are still like what, 9 months away or so? Such a bummer that happened to him. He was my favorite corner in the draft by far. Whether we took him in the second or third, I hope he ends up wearing purple and black. Medicine is getting better and better. Who knows

[RaRaRavens]

9 hours ago, whobilly said:

If Joe's wife made 40 mill a year like Gizele was maybe he would look at restructuring like Brady.

You can not in all seriousness believe that Gizele's income is the main reason for Brady low cap number?!

I mean, if that was the case and Brady really was living out of Gizele's pocket, why even take 15mil per year. Why not take 10mil, or 5??

Brady takes less money cause he wants to be with a winning organization and wants that organization to be in the best possible position to win as many titles as possible. 

[rmcjacket23]

  13 hours ago, whobilly said:

If Joe's wife made 40 mill a year like Gizele was maybe he would look at restructuring like Brady.

You can not in all seriousness believe that Gizele's income is the main reason for Brady low cap number?!

I mean, if that was the case and Brady really was living out of Gizele's pocket, why even take 15mil per year. Why not take 10mil, or 5??

Brady takes less money cause he wants to be with a winning organization and wants that organization to be in the best possible position to win as many titles as possible. 

Well, sort of.

1. He can take less because he's made a little under $200M in his career from the Patriots. That's why he can take less, which he somewhat does.

2. Fans seems to forget that there have been multiple contracts in Brady's career where he was taking top of the market deals. The reason fans forget this is because QBs weren't making $20M+ a year when he was doing that.

In 2005, he signed a deal that paid him nearly $10M AAV, which was one of the biggest deals in league history at the time. Note that the salary cap that season was just over $85M.

In 2010, he signed a 4 year extension worth $72M, so an AAV on that extension of $18M/year. On AAV, that made him the highest paid player in the league.

3. Also need to understand that Brady's compensation and cap numbers are often two very different things. Much of Brady's compensation through his career has come in the form of bonuses instead of base salaries, so that they can be allocated over a longer period of a contract.

Tom Brady made over $28M to play football last season. That's how much cash the Patriots paid him. He wasn't playing for $5M, or $10M, or $15M.

Now, in 2017, he's only owed $1M, but we will see if that actually comes to fruition or not.

[Drinkmore Beer]

Webb is a class act. Hope we can bring him back.

[Crusader]

Dunno if anyone else has realized - but with Aiken saying interesting things about the Ravens offensive situation - but I cannot help noticing that in 2 years this was the second time a free agent says negative things about the Ravens offensive management. Last year KO said that he never felt that the O-line is appreciated - and now Aiken... You never hear anything bad like that about the D...

Yep, it may be nothing more than a bitter player... but still.

Where there is smoke there is fire.

[rmcjacket23]

Dunno if anyone else has realized - but with Aiken saying interesting things about the Ravens offensive situation - but I cannot help noticing that in 2 years this was the second time a free agent says negative things about the Ravens offensive management. Last year KO said that he never felt that the O-line is appreciated - and now Aiken... You never hear anything bad like that about the D...

Yep, it may be nothing more than a bitter player... but still.

I'd go with the bitter player. KO I'm not even really sure he knew what he was talking about or anybody really even understands what he said. It seemed to me that he was just upset that the Ravens didn't put up a better contract offer.

With Aiken, pretty clear he wasn't a valued member of the offense, and we all knew that already.

[RaRaRavens]

53 minutes ago, rmcjacket23 said:

Well, sort of.

1. He can take less because he's made a little under $200M in his career from the Patriots. That's why he can take less, which he somewhat does.

2. Fans seems to forget that there have been multiple contracts in Brady's career where he was taking top of the market deals. The reason fans forget this is because QBs weren't making $20M+ a year when he was doing that.

In 2005, he signed a deal that paid him nearly $10M AAV, which was one of the biggest deals in league history at the time. Note that the salary cap that season was just over $85M.

In 2010, he signed a 4 year extension worth $72M, so an AAV on that extension of $18M/year. On AAV, that made him the highest paid player in the league.

3. Also need to understand that Brady's compensation and cap numbers are often two very different things. Much of Brady's compensation through his career has come in the form of bonuses instead of base salaries, so that they can be allocated over a longer period of a contract.

Tom Brady made over $28M to play football last season. That's how much cash the Patriots paid him. He wasn't playing for $5M, or $10M, or $15M.

Now, in 2017, he's only owed $1M, but we will see if that actually comes to fruition or not.
 

Welp, here's to hoping that Flacco has filled his pockets with enough moolah at one point so he, too, would be willing to take a bit less or maybe shuffle some of that dough around into bonuses of different sort. 

[rmcjacket23]

  1 hour ago, rmcjacket23 said:

Well, sort of.

1. He can take less because he's made a little under $200M in his career from the Patriots. That's why he can take less, which he somewhat does.

2. Fans seems to forget that there have been multiple contracts in Brady's career where he was taking top of the market deals. The reason fans forget this is because QBs weren't making $20M+ a year when he was doing that.

In 2005, he signed a deal that paid him nearly $10M AAV, which was one of the biggest deals in league history at the time. Note that the salary cap that season was just over $85M.

In 2010, he signed a 4 year extension worth $72M, so an AAV on that extension of $18M/year. On AAV, that made him the highest paid player in the league.

3. Also need to understand that Brady's compensation and cap numbers are often two very different things. Much of Brady's compensation through his career has come in the form of bonuses instead of base salaries, so that they can be allocated over a longer period of a contract.

Tom Brady made over $28M to play football last season. That's how much cash the Patriots paid him. He wasn't playing for $5M, or $10M, or $15M.

Now, in 2017, he's only owed $1M, but we will see if that actually comes to fruition or not.
 

Welp, here's to hoping that Flacco has filled his pockets with enough moolah at one point so he, too, would be willing to take a bit less or maybe shuffle some of that dough around into bonuses of different sort. 

1. He's already done the bonus thing. It's why his cap number is so high right now and why he had to do a complete extension after just 3 years of a 6 year deal.

2. Unlikely to see anything of the sort, given that Joe almost certainly won't be playing until he is 40 like Tom will. He would be 37 when his current contract expires, and that's probably around the time he'll start considering retirement, assuming he even makes it that long.