A-Dub agrees to 5 year contract

[Avondale Red Rage]

Very nice.

 

[Jersey Girl]

Matt Hasselbeck, Mark Bulger and whoever the 49ers feel like schlepping out onto the field just died a little inside. Adrian's not going anywhere. Ever.

Nice work, FO, and congratulations, AW. No one deserves it more.

LOL! Love it!

This is happy happy news! AW for the Cardinal Ring of Honor!

A friend of mine and I were just talking about this earlier. Totally agree. I look forward to seeing his name up there.

Nobody deserved it more than A-DUB!!! He shut up and let his play do the talking. He is a true man.

Ditto. What a hard worker and class act. Love you, A-dub!!!!

 

[TJ]

I love the signing and am extremely happy it got done, but I can't share your joy in this area. For what should have been a slam-dunk contract extension, it took forever and has helped hamper our efforts in getting others done, IMO. We had the entire offseason to get an extension done with a guy negotiating in good faith that really wanted to be here. It took until early June to get it done. That is incredibly slow and sad, considering we have other contracts to get done. And, if it takes us that long to get an easy one done, how in the heck will we get a complicated one done in little over a month?

I don't want to rain on parades or anything, but this contract was not even close to getting done 'relatively early'.

Trust me Stout, I am on your side when it comes to how slow contract negotiations go. AW and Kurt should have done much earlier, considering both stated publicly they wanted to stay in AZ. As much as some people on this board want to throw numbers out to attempt to make a valid argument to keep Graves on the payroll, it unequivocally holds no water because of the track record Graves has with signing top-end free agents, first-round draft choices and re-signing core players. I'd go through the names, but my keyboard would break.

If you want, don't consider it being "joyed" consider it exhaling a sigh of relief that it got done. AW means that much to this team

 

[joeshmo]

For the rest, Joe, I will go against what I usually do and disagree 100 percent. Why are people concerned when it was done? Because it makes it less likely that other deals get done. Why does time matter, as long as it's before the season? Because the Dansby deal has a deadline (July 15th), and without a Dansby deal, IMO no Boldin deal will get done.

Dansby doesnt make it less likely to get Boldin done because even with a Dansby deal Boldin is not going to get an extension. People need to start dealing with that fact. It has been said many time there is not a chance in hell that the Cards are going to give out 60 mill in gauranteed money in one offseason to Warner, Wilson, and Dansby then turn around and give another 20 mill to Boldin. 80 mill of gauranteed money in one offseason is without a shadow of a doubt not in the Cards salary budget. That is a fact and not an opinion Boldin, will not be given a new contract this year not because of cap but becuase of amount of money coming out of the owners pocket in one big chunk in the offseason, every team has a budget on that including the Redskins. Dansby is not hindering Boldin even in the slightest.

Yes, the deal should have been done earlier. You won't convince me otherwise. And, because it is soooo difficult for the FO to multi-task in large contract negotiations, the fact that Wilson's deal wasn't done did, IMO, hamper getting Dansby done.

That just isn't true what so ever. Considering they already had a 40+ mill 20 mill guaranteed contract on the table for Dansby, and were in full negotiating mode with Wilson when Dansby fired his agent I don't see how you can say that. The FO can and has been negotiating with two very huge contracts at the same time, and rookie deals, and if Dansby hadn't fired his agent they would be much further along to meet your arbitrary based on nothing time schedule, and I say abritrary becuase Dansbys deadline is so far away with a month and a half to go. Who's fault was the agent firing the FO or Dansby, its Dansby who has hampered getting Dansby done, not the FO.

it wasn't a slam-dunk in terms of it being a huge contract, and those are naturally more difficult. Fine. It was a slam dunk because both sides really wanted it done, and negotiated in perfectly good faith.

You cant have it both ways, in one breath you say it is not a slam dunk deal because of the size, yet in the same breath you say it is because of good faith. All you need is that one hurdle to make it a not slam dunk deal.

 

[joeshmo]

Thanks to Urbans blog for this post.

Sometimes the base salary of the first year of the deal is included in the guaranteed money amount reported, like Warners deal did. Meaning 18.5 mill in gauranteed money may be 8.5 mill 1st year base, 3 mill roster bonus in 2011, and 7 mill in signing bonus. Urban in his blog comes the closest in the media to making the math work.

 

[Duckjake]

will not be given a new contract this year not because of cap but becuase of amount of money coming out of the owners pocket in one big chunk in the offseason, every team has a budget on that including the Redskins. Dansby is not hindering Boldin even in the slightest.

Since that money has to be paid right away could that explain why the Wilson negotiations took longer? I doubt the Cards had planned for the huge signing bonus for Warner and that probably threw a wrench into the Cards budget.

I have always wondered how teams finance the signing bonuses. Do they have large reserves of cash? Do they get huge influxes of cash at certain times from the NFL? Do they have lines of credit to manage payroll?

 

[Crazy Canuck]

Since that money has to be paid right away could that explain why the Wilson negotiations took longer? I doubt the Cards had planned for the huge signing bonus for Warner and that probably threw a wrench into the Cards budget.

I have always wondered how teams finance the signing bonuses. Do they have large reserves of cash? Do they get huge influxes of cash at certain times from the NFL? Do they have lines of credit to manage payroll?

All three, I would venture...

 

[CardinalChris]

I think too often we think "should have been done by X", but how often do we look at other teams and when/how they extend players. This deal is not slow by any stretch of the imagination compared to other players. Are the Niners slow because Staley was extanded at the same time as Wilson? Their fans must be up in arms!!!

Joe's timeline is accurate. Exclusive effort goes to Free Agency, then the Draft. Then comes one of the few breaks any front office employee gets all year, then right back to work. They negotiate with Dansby for a couple of weeks, it falls through, so they shift their focus to priority#2, Wilson. After a couple weeks, the deal is announced.

I think the problem is people feel like all a GM does is player fantasy football in real life in an office for 14 hours a day. If we don't hear of a signing, they must just be screwing off and playing golf, right? If this is true, why haven't other teams been just whipping out extensions and signing rookies left and right? They have many, many other duties and tasks they need to accomplish every single day. We don't see these tasks, so it is easy to assume they are slow and innept.

And Joe just breifly mentioned it, but it bears repeating. The CBA and uncapped year next year slowed this thing way down. I thought Somers even reported that about a week before the deal was done.

 

[Stout]

Sorry guys...you can give lots of reasons why, but you won't convince me this negotiation didn't take too long. You won't convince me that this organization, specifically RG, still plods along and simply moves too slow. Until extensions become something we expect to get done and not something we dread won't get done, I'll continue to feel this way.

 

[daves]

It has been said many time there is not a chance in hell that the Cards are going to give out 60 mill in gauranteed money in one offseason to Warner, Wilson, and Dansby then turn around and give another 20 mill to Boldin. 80 mill of gauranteed money in one offseason is without a shadow of a doubt not in the Cards salary budget.

Joe, perhaps you have information to the contrary, but isn't it possible that the guaranteed money in the contracts - even bonus money that's "due" this year for salary cap accounting purposes - is actually scheduled to be paid in multiple installments over upcoming years?

If so, that would mitigate the cash flow difficulty this year. Just a thought....

...dave

 

[ajcardfan]

Joe, perhaps you have information to the contrary, but isn't it possible that the guaranteed money in the contracts - even bonus money that's "due" this year for salary cap accounting purposes - is actually scheduled to be paid in multiple installments over upcoming years?

If so, that would mitigate the cash flow difficulty this year. Just a thought....

...dave

That can be done and the Cards have done that in the past. On LJ Shelton's rookie contract they paid the bonus out by adding it in to his 5 years of game checks. I don't think they would do anything that extreme now, but the actual payments can be deferred.

 

[Cbus cardsfan]

any word if AW is unhappy with his contract and wants a new deal yet ?

 

[Crazy Canuck]

That can be done and the Cards have done that in the past. On LJ Shelton's rookie contract they paid the bonus out by adding it in to his 5 years of game checks. I don't think they would do anything that extreme now, but the actual payments can be deferred.

Perhaps so, but - unless there is an agreed interest payment... why would a player accept an agreement under which he loses returns on investment?

 

[ajcardfan]

Perhaps so, but - unless there is an agreed interest payment... why would a player accept an agreement under which he loses returns on investment?

Exactly why it shouldn't be done, it would create bad feelings unless the interest was included. In Shelton's case, he had that long holdout as a rookie and i think the Cards FO, at the time, wanted to punish him.

 

[Duckjake]

Exactly why it shouldn't be done, it would create bad feelings unless the interest was included. In Shelton's case, he had that long holdout as a rookie and i think the Cards FO, at the time, wanted to punish him.

There are also tax implications. For instance you could take $100k a year for 40 years to guarantee yourself income for your old age and reduce the taxes.

It would protect the money from your hundreds of new friends as well.

 

[blindseyed]

any word if AW is unhappy with his contract and wants a new deal yet ?

 

[Dayman]

http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/KentSomers/54992

Here's are the specifics of safety Adrian Wilson's new contract, according to someone familiar with it.


Bonuses -- $1 million signing bonus. $3 million roster bonus in 2011 (not guaranteed). $250,000 workout bonuses in 2010 through 2013


2009 -- $8.5 million salary, guaranteed for injury, performance and cap. (Meaning Wilson can't be cut for those reasons)
2010 -- $6.5 million salary, guaranteed for perfomance and cap. (No injury guarantee)
2011 -- $3 million salary.
2012 -- $6.5 million salary
2013 -- $7.5 million salary


That's $36.5 million. The deal has been reported to be worth a maximum of $39 million. I don't have the details of the remaining $2.5 million but I assume that's in the form of bonuses and escalators.


It's interesting the Cardinals put so much money in salary in the first year of the deal rather than a signing bonus, which could be prorated. They have structured deals in similar ways in recent years, preferring to take a hefty cap hit in one year rather than spread it out over the life of the contract. they did that with Edgerrin James and Al Johnson, for instance.

 

[AsUpRoDiGy]

Basically, Boldin has more of a chance being stuck by lightning than he does getting a new contract. I'm not sure that Boldin will be signed to a new contract even if Dansby is given a contract. Seems like Graves is just keeping him at bay until his contract is up...

 

[Duckjake]

It's interesting the Cardinals put so much money in salary in the first year of the deal rather than a signing bonus, which could be prorated. They have structured deals in similar ways in recent years, preferring to take a hefty cap hit in one year rather than spread it out over the life of the contract. they did that with Edgerrin James and Al Johnson, for instance.

Cash flow problems or cash management?

I've talked before about the money the team can make by paying salaries instead of signing bonuses. Also discussed the problems owners have raising the cash to pay the multi-million dollar bonuses in one lump sum.

 

[joeshmo]

http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/KentSomers/54992

Somers has the 2nd years base salary incorrect. It is actually only 6 mill, not 6.5 mill. And thats directly from the NFLPA. If you change the 6.5 mill to the correct 6 mill then his math actually works out to his total of 36.5 mill, because right now his math makes it 37 mill total. But thats small pickens.

Anyways here is the breakdown

Base	        Signing	  Roster	Workout	 Past contract	Cap Hit
$8,500,000	$200,000			 $910,000	$9,610,000
$6,000,000	$200,000		$250,000		$6,450,000
$3,000,000	$200,000  $3000000	$250,000		$6,450,000
$6,500,000	$200,000		$250,000		$6,950,000
$7,500,000	$200,000		$250,000		$7,950,000

				Total	$36,500,000
				Gauranteed	$18,500,000

*there are some incentives/escalators thrown in there, Most likely about 2.5 mill and dont know how he can get it*

 

[Arizona's Finest]

Sorry guys...you can give lots of reasons why, but you won't convince me this negotiation didn't take too long. You won't convince me that this organization, specifically RG, still plods along and simply moves too slow. Until extensions become something we expect to get done and not something we dread won't get done, I'll continue to feel this way.

Heres a life line for you to further your argument that it should have gotten done sooner...

http://www.azcardinals.com/blog/blog.php?author=1

At one point during his press conference last week for his new contract, Adrian Wilson thanked his agents for “getting this deal done … I guess as quickly as they could.” A-Dub chuckled a bit when he said that, but there is little question he would have liked to have it done a little sooner. Everyone probably would have. But these are the new realities of the NFL.



Yes it goes on to say how difficult contract negotiations can be but if AW was thinking it took too long....

Well draw your own conclusions. All I care is that it got done.

 

[Dayman]

Somers has the 2nd years base salary incorrect. It is actually only 6 mill, not 6.5 mill. And thats directly from the NFLPA. If you change the 6.5 mill to the correct 6 mill then his math actually works out to his total of 36.5 mill, because right now his math makes it 37 mill total. But thats small pickens.

Anyways here is the breakdown

Base            Signing      Roster    Workout     Past contract    Cap Hit
$8,500,000    $200,000             $910,000    $9,610,000
$6,000,000    $200,000        $250,000        $6,450,000
$3,000,000    $200,000  $3000000    $250,000        $6,450,000
$6,500,000    $200,000        $250,000        $6,950,000
$7,500,000    $200,000        $250,000        $7,950,000

                Total    $36,500,000
                Gauranteed    $18,500,000

*there are some incentives/escalators thrown in there, Most likely about 2.5 mill and dont know how he can get it*

Thanks for the numbers. The contract finally makes sense. Excellent work, as always.

 

[lauraw]

Welcome to the Ring Of Honor AW!!

 

[Duckjake]

Welcome to the Ring Of Honor AW!!

As fickle as the fans are on ASFN the first time AW misses a tackle they'll want him cut.

 

[TJ]

As fickle as the fans are on ASFN the first time AW misses a tackle they'll want him cut.

Nah, he has destroyed enough players in his career to earn a pass from me