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Championship!!!!
LET'S MAKE A DEAL
Jaguars are gearing up for rookie negotiations
By GENE FRENETTE
The Times-Union
Byron Leftwich regrets it now.
The Jaguars quarterback wishes he had never opened his mouth on the opening day of his first NFL minicamp in 2003, saying: "I'm not going to be involved in any holdouts."
When Leftwich made that declaration in such a definitive tone, he admits that it was done without an understanding about the nuances of NFL contract negotiations.
Three months later, he ate those words. The Jaguars' first-round draft pick held out 19 days because his agent, Tom Condon, and the Jaguars couldn't reach an agreement.
"I didn't know about the process," Leftwich said. "All we want to do is play football. And sometimes, the business side of it slows that down. That's one thing I hadn't thought of, because you never know."
The Jaguars will find out in the coming months if their 2004 first-round pick and No.9 overall, wide receiver Reggie Williams, can avoid the same pitfall. Williams vowed on draft day not to be a training-camp holdout, but many wonder if that promise will be fulfilled, because he's represented by Houston-based agent Carl Poston. He and his agent brother, Kevin, who has an office in Detroit, are a tag team with a reputation for being contentious negotiators.
"I trust my agents. They know I'm going to be here in training camp," said Williams. "I understand the business side of it, but I have the overall call on everything I do."
Such confidence and bravado from NFL rookies is easy in April or May, but it can be a different story once a training-camp deadline approaches and the team's top draft pick has yet to sign a contract.
It happens every summer. Over the past eight years, a total of 73 rookies -- most of them first-round picks --have been unsigned by Aug. 1, though many differences are resolved by the start of preseason games.
Rookie holdouts are an inevitable part of NFL life. If the Jaguars and Williams hope to avoid going down the same path as Leftwich, it's imperative that the front office and Carl Poston iron out any differences as early as possible. The Jaguars' training camp opens July 31.
"A rookie holdout should be totally avoidable with the market we're in, as long as the agent and the club are playing fair," said agent Jim Steiner, who has represented NFL players, including former Jaguars defensive end Tony Brackens, for 28 years. "It should be an exception rather than a rule. But some teams have certain policies [in negotiations] that are hard for agents to live by, and the reverse can also be true."
As an 11-year NFL player, Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio has plenty of experience with contract negotiations. Though aware of the Postons' tough negotiating posture, he doesn't anticipate that Williams will be a holdout.
"I have confidence in our approach that, in the end, the agent wants to get a deal done rather than not have his guy in camp," Del Rio said. "I'm on the optimistic side until I'm proven wrong. We're going to be fair to [Williams], and he's going to be happy with the end result. It sounds like he's serious about getting here. My hope is it's a non-issue."
[size=+1]Waiting game[/size]
Michael Huyghue is one of those rare people who has played the NFL contract game from both sides of the negotiating table. For eight years, he was the Jaguars' senior vice president of football operations and primary negotiator on player contracts. Now, he's an agent and president of Axcess Sports in Jacksonville.
During his time with the Jaguars, the only real stalemate was with 1999 first-round pick Fernando Bryant, whose 10-day holdout was the longest for a rookie until Leftwich last year. Huyghue said the blame varies in each case.
"When you work for the club, you think it's the agent," Huyghue said. "When you work for the player, you think it's the club. When an agent gets a first-rounder, you want to do a good deal to recruit [other players] off that. When I was with the Jaguars, I made it a point to get deals done early by forcing the agents into the process very early in June. Agents are looking to get deals done. It's not their intention to frustrate the process.
"But every now and then, people rub each other the wrong way. Most of the time, I'd say holdouts are probably the fault of the agent. Everything is give and take. If a deal is done properly, there should be compromise on both sides. When someone gets greedy, that's when the process gets screwed up."
In this salary-cap era, where each NFL club is allocated varying rookie pools (this year, it's $5.05 million for the Jaguars' 10 draft picks), contracts for rookies tend to work in reverse order. The lowest-round picks usually sign first, with many of the first-rounders waiting until the last week or two before training camp to sign. But some run deep into August, with a few exceptions going into the regular season.
"People are trying to arrive at a deal that works for both sides, and that can happen in a multitude of ways," said Jaguars contract negotiator Paul Vance, who succeeded Huyghue. "One important thing is listening to what's important to the other side. A lot of players and agents will wait to see when everybody is signing and slot in."
The slotting system -- where the signing bonus and total worth of a first-rounder's contract usually falls in between the two players picked in front and behind him -- doesn't always make things easy. Especially when the agent and the club sees the contract targets a little differently.
Two years ago, Minnesota Vikings offensive tackle and No.7 overall pick Bryant McKinnie had one of the longest rookie holdouts in NFL history because the team offered the former Miami standout a signing bonus that was $1.2 million less than that of Dallas Cowboys safety Roy Williams, who was taken one spot after McKinnie. With the Vikings facing a Nov. 12 deadline to sign McKinnie or have him ineligible for the 2002 season, they finally relented on Nov. 1. McKinnie received a signing bonus of $9.35 million, which was $5,000 more than Williams got.
Steiner, the agent who negotiated McKinnie's contract with partner Ben Dogra, says that 98-day holdout could have never lasted that long if the player hadn't been able to stand up to the pressure of not being with his team.
"For a holdout to be effective, the agent and the player have to be on the exact same page," Steiner said. "If you're going to tread into [a holdout], the player must understand exactly what he's getting into. You have to have the right resolve. The reason it worked for us is [McKinnie] had the resolve to stand up for the principle of not taking less money than the player behind him.
"The player has to be fully aware of the deals being consummated with the other first-round picks. If a problem develops [with the club's offer], the player has to make the decision whether he wants to go forward as a holdout or make his best deal now. We make it clear that once you're into the holdout, you can't afford to reverse your decision and capitulate."
McKinnie's deal hinged on the player getting his desired signing bonus, which the Vikings ended up paying in installments. But holdouts can happen for a variety of contract issues -- incentive/escalator clauses, voidable years, salary-cap implications -- that are critical in negotiations.
"It comes down to being dealmakers," said veteran agent Ralph Cindrich. "There have been times when I've been in a situation where I wanted better than a slot deal [for his client]. Other times, I've put the fairness hat on and wanted to get the deal done, but the club either had salary-cap problems or blatantly refused to do it."
Steiner believes that certain NFL teams are more difficult to deal with, and those clubs are more likely to have a rookie holdout.
"If you look at the history of teams with contract problems, it tends to be the same cluster -- Arizona, Cincinnati and Minnesota -- because they're not willing to conform to the [slotting] system," Steiner said. "As much as Larry Fitzgerald [the No.3 draft pick] wants to be with the Arizona Cardinals, they're very rigid in what they do with their first-round picks. It'll be very interesting to see what happens with that negotiation."
You can bet Steiner will also be paying close attention to Reggie Williams and the Jaguars. One of Steiner's clients is wide receiver Roy Williams, the No.7 pick of the Detroit Lions, taken just two spots behind the Jaguars' receiver.
[size=+1]New territory for Jaguars[/size]
Vance has been the Jaguars' contract negotiator since the end of the 2001 season. And for the second consecutive year, he must consummate a deal with a first-round pick and an agent with a reputation of being stubborn at the bargaining table.
Condon was the agent for San Diego Chargers rookie running back LaDainian Tomlinson in 2001, who held out until Aug. 22. He also represented rookie holdout Quentin Jammer, the Chargers' first-round pick in 2002, before it happened again with Leftwich.
Now Vance and the Jaguars must negotiate with Carl Poston, who has already made news this year for acrimonious dealings with several NFL teams.
Washington Redskins linebacker LaVar Arrington, a Poston client, filed a grievance in March against his employer, contending the Redskins left out a $6.5 million signing bonus that he believes is due him from a contract extension that was signed Dec. 26. Arrington said he and Poston were under pressure to sign the deal to provide the team salary-cap relief, then mistakenly agreed to a contract in which they thought included a 2006 roster bonus of $6.5 million. The case will be resolved by the NFL Players Association in the coming months.
Two months ago, at the NFL owners meetings, Poston was outspoken in his criticism of New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, claiming that his client, cornerback Ty Law, was deceived by Belichick and that the coach reneged on promises of a $15.6 million signing bonus. Law and the Patriots remain at odds over his contract.
Earlier this year, the St. Louis Rams complained that Poston made outrageous demands on behalf of his client, offensive tackle Orlando Pace. Poston reportedly asked for a $27 million signing bonus for Pace, despite the team's franchise player saying he'd be content with a $15-17 million bonus. Rams president Jay Zymunt said of Poston's proposal: "It's not an offer, it's a ransom note."
During his first negotiations with the Rams on Pace's rookie contract in 1997, Poston was branded the "Darth Vader " of agents. Pace, the No.1 overall draft pick, was a holdout until Aug. 16 that year.
Pace is now one of six NFL franchise players who have not reached contract agreements with their clubs. Two others, Oakland Raiders cornerback Charles Woodson and San Francisco 49ers linebacker Julian Peterson, are also represented by Poston.
Furthermore, some of the biggest pre-draft hype was that the Redskins would pass on selecting University of Miami tight end Kellen Winslow (he went No.6 to the Cleveland Browns) because Poston was his agent. The Redskins, who picked Miami safety Sean Taylor, denied bypassing Winslow because of his agent selection, but there's clearly a dark cloud hovering over Poston in several NFL front offices.
Despite those ill feelings, the Jaguars are united in their belief that negotiations with Poston will go smooth and that a holdout won't happen. However, there's apparently no experience to go on. Vance says he doesn't remember ever negotiating a contract with Poston.
Poston, who never returned repeated phone messages left with him about this story, figures to be a busy man this summer. In addition to top-10 picks Winslow and Williams, he also represents Auburn linebacker Karlos Dansby, the first pick of the second round by Arizona. Poston has more than 20 NFL veterans as clients, some of whom may be involved in contract negotiations while the Jaguars are trying to consummate a deal with Williams.
But the Jaguars feel that contracts tend to be less difficult when quarterbacks aren't involved.
"Byron [Leftwich] was a bit unique, in that he was in a year where there wasn't a large increase in the rookie salary cap and he was the only quarterback taken between No.3 and No.11 since the cap started in 1994," Vance said. "If you don't have anybody historically in that relatively big space, it opens up a lot of questions. As you can imagine, it can take a long time to get to the place that both sides are willing to get to."
Besides the non-quarterback factor in Williams' case, Del Rio feels something else works in favor of a faster negotiation: Williams has a chance to be an immediate starter. Last year, there wasn't a big sense of urgency with Leftwich, because Mark Brunell was the starter until a September elbow injury changed things.
"Because Reggie [Williams] is not a quarterback, I think both sides will find the appropriate slot," Del Rio said. "Plus, we foresee him having a legitimate chance to come in from Day One and be the [starter]."
But with training camp still 10 weeks away, who knows how all this contract stuff will play out? Williams insisted on draft day that he has no concerns, saying: "I'm in charge of this show, and I don't anticipate any problems."
A week later, Leftwich came to minicamp and took note of Williams' promise. From his own experience, the Jaguars' quarterback had some words of caution for his future target.
"One bit of advice I should have told [Williams] is never say that [about not holding out], because everybody will hold it against you if it happens," Leftwich said. "Sometimes, things happen in business. They happen with Microsoft and IBM. "Nobody wants to hold out. But sometimes, those things happen and when they do, you got to deal with it."
Jaguars are gearing up for rookie negotiations
By GENE FRENETTE
The Times-Union
Byron Leftwich regrets it now.
The Jaguars quarterback wishes he had never opened his mouth on the opening day of his first NFL minicamp in 2003, saying: "I'm not going to be involved in any holdouts."
When Leftwich made that declaration in such a definitive tone, he admits that it was done without an understanding about the nuances of NFL contract negotiations.
Three months later, he ate those words. The Jaguars' first-round draft pick held out 19 days because his agent, Tom Condon, and the Jaguars couldn't reach an agreement.
"I didn't know about the process," Leftwich said. "All we want to do is play football. And sometimes, the business side of it slows that down. That's one thing I hadn't thought of, because you never know."
The Jaguars will find out in the coming months if their 2004 first-round pick and No.9 overall, wide receiver Reggie Williams, can avoid the same pitfall. Williams vowed on draft day not to be a training-camp holdout, but many wonder if that promise will be fulfilled, because he's represented by Houston-based agent Carl Poston. He and his agent brother, Kevin, who has an office in Detroit, are a tag team with a reputation for being contentious negotiators.
"I trust my agents. They know I'm going to be here in training camp," said Williams. "I understand the business side of it, but I have the overall call on everything I do."
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[font=verdana, arial, sans-serif]HARRY CABLUCK/Associated Press[/font] [font=verdana, arial, sans-serif]Press Agent Jim Steiner will be paying close attention to the Jaguars' negotiations with receiver Reggie Williams (above). One of Steiner's clients, Texas receiver Roy Williams (below), was taken two spots later in the draft.[/font] Such confidence and bravado from NFL rookies is easy in April or May, but it can be a different story once a training-camp deadline approaches and the team's top draft pick has yet to sign a contract.
It happens every summer. Over the past eight years, a total of 73 rookies -- most of them first-round picks --have been unsigned by Aug. 1, though many differences are resolved by the start of preseason games.
Rookie holdouts are an inevitable part of NFL life. If the Jaguars and Williams hope to avoid going down the same path as Leftwich, it's imperative that the front office and Carl Poston iron out any differences as early as possible. The Jaguars' training camp opens July 31.
"A rookie holdout should be totally avoidable with the market we're in, as long as the agent and the club are playing fair," said agent Jim Steiner, who has represented NFL players, including former Jaguars defensive end Tony Brackens, for 28 years. "It should be an exception rather than a rule. But some teams have certain policies [in negotiations] that are hard for agents to live by, and the reverse can also be true."
As an 11-year NFL player, Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio has plenty of experience with contract negotiations. Though aware of the Postons' tough negotiating posture, he doesn't anticipate that Williams will be a holdout.
"I have confidence in our approach that, in the end, the agent wants to get a deal done rather than not have his guy in camp," Del Rio said. "I'm on the optimistic side until I'm proven wrong. We're going to be fair to [Williams], and he's going to be happy with the end result. It sounds like he's serious about getting here. My hope is it's a non-issue."
[size=+1]Waiting game[/size]
Michael Huyghue is one of those rare people who has played the NFL contract game from both sides of the negotiating table. For eight years, he was the Jaguars' senior vice president of football operations and primary negotiator on player contracts. Now, he's an agent and president of Axcess Sports in Jacksonville.
During his time with the Jaguars, the only real stalemate was with 1999 first-round pick Fernando Bryant, whose 10-day holdout was the longest for a rookie until Leftwich last year. Huyghue said the blame varies in each case.
"When you work for the club, you think it's the agent," Huyghue said. "When you work for the player, you think it's the club. When an agent gets a first-rounder, you want to do a good deal to recruit [other players] off that. When I was with the Jaguars, I made it a point to get deals done early by forcing the agents into the process very early in June. Agents are looking to get deals done. It's not their intention to frustrate the process.
"But every now and then, people rub each other the wrong way. Most of the time, I'd say holdouts are probably the fault of the agent. Everything is give and take. If a deal is done properly, there should be compromise on both sides. When someone gets greedy, that's when the process gets screwed up."
In this salary-cap era, where each NFL club is allocated varying rookie pools (this year, it's $5.05 million for the Jaguars' 10 draft picks), contracts for rookies tend to work in reverse order. The lowest-round picks usually sign first, with many of the first-rounders waiting until the last week or two before training camp to sign. But some run deep into August, with a few exceptions going into the regular season.
"People are trying to arrive at a deal that works for both sides, and that can happen in a multitude of ways," said Jaguars contract negotiator Paul Vance, who succeeded Huyghue. "One important thing is listening to what's important to the other side. A lot of players and agents will wait to see when everybody is signing and slot in."
The slotting system -- where the signing bonus and total worth of a first-rounder's contract usually falls in between the two players picked in front and behind him -- doesn't always make things easy. Especially when the agent and the club sees the contract targets a little differently.
Two years ago, Minnesota Vikings offensive tackle and No.7 overall pick Bryant McKinnie had one of the longest rookie holdouts in NFL history because the team offered the former Miami standout a signing bonus that was $1.2 million less than that of Dallas Cowboys safety Roy Williams, who was taken one spot after McKinnie. With the Vikings facing a Nov. 12 deadline to sign McKinnie or have him ineligible for the 2002 season, they finally relented on Nov. 1. McKinnie received a signing bonus of $9.35 million, which was $5,000 more than Williams got.
Steiner, the agent who negotiated McKinnie's contract with partner Ben Dogra, says that 98-day holdout could have never lasted that long if the player hadn't been able to stand up to the pressure of not being with his team.
"For a holdout to be effective, the agent and the player have to be on the exact same page," Steiner said. "If you're going to tread into [a holdout], the player must understand exactly what he's getting into. You have to have the right resolve. The reason it worked for us is [McKinnie] had the resolve to stand up for the principle of not taking less money than the player behind him.
"The player has to be fully aware of the deals being consummated with the other first-round picks. If a problem develops [with the club's offer], the player has to make the decision whether he wants to go forward as a holdout or make his best deal now. We make it clear that once you're into the holdout, you can't afford to reverse your decision and capitulate."
McKinnie's deal hinged on the player getting his desired signing bonus, which the Vikings ended up paying in installments. But holdouts can happen for a variety of contract issues -- incentive/escalator clauses, voidable years, salary-cap implications -- that are critical in negotiations.
"It comes down to being dealmakers," said veteran agent Ralph Cindrich. "There have been times when I've been in a situation where I wanted better than a slot deal [for his client]. Other times, I've put the fairness hat on and wanted to get the deal done, but the club either had salary-cap problems or blatantly refused to do it."
Steiner believes that certain NFL teams are more difficult to deal with, and those clubs are more likely to have a rookie holdout.
"If you look at the history of teams with contract problems, it tends to be the same cluster -- Arizona, Cincinnati and Minnesota -- because they're not willing to conform to the [slotting] system," Steiner said. "As much as Larry Fitzgerald [the No.3 draft pick] wants to be with the Arizona Cardinals, they're very rigid in what they do with their first-round picks. It'll be very interesting to see what happens with that negotiation."
You can bet Steiner will also be paying close attention to Reggie Williams and the Jaguars. One of Steiner's clients is wide receiver Roy Williams, the No.7 pick of the Detroit Lions, taken just two spots behind the Jaguars' receiver.
[size=+1]New territory for Jaguars[/size]
Vance has been the Jaguars' contract negotiator since the end of the 2001 season. And for the second consecutive year, he must consummate a deal with a first-round pick and an agent with a reputation of being stubborn at the bargaining table.
Condon was the agent for San Diego Chargers rookie running back LaDainian Tomlinson in 2001, who held out until Aug. 22. He also represented rookie holdout Quentin Jammer, the Chargers' first-round pick in 2002, before it happened again with Leftwich.
Now Vance and the Jaguars must negotiate with Carl Poston, who has already made news this year for acrimonious dealings with several NFL teams.
Washington Redskins linebacker LaVar Arrington, a Poston client, filed a grievance in March against his employer, contending the Redskins left out a $6.5 million signing bonus that he believes is due him from a contract extension that was signed Dec. 26. Arrington said he and Poston were under pressure to sign the deal to provide the team salary-cap relief, then mistakenly agreed to a contract in which they thought included a 2006 roster bonus of $6.5 million. The case will be resolved by the NFL Players Association in the coming months.
Two months ago, at the NFL owners meetings, Poston was outspoken in his criticism of New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, claiming that his client, cornerback Ty Law, was deceived by Belichick and that the coach reneged on promises of a $15.6 million signing bonus. Law and the Patriots remain at odds over his contract.
Earlier this year, the St. Louis Rams complained that Poston made outrageous demands on behalf of his client, offensive tackle Orlando Pace. Poston reportedly asked for a $27 million signing bonus for Pace, despite the team's franchise player saying he'd be content with a $15-17 million bonus. Rams president Jay Zymunt said of Poston's proposal: "It's not an offer, it's a ransom note."
During his first negotiations with the Rams on Pace's rookie contract in 1997, Poston was branded the "Darth Vader " of agents. Pace, the No.1 overall draft pick, was a holdout until Aug. 16 that year.
Pace is now one of six NFL franchise players who have not reached contract agreements with their clubs. Two others, Oakland Raiders cornerback Charles Woodson and San Francisco 49ers linebacker Julian Peterson, are also represented by Poston.
Furthermore, some of the biggest pre-draft hype was that the Redskins would pass on selecting University of Miami tight end Kellen Winslow (he went No.6 to the Cleveland Browns) because Poston was his agent. The Redskins, who picked Miami safety Sean Taylor, denied bypassing Winslow because of his agent selection, but there's clearly a dark cloud hovering over Poston in several NFL front offices.
Despite those ill feelings, the Jaguars are united in their belief that negotiations with Poston will go smooth and that a holdout won't happen. However, there's apparently no experience to go on. Vance says he doesn't remember ever negotiating a contract with Poston.
Poston, who never returned repeated phone messages left with him about this story, figures to be a busy man this summer. In addition to top-10 picks Winslow and Williams, he also represents Auburn linebacker Karlos Dansby, the first pick of the second round by Arizona. Poston has more than 20 NFL veterans as clients, some of whom may be involved in contract negotiations while the Jaguars are trying to consummate a deal with Williams.
But the Jaguars feel that contracts tend to be less difficult when quarterbacks aren't involved.
"Byron [Leftwich] was a bit unique, in that he was in a year where there wasn't a large increase in the rookie salary cap and he was the only quarterback taken between No.3 and No.11 since the cap started in 1994," Vance said. "If you don't have anybody historically in that relatively big space, it opens up a lot of questions. As you can imagine, it can take a long time to get to the place that both sides are willing to get to."
Besides the non-quarterback factor in Williams' case, Del Rio feels something else works in favor of a faster negotiation: Williams has a chance to be an immediate starter. Last year, there wasn't a big sense of urgency with Leftwich, because Mark Brunell was the starter until a September elbow injury changed things.
"Because Reggie [Williams] is not a quarterback, I think both sides will find the appropriate slot," Del Rio said. "Plus, we foresee him having a legitimate chance to come in from Day One and be the [starter]."
But with training camp still 10 weeks away, who knows how all this contract stuff will play out? Williams insisted on draft day that he has no concerns, saying: "I'm in charge of this show, and I don't anticipate any problems."
A week later, Leftwich came to minicamp and took note of Williams' promise. From his own experience, the Jaguars' quarterback had some words of caution for his future target.
"One bit of advice I should have told [Williams] is never say that [about not holding out], because everybody will hold it against you if it happens," Leftwich said. "Sometimes, things happen in business. They happen with Microsoft and IBM. "Nobody wants to hold out. But sometimes, those things happen and when they do, you got to deal with it."
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