The Rundown: In Which We Right A Wrong of Our Own Making
Time for me to fall on my sword, or at least begin the process. Three weeks ago, I doubted our friend Bob Glauber’s source in how far along the process of D’Brickashaw’s negotiations were going (along with the other fellas), and that the contract process was actually quite close to completion for Brick.
Here’s Glauber’s writing on Brick in an article mainly about Revis in Newsday on June 16th.
… the team is further along in negotiations with Ferguson on a long-term deal than is widely known. An agreement could be reached before the start of training camp, barring unexpected complications, according to people familiar with Ferguson’s situation.
Here’s a quote from Brad Blank (Brick’s agent) in the Post back on Jun 18th reacting to the ongoing talks with the Jets:
That was news to agent Brad Blank, who appeared to doubt a deal could get done that quickly considering he has yet to receive a contract proposal from Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum.
“It’s hard to say that [you could get a deal done by camp] when you’ve never exchanged proposals and don’t even know if you’re in the same ballpark,” Blank told The Post yesterday. “We haven’t heard anything from the Jets.”
Here’s one from yesterday’s Fifth Down (emphasis is mine) in which Blank said something quite interesting.
Blank said there was no hint of a holdout or discontent from Ferguson, but it was the Jets wanting to “take care of someone who is a good soldier.”
“He never wanted anything, this wasn’t his idea – they came to us,” Blank said. “At no time did we approach them.”
Blank said the Jets originally came to him in early June, wanting to sign Ferguson to a long-term deal.
What valuable lesson did we learn, but probably already knew? Agents have a tendency to speak in half truths and trust Glauber’s sources. I listened to a Bill Simmons podcast with Chad Ford (Parts 1 & 2) where they talk about sourcing a few weeks ago, and it helped me realize what journalists have to deal with.
Now, while Blank wasn’t necessarily lying to the Post, but he wasn’t telling the whole truth either, and I took his “named source” word to the Post over whoever it was that talked to Bob on the matter. It’s clear that negotiations were ongoing, even if concrete numbers hadn’t been put down on the table just yet, Glauber was onto something.
With that, It’s worth revisiting what else Glauber’s sources told him, which will help us to read the tea leaves on the team’s contract situation. Boiling it down:
- Revis Contract > $100 million? — Revis has a contract that could exceed $100 million on the table in front of him, but likely doesn’t have the guaranteed cash he wants up front. That’s the sticking point of getting a deal done with him and might continue to be.
- Mangold Long Way Off — Mangold wants top-tier money and deservedly so … maybe even similar to Brick. As an interior player, even a center, it might be very hard for the team to justify that. Unless his demands come down and the team’s price goes up (my guess, maybe around $8-ish mil per year as a compromise?) the team might use the tag.
- Harris on the Shelf — Don’t expect David Harris to see a new deal before the season ends, and maybe not even then. As a fourth year player going into an unclear CBA, the team might try to make him an offer, but might be able to RFA him due to the current CBA rule craziness … that would allow the team more flex around Braylon, Holmes and Cromartie this coming offseason, and the chance to hold onto one more of their prized players..
17 Responses to The Rundown: In Which We Right A Wrong of Our Own Making
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Glauber turned out to be right, but you were still right in suggesting that his article should have had a quote from the agent. Now he has the benefit of an “I told you so,” to hang over the heads of any naysayers, but there are no guarantees when journos have to rely on unnamed sources.
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Bent says: Mangold’s value has been set by the market and is about 7.5 to 8m per year and both he and the team know this. I can’t see how either party’s demands could deviate far from that figure. The obstacle to getting his deal done is two-fold. Firstly, the 30% rule and secondly the Jets’ possibly wanting to wait in order to maintain their salary structure.
This seems to reassure us that the Jets aren’t leaking fake information (although I continue to question whether they were the source of these leaks in the first place).
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Bent says:
Angel – I’m sure the source spoke on the condition of anonymity, so what could he do, other than not run the story?
Glauber’s reputation is rightfully restored and you have to applaud Bassett’s integrity too. Think Blank or Hubbuch will be making any apologies?
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Bob Glauber says:
Wow, high praise, Bassett. Many thanks. BG
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billvv says:
I gather Brick’s agent doen’t have a last name….
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BKWRXWgn says:
Aside from the good news that D’Brick will remain a Jet, I gotta commend Bassett for being able to admit his fault in doubting the initial article. There was no wrong in the doubt of course now if only other journalist, bloggers,etc can follow this example….
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Harlan Lachman says:
Bent, I am sure you have been asked these two questions countless times (perhaps even by me but with my memory…) but:
• Does the 30% rule (Mangold and Harris) eliminate for some players the possibility of an extension with money paid for performance as was offered to Brick (even guaranteed money coming over time) and force a team to pay the player most of his money up front bonus money (destroying a team’s cap) if something goes wrong?
• Revis has been paid fairly well. Does the 30% rule impact only the current year salary ($1 mil) or the average of the contract?
TIA,
harlan
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Bent says:
Harlan – it’s not impossible to stagger part of a bonus payment in order to reduce your upfront outlay. Obviously, agents and players might resist this though, so that doesn’t necessarily solve things. You can make up the balance with not likely to be earned incentives, but you need to come up with something that the league will not classify as likely to be earned, but that the player is still confident they can earn.
The issue with Revis is not so much the early years of the contract. He earned like 7m last year (the final capped year being the operative year for determining the maximum 30% raise), so they could pay him high salaries from the outset. The issue is that he already has two years in place with relatively low cap numbers and the Jets would ideally prefer to preserve these, so that they retain maximum flexibility in 2011. Unfortunately, this would mean his salary is too low, because they will need to increase it to the 15m range by the end of the deal, which will not be easy with maximum raises of less than 3m per year.
I think that’s what they were trying to achieve with the reported 6/100 deal bolted onto the end of his current deal, but if Revis wants upfront guarantees he is presumably going to have to accept lower salaries after the first 3 years to get it to work. I suspect the answer is some kind of shorter term deal that triggers an early renegotiation once the new CBA arrives.
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Bent,
I agree with you, and I have the utmost respect for Bob Glauber.
He did what was right by initially sharing what he was told. I don’t take issue with that. But by hanging his hat on the unnamed source, doubt was cast the moment Manish Mehta ran his story contradicting the report.
When you have an unnamed source saying one thing, and then read a quote from the agent involved saying something contradictory, don’t we all lean toward the one who’s out in the open?
That may be my mistake as a reader/budding journalist learning more about double speak, but many reacted similarly.
I have no issues with Glauber’s report last month whatsoever.
It’s just when we’re talking about reporting on a story, I wish Glauber’s would’ve covered that base — even if it resulted in a “Ferguson’s agent was not available for comment before publishing,” or something to that effect.
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miketaliaferro says:
I think everyone would be better served by ignoring the NY Poop entirely and not giving a shred of credence to any report emanating from it on any topic, but especially sports.
If Hubbahubba names an unnamed source, it’ll most likely be his editor or perhaps Rupe, himself.
Perhaps I’m harsh on them, but for ANY of us to begin, continue or feed a controversy on ANYTHING popping out of The Poop is total folly! And calls US into question…
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Bent says:
Agreed, Angel.
The morale of the story, as ever…don’t ever trust the word of an agent!
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Bent says:
Mike – that’s true too. Since he surfaced a few months ago, everything Hubbuch has written has been negative, so should be taken with a pinch of salt, perhaps.
As Bassett wrote, agents speak in half-truths, which means that Hubbuch can request the half of the truth that makes the Jets look bad, for whatever reason.
Unfortunately, he ultimately fails because if anyone looks bad from this episode, it isn’t the Jets.
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Just so that we’re clear here:
Brick’s contract is 6 yrs./$34 million, with some part of another $26 million coming to him over that time totaling a $60 million max, if the Jets still want him for the actual full length of the contract — which they may, but also may not. But what he can/should count on going in is 6/$34.
If he’s foolish to delude himself that he’s going to see $60 over 6, we can track down TJ’s phone number for him. Or the cells of a slew of other NFL types who couldn’t count.
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But knowing that he’ll be averaging between $5.7 million and a possible $10 million a year for the next 6 yrs. should make for many peaceful, restful nights in the Ferguson household.
Good move on da Brick. As Jane McManus points out at ESPNNY they were able to get this deal done within the 30% rule.