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sportscurmudgeon · 04-14-2004, 02:33 PM

Let me remind all of you again that I don't read minds so I can't be positive about why Samuels has not reworked his deal.

I SUSPECT that he has lost some measure of faith in the team to come up with the money in his "big payoff" years when they actually come due. He has already redone his deal at least once - and maybe twice - with some minor tweaking to let the Skins survive previous cap problems. He has seen teammates not get the big money years at the ends of their deals. He has seen one teammate with an incentive loaded deal pushed back to a point where it is far less likely that he will earn those incentives. And so he says to himself, why do this again? Why not take the money that "they" owe "me"?

From his perspective, he is going to have to take a really low salary number this year and maybe next in order to get a bonus that makes his deal cap friendly. That means he is deferring the current salary AND the potential signing bonus he would get just by playing out his deal and going into the open market. If you add his salaries together and then add in a potential signing bonus for a solid OT who may not make the Hall of Fame but who can play at the NFL level, you are probably in the range of a $15-18M signing bonus right now. And to make that deal cap friendly, he has to make that at least a 6 year deal and maybe 8.

And maybe he's not ready to commit to that just yet - since maybe he thinks the Redskins aren't committed to him just yet.

04-14-2004, 02:33 PM	#20
sportscurmudgeon Playmaker Join Date: Feb 2004 Posts: 3,159	Let me remind all of you again that I don't read minds so I can't be positive about why Samuels has not reworked his deal. I SUSPECT that he has lost some measure of faith in the team to come up with the money in his "big payoff" years when they actually come due. He has already redone his deal at least once - and maybe twice - with some minor tweaking to let the Skins survive previous cap problems. He has seen teammates not get the big money years at the ends of their deals. He has seen one teammate with an incentive loaded deal pushed back to a point where it is far less likely that he will earn those incentives. And so he says to himself, why do this again? Why not take the money that "they" owe "me"? From his perspective, he is going to have to take a really low salary number this year and maybe next in order to get a bonus that makes his deal cap friendly. That means he is deferring the current salary AND the potential signing bonus he would get just by playing out his deal and going into the open market. If you add his salaries together and then add in a potential signing bonus for a solid OT who may not make the Hall of Fame but who can play at the NFL level, you are probably in the range of a $15-18M signing bonus right now. And to make that deal cap friendly, he has to make that at least a 6 year deal and maybe 8. And maybe he's not ready to commit to that just yet - since maybe he thinks the Redskins aren't committed to him just yet.