- Messages
- 21,399
- Reaction score
- 3,794
Posted by Mike Florio on August 2, 2010 6:06 PM ET
We recently suggested that, when it comes to working out a new deal for cornerback Darrelle Revis, G.M. Mike Tannenbaum's hands are tied by the reluctance of owner Woody Johnson to authorize the funds necessary to get the deal done.
On Monday, Johnson denied that the impasse has arisen from a lack of money.
"The main issue with the New York Jets is total compensation," Johnson said Monday, per Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News. "When you get to some of the details like the guaranteed money or the length of the contract -- all of those things that are a part of the contract -- but to get to the point where we haven't even negotiated that because we're so far apart on the other ones. I'd love to sit down and negotiate. We can be flexible."
Johnson reiterated that the team has offered both a long-term deal and a short-term "Band-Aid" solution. Rich Cimini of ESPNNewYork.com reports that the long-term deal included total compensation in excess of $100 million. The "Band-Aid" would have paid Revis more than his current $1 million salary in 2010, but less than the $5.3 million they'll pay left tackle D'Brickashaw Ferguson this year.
"This is my eleventh year," Johnson said. "We've never had an inability [with] lack of resources to sign whoever we wanted. We can go down the list. You want to talk about Brett Favre or even Mark Sanchez in terms of signing the players we want. We can do it. But we have to do it in the context of what's best for the organization."
That's fine, but is it "best for the organization" to approach Revis' agents only two days after the Jets were knocked out of the playoffs and suggest ripping up the last three years of his rookie deal, which he held out to get in the first place, without saying that: (1) the Nnamdi Asomugha contract, with an average value of $15.1 million is an aberration, not a benchmark; and (2) the 30-percent rule and the reallocation rule will affect the total dollars and the guaranteed money?
Even though the Jets are now crouching behind the gap in total dollars as the primary impediment to working out a deal, the amount of truly guaranteed money is a huge part of the picture. They can offer him a deal worth $500 million, but all that really matters is the amount that's truly guaranteed once he signs his first name and last name to the bottom of the contract.
Ferguson signed because, for reasons neither known nor apparent, he wasn't troubled by the complete lack of an injury guarantee or the application of a year-by-year skill guarantee. Revis wants $15.1 million per year -- and he wants the appropriate amount of guaranteed money to be guaranteed upon signing, not after he gets through 2010 and then 2011 and then 2012 and then 2013 without suffering a serious injury or without suddenly losing the stuff that makes him, as coach Rex Ryan says, the best defensive player in the game.
So, basically, the Jets' new approach is to paint Revis as greedy. Put simply, they're saying he wants more money than the Jets think he's worth, and they think he's worth a lot.
This new approach might win them some points in a P.R. battle they had previously bungled, but it won't get Revis into camp in the foreseeable future. Or thereafter.
We recently suggested that, when it comes to working out a new deal for cornerback Darrelle Revis, G.M. Mike Tannenbaum's hands are tied by the reluctance of owner Woody Johnson to authorize the funds necessary to get the deal done.
On Monday, Johnson denied that the impasse has arisen from a lack of money.
"The main issue with the New York Jets is total compensation," Johnson said Monday, per Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News. "When you get to some of the details like the guaranteed money or the length of the contract -- all of those things that are a part of the contract -- but to get to the point where we haven't even negotiated that because we're so far apart on the other ones. I'd love to sit down and negotiate. We can be flexible."
Johnson reiterated that the team has offered both a long-term deal and a short-term "Band-Aid" solution. Rich Cimini of ESPNNewYork.com reports that the long-term deal included total compensation in excess of $100 million. The "Band-Aid" would have paid Revis more than his current $1 million salary in 2010, but less than the $5.3 million they'll pay left tackle D'Brickashaw Ferguson this year.
"This is my eleventh year," Johnson said. "We've never had an inability [with] lack of resources to sign whoever we wanted. We can go down the list. You want to talk about Brett Favre or even Mark Sanchez in terms of signing the players we want. We can do it. But we have to do it in the context of what's best for the organization."
That's fine, but is it "best for the organization" to approach Revis' agents only two days after the Jets were knocked out of the playoffs and suggest ripping up the last three years of his rookie deal, which he held out to get in the first place, without saying that: (1) the Nnamdi Asomugha contract, with an average value of $15.1 million is an aberration, not a benchmark; and (2) the 30-percent rule and the reallocation rule will affect the total dollars and the guaranteed money?
Even though the Jets are now crouching behind the gap in total dollars as the primary impediment to working out a deal, the amount of truly guaranteed money is a huge part of the picture. They can offer him a deal worth $500 million, but all that really matters is the amount that's truly guaranteed once he signs his first name and last name to the bottom of the contract.
Ferguson signed because, for reasons neither known nor apparent, he wasn't troubled by the complete lack of an injury guarantee or the application of a year-by-year skill guarantee. Revis wants $15.1 million per year -- and he wants the appropriate amount of guaranteed money to be guaranteed upon signing, not after he gets through 2010 and then 2011 and then 2012 and then 2013 without suffering a serious injury or without suddenly losing the stuff that makes him, as coach Rex Ryan says, the best defensive player in the game.
So, basically, the Jets' new approach is to paint Revis as greedy. Put simply, they're saying he wants more money than the Jets think he's worth, and they think he's worth a lot.
This new approach might win them some points in a P.R. battle they had previously bungled, but it won't get Revis into camp in the foreseeable future. Or thereafter.