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Adam Schefter of NFL Network reports that tackle Jake Long will receive $30 million guaranteed as part of his five-year, $57.5 million deal with the Miami Dolphins.
Long will get $2 million less in guaranteed money and $3.5 million less in total money than Raiders quarterback JaMarcus Russell received a year ago, but Long is tied up for one less season.
And since different people interpret the term “guaranteed” differently, the only way to compare Long’s deal to Russell’s is to line ‘em up and parse the language.
For Parcells, it’s a win because he paid less money. For Long (and his agent), it’s a win because the deal covers one less season.
We’d still love to know whether Vernon Gholston had a meaningful chance to take less money than that.
April 22nd, 2008 at 1:17 pm
OH NO, GHOLSTON GOT DEBACLED!
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Rating: 2.4 / 5 with 5 rating(s)
April 22nd, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Good for him and good for the Fins… They certainly needed some help on the O-line.
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Rating: 3 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
April 22nd, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Gholston got debacled!
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Rating: 2 / 5 with 4 rating(s)
April 22nd, 2008 at 1:30 pm
That’s a “discount?” 14m more salary than Joe Thomas and 7m more in guaranteed money. I’m probably just naive, but I was thinking they’d get someone signed for about 50-54m over 6 years, with about 24m in guarantees.
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Rating: 2.4 / 5 with 5 rating(s)
April 22nd, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Joe Thomas is not the proper analogy.
Jamarcus Russell is.
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Rating: 4 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
April 22nd, 2008 at 1:37 pm
I agree with Steve. This deal looks like it actually increases Long’s annual salary. Is he the highest paid OL in the NFL now? If not, where does he rank?
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Rating: 3 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
April 22nd, 2008 at 1:37 pm
what a running game they are going to have. Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams are going to go the f*ck off this year. They wont even need a QB, Beck will just hand the ball off every down. lol.
now they need some studs on defense, coupled with a good ball control offense and they are starting to look decent.
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Rating: 2.35 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
April 22nd, 2008 at 1:37 pm
It is only 4 days until the draft and it does make sense, financially, to have a deal worked out ahead of time. They don’t have time to get a deal done with Gholston or anyone else except Long. So a smokescreen does not seem very likely to me.
But what do I know?
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I would like to take this time to congratulate…myself for calling this one perfectly. Great Kreskin move over! I love me some me…
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April 22nd, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Steve I agree with you, if this is the best they could do after all this talk I feel really let down.
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April 22nd, 2008 at 1:45 pm
steve, why would you be comparing the contracts of Long and Thomas. Thomas was a third-overall, Long is first. Given the shorter length of the deal, it’s really not a bad contract for either side.
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Rating: 3 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
April 22nd, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Question about this whole pre-draft negotiations/agreements:
Although the Dolphins say they have agreed to terms with Long, come draft day are they bound to select him (either contractually or via league enforcement)? If the Dolphins were to not select him, would he have viable remedy under K-law or would he be subject to the CBA grievance process (is he technically an NFL employee yet, or does that status begin when he is selected on draft day?, If he is not, would he be forced to act through the CBA or can he initiate a private law action?) If the CBA is closed to him because of his status, would the remedy be expectation damages or specific performance?
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Rating: 2 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
April 22nd, 2008 at 1:51 pm
The money these rookies make is getting absolutely out of control.
The NFL needs a rookie salary structure intact in the next CBA.
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April 22nd, 2008 at 1:56 pm
This deal is still much more per year than Jamarcus Russell’s. they didn’t really succeed in lowering the rate at all, just the total value of the deal.
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Rating: 3.5 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
April 22nd, 2008 at 2:00 pm
This is where the NBA actually has something right- structured deals for rookie contracts- aka UNPROVEN players. I’m sure the NFL could figure out a way to guarantee nice amounts of money to first rounders over 3 to 4 years without handcuffing teams with these kinds of rookie deals.
I think it is reasonable to compare him to Thomas- because Thomas is a pro-bowler and Long will be getting more money….having done nothing yet.
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Rating: 3 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
April 22nd, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Who cares if Gholston was a serious candidate or not. I
have been indicating as recently as earlier this morning
that the need for the Dolphins to get a franchise type
OT was so great that there was never any smokescreen. Jake
Long is the right pick for the Dolphins. He will make the
QB, RB and WR better. Jake Long for people who really know
how to evaluate football was a forgone conclusion as the
Dolphins #1 pick.
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Rating: 3 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
April 22nd, 2008 at 2:08 pm
debacle - a crushing defeat,a ruinous collapse
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April 22nd, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Steve I agree with you, if this is the best they could do after all this talk I feel really let down.
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I think you and others are missing the point a bit. Usually the #1 overall pick gets about 15% more in guranteed money than the previous years pick. In this case that would be about $36.8 million. They got Long for $30 million guranteed. So in essence they saved about $6.8 million. Less guranteed money, less risk to the Dolphins. In exchange the deal is for 5 years instead of 6. So his “average” salary may have gone up a little. It’s a classic win-win situation IMHO.
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Rating: 3.5 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
April 22nd, 2008 at 2:21 pm
When he & the Phins sign on the line the pick is in the books, done deal. And, I’m pretty sure the Rms are now allowed to go into full blown negotiations and even sign someone before saturday as they are now up.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
April 22nd, 2008 at 2:40 pm
JSwerdy - The Dolphins can sign a contract with any rookie. There will be no selection process for the Dolphins on Saturday, it will just start with St. Louis. Once the Dolphins ink the contract with Long, St. Louis is then on the clock and can sign someone and then the clock would be Atlanta etc…
Once that contract is inked the deal is done, there is no draft day ploy here.
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Rating: 4 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
April 22nd, 2008 at 2:45 pm
AllSeeingEye has it right. Dolphins save money compared to JaMarcus Russell’s deal, but Long gets the chance to hit that second contract sooner…and if he’s as good as advertised, he’ll easily eclipse this rookie deal and the Dolphins will then invest even more heavily into a known commodity by that point.
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April 22nd, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Maybe Thomas is not an accurate assessment. I don’t necessarily think that Russell is either. QB’s should always make about at least a 10% premium in money vs other positions on the field.
The Dolphins were supposedly attempting to negotiate someone at a savings. This contract is actually for more than last years #1 got on a per year basis. It makes Long the highest paid lineman in the league I believe. Linemen were always a bit underrated in years past, but this contract is clearly in the overpaid/overrated category.
So, it at least appears evident that the Phins were merely blowing smoke when they were alledgedly trying to get the #1 pick signed at a cheaper rate.
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April 22nd, 2008 at 3:06 pm
steve, you are right about Long now being the highest-paid offensive lineman. Alan Faneca held that mark for just under two months when he signed with the Jets in March ‘08 at five-years, $40 million with $21 million in guarantees. But Long plays a premium position (tackle) compared to Faneca playing guard. Undoubtedly we’ll continue to see more deals like this until the NFL slots their prospects. But I really don’t think the Dolphins overpaid in-terms of highly-drafted NFL rookies. And I don’t think that Long got the shaft either. The more time the draftniks have to digest this deal, my feeling is that the overall response will be that in present NFL terms, that this was a fair deal to both parties.
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April 22nd, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Tom, the Dolphins will still get their 10 minutes to announce the Long pick. The question is how long will they make everyone wait for what we already know? If the Rams don’t ink someone before then, they’d probably welcome the extra time to hear from any possible trade partner. But Miami still gets to officially start the draft.
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April 22nd, 2008 at 3:19 pm
The really big advantage to the Dolphins is that they have their pick signed, sealed, and delivered. No holdouts, no posturing, just showing up as soon as he’s done with school. It cuts down on the chances of a “wasted” rookie season so you really get an extra year of production out of your draft pick.
This is a sharp contrast to the Raiders last year with Russell’s contract squabbles and holdout making him worthless for his rookie year. Russell is on a 5 year deal from the point of view that they didn’t get a 1st year out of him… this past year was a freebee for him. Raiders had all the leverage in the world - the could have signed Quinn (if they really needed a QB,) Thomas, Johnson, Peterson, etc. They had that many needs. Instead they put all the power in Russell’s hands by not forcing him to sign a contract before the draft. Dumb move.
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April 22nd, 2008 at 3:27 pm
They will probably take the 10 minutes for NFL advertising reasons. Remember also, no one else can strike a pre-draft deal - only the team with the #1 pick overall.
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