From an outsider's perspective, one of the problems with sports contract negotiations seems to be a lack of creativity on the part of the two sides in defining exactly what a successful outcome would be.
Of course, in the salary cap age, the bottom line is always going to be the bottom line. There are only two numbers that truly, objectively matter -- the guaranteed dollars and the total contract value -- but that isn't the way things usually work out, is it?
Consider Brian Westbrook's case. By any measure, the guy makes a ton of money. If he plays out the full term of the six-year deal (five year extension) he signed in 2005, he'll make more than $25 million.
I could live on that.
We also know that if this were 1998, rather than 2008, Westbrook would be perfectly happy with his contract, and not just because the dollar actually used to be worth something. The problem for Westbrook isn't how much money he makes, it's how much money everyone else makes.
And in this case, by everyone else we pretty much mean LaDanian Tomlinson, Clinton Portis and a few other guys. All of whom make more money than Westbrook, even though he is just as good as any of them, at least in this offense.
Westbrook seems never to have gotten over the fact that he was just a third-round pick coming out of college. He knew even back then that he was something special, it just took awhile for everyone else to figure it out. But because he came in as a mid-round pick, Westbrook never got the kind of enormous rookie deal that sets a guy for life. It seems that ever since then he's been playing catch-up in his own mind.
The challenge the Eagles now face is that Westbrook doesn't seem that interested in being fairly compensated for his undoubtedly superlative performance. It's not about that. It's about the headline that says:
Westbrook Signs for XX years, $XX million
Becomes league's highest-paid running back
That's what's driving statements like this:
"If LaDainian [Tomlinson] got paid $25 million guaranteed in 2003 and now it's 2008, the next person needs to be paid $30 million guaranteed," Westbrook said. "It works its way up. You can't sit here and say, 'I'm as good as LaDainian right now, and I'm getting paid five years after him. . . . So I'll take $15 million.' That doesn't make any sense."
In the same story where you read this:
The Eagles said they made a fair offer to Westbrook and maintain that [Westbrook's former agent Fletcher] Smith also believed it was a reasonable deal. Smith has not returned phone calls since the news broke that he is no longer the running back's agent, and Westbrook also has not been available for comment.
(And while we're on the subject of Westbrook's former agent, are we sure that it was Westbrook who ended the relationship? Given that it's been more than a week and he hasn't picked someone new, could it be that Smith was the one who decided there was no point in representing a player who wouldn't take his advice? It's worth pondering.)
As two other writers have already pointed out, there's a better chance the Eagles re-sign Terrell Owens than give $30 million guaranteed to a 29-year-old running back, no matter how good he is.
Which means we are officially at an impasse.
Now, there are really only a couple ways this can work out. Westbrook is not going to play out the next three years at his current contract. I'd give him one more season max before he starts going all Chad Johnson (but with class) on us. At the same time, the Eagles aren't going to give Westbrook the kind of money he claims he's looking for.
Soooo ... what has to happen here is for the "reasonable" money the Eagles are offering to be positioned in such a way that Westbrook can justifiably feel as if he's being recognized as not just a great running back, but truly one of the elite.
I have an idea on that.
Westbrook likes to compare himself to LaDanian Tomlinson. I think it's fair to say that Brian thinks he and LDT are the two best backs in the league. So start by taking a look at the contract LDT signed in 2004.
LaDainian Tomlinson signed the richest contract for a running back in NFL history Saturday, a deal with the San Diego Chargers worth nearly $60 million.
The star back will get $21 million in guarantees in the eight-year deal.
Westbrook signed his six-year deal a year later and got a measly $10.5 million guaranteed and $25 million overall. So here's my proposal: give Westbrook a two-year extension that turns his original six-year deal into an eight year deal and bumps the value past what LDT got. Here's how you could do it.
Start with Westbrook's current deal (all numbers from the indispensable EaglesCap.com):
What we need to do here is find some way to bump the guaranteed money up to what LDT got by adding roughly $10 million in bonuses. But since Brian has suggested that the Eagles offered him $15 million, let's go with that.
To make that happen, all we have to do is give Brian roster bonuses over the next three seasons of $5 million a year. (As you may have heard, the Eagles have plenty of cap room for such an arrangement.) That changes his contract to look like this:
Which, hey, is pretty nice of me, but still leaves Westbrook about $20 million short of where LDT is sitting. To fix that, we add on two more years and bump up some base salaries:
And voila, Westbrook has an eight-year, almost $64 million contract with $25 million in guaranteed money. By my calculations, that makes Westbrook the highest-paid running back in the history of the NFL. And if you compare those numbers above with the specifics of the LDT deal you will see they are very much in line, with Westbrook coming out just a little bit ahead. One could in fact argue that this is exactly the sort of deal Westbrook would have signed in 2005 if everyone had known then how good he was going to be.
Of course, by structuring the deal this way, the Eagles have some protection too. If something happens with Westbrook by 2011, the team can part ways without crippling their future cap. But's those two years are just gravy to Westbrook, since he's getting $20 million in new money over the next three years and doesn't have a contract that extends beyond 2010 anyway.
I'm telling you, this could work.
Some possible objections:
Isnt't this really just a two-year extension and not and eight-year deal?
Yes, but that doesn't matter if the team, player and agent are all on board with the idea that this represents the largest contract ever given to an NFL running back. Which it would be. By a very defensible measure. Just repeat it over and over.
But why would Westbrook agree to this deal?
Because it's a $20 million raise with $15 million in new guaranteed money and would make his total eight-year package the largest contract for a running back in NFL history.
Isn't that a lot of money to be guaranteeing a guy with such a checkered injury history?
Yes, yes it is. But in this case you're weighing the risk of a possible career-threatening injury versus the absolute certainty that at some point this whole situation is going to blow up if something isn't done. And besides, the new money at the end of the deal isn't guaranteed, so if things don't work out when he's 32 years old, both sides can move on.
Won't such a huge contract cripple the Eagles' salary cap situation, at least for the next few years?
Absolutely not, for three reasons:
1) Donovan McNabb's enormous contract is coming off the books soon. That's $10 million to $16 million of cap space each year right there. Plenty of money to re-sign Kevin Kolb.
2) With the cap exploding at the rate it is, very few teams are going to have problems staying under the limit. Which means that a) there's room for this sort of deal and b) salary cap space is less valuable going forward since it won't be as scarce.
3) The Eagles have locked up the vast majority of their young players to deals that will be sub-market in a few years. That's going to cause some problems eventually, but what it means is that there's plenty of cap room for this.
I'm sorry, but that's just an insane amount of money for a running back. Especially one who's already under contract.
Over the next three seasons, the Eagles will pay Asante Samuel just over $32 million in cash. Under my proposal, Westbrook would receive $30 million over that same time period.
Which player do you think is more important to the success of the franchise between now and 2010?
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