Ongoing Flacco Contract Negotiations (Merged)

**ActualSpamBot** · 02-07-2013, 03:20 AM

Heard an interview on 105.7 with Linta. The best things to come out of it from a fan's perspective were:

Both sides are deeply committed to Joe staying in Baltimore. That's the goal on Joe's part too.

Linta and Flacco are not interested in getting a deal that will line Joe's pockets but strip his trophy cabinet. They are cognizant of the cap needs of the team and willing to work with them to maximize Joe's deal without keeping the team from surrounding Jim with weapons.

Hearing that from an agent was refreshing and also quite heartening. Makes me think the two sides aren't terribly far apart financially or in terms of where the franchise is headed long term.

**RavensQB** · 02-07-2013, 03:49 AM

Joe needs to tell Linta to shut his yap. Let it stew a lil bit. Linta is trying to become Drew R. Which maybe the biggest douche bag agent in the biz. Let the media do the work for you. Sales 101 first one that speaks LOSES!! If Joe gets the tag and gets hurt he loses MILLIONS!!!

**HoustonRaven** · 02-07-2013, 08:55 AM

Originally Posted by ActualSpamBot

Heard an interview on 105.7 with Linta. The best things to come out of it from a fan's perspective were:

Both sides are deeply committed to Joe staying in Baltimore. That's the goal on Joe's part too.

Linta and Flacco are not interested in getting a deal that will line Joe's pockets but strip his trophy cabinet. They are cognizant of the cap needs of the team and willing to work with them to maximize Joe's deal without keeping the team from surrounding Jim with weapons.

Hearing that from an agent was refreshing and also quite heartening. Makes me think the two sides aren't terribly far apart financially or in terms of where the franchise is headed long term.

Heard him on Sirius NFL Radio yesterday and agree they are probably very close.

Linta seems like a smart guy so I doubt this will drag out or create any acrimony between the team and Joe.

**leachisabeast** · 02-07-2013, 09:31 AM

I think there's a better chance then many would think that we may get a deal done before the franchise deadline. Jonboys deal seems like a good one.

**B-more Ravor** · 02-07-2013, 10:58 AM

Originally Posted by Haloti92

So what happens in JB's example if we cut Flacco after 2013? How much money does he walk away with? $25M or the whole $55M (total of the splits)? (ignoring the small base salary in 2013)

And are there any limits to the splitting? Could we split it $1M, $1M, $53M over the first three years?

The only limits on splitting the guaranteed money into option bonus is what the player and team will agree to.

Reed and McGahee got bonus/option bonuses of $7.5M/$6M/$1.5M
Heap's splits were $4M/$7M
Suggs' were $10M/$23M
Ngata's - $25M/$10M
Rice's - $15M/$7M

So, while I doubt $1M/$1M/$53M happens, the splits really could be anything. Given the expceted flat cap for 2013 and 2014, it could very well have a higher 2nd option than what would normally be.

Not that it's going to happen, but if Joe was released afte 2013, he's still due all the guaranteed money - assuming it's fully guaranteed - and it would all hit the cap at once. So, there's no way they would release him. In fact, on a contract of this size, there's virtually no way he's going to be released before the 4th year of the deal. That's why often the base salaries are included in the guaranteed total because (1) it pumps up the total "guaranteed money" and sounds better for the agent (2) the player isn't going to be released anyway, so it's essentially guaranteed anyway.

**trailhiker85** · 02-07-2013, 10:59 AM

Originally Posted by leachisabeast

I think there's a better chance then many would think that we may get a deal done before the franchise deadline.

Crossing my fingers this happens, though past history makes me doubt it very much.

**B-more Ravor** · 02-07-2013, 11:00 AM

Originally Posted by ActualSpamBot

Linta and Flacco are not interested in getting a deal that will line Joe's pockets but strip his trophy cabinet. They are cognizant of the cap needs of the team and willing to work with them to maximize Joe's deal without keeping the team from surrounding Jim with weapons.

That was the best part of the interview and something I liked to hear. Obviously, they want to get paid, but it sounds like they want to do that in such a way as to allow the team to stay intact as much as possible.

Good stuff.

**GOTA** · 02-07-2013, 11:02 AM

Originally Posted by ActualSpamBot

Heard an interview on 105.7 with Linta. The best things to come out of it from a fan's perspective were:

Both sides are deeply committed to Joe staying in Baltimore. That's the goal on Joe's part too.

Linta and Flacco are not interested in getting a deal that will line Joe's pockets but strip his trophy cabinet. They are cognizant of the cap needs of the team and willing to work with them to maximize Joe's deal without keeping the team from surrounding Jim with weapons.

Hearing that from an agent was refreshing and also quite heartening. Makes me think the two sides aren't terribly far apart financially or in terms of where the franchise is headed long term.

That's very good news

**JohnBKistler** · 02-07-2013, 11:10 AM

Originally Posted by trailhiker85

Crossing my fingers this happens, though past history makes me doubt it very much.

They could afford to franchise prior players...read Ravor's article...franchising Flacco basically destroys the current team and (worse) sets them up for a painful cap restructuring later.

**jonboy79** · 02-07-2013, 11:36 AM

Originally Posted by B-more Ravor

There's a difference between "guaranteed" money and a Signing Bonus. Usually Bonuses (signing or otherwise) are guaranteed, but not all guaranteed money is bonus money.

The Ravens have often used "split" bonuses or "option" bonuses to spread out the guaranteed money and make the earlier years of the deal more Cap friendly.

So, in JB's example, he would get a Signing Bonus of $25M in 2013, an Option bonus of $15M in 2014 and a second option bonus of $15M in 2015. Each bonus is prorated over 5 years from when it's paid, so if it's a 7-year deal, there is some guaranteed money spread out over the length of the deal.

So, with a $1M base salary for 2013 (for example), Joe's Cap number would be $6M - $1M base salary + $5M bonus proration ($25M/5).

FWIW, I would hope that they don't give 3 bonuses that are that big. I would expect that some of the guaranteed money is base salary. The more amounts that are prorated, the more problems they could have in the future because there is no way to restructure (if necessary) bonus prorations.

So, if it was $55M guaranteed (which is a bit high, IMO), I would expect something like bonuses of $25M, $10M and $10M and guaranteed base salaries equally $10M over the 1st three years of the deal. After all, with that amount of bonus money being paid, there aren't going to be releasing him away, so there's no harm in guaranteeing those base salaries.

my "deal" was actually structured wih $60m guaranteed and $60m 3 year payout... for those exact reasons.

And for simplicity's sake, I used Bonuses that were divisible by 5.

Basically, my contract as I laid it out, was a simple proof of concept that we could have an affordable first couple of years while producing a contract tht Linta's agent could brag incessantly about. It hits all his buttons... $20m per year average, big guarantee, big 3 year payout, largest contract in league history, etc. To me,it's actually harder to have a team friendly contract for 5 years $100m... I think the team should make the contract as long as possible so as to make it "easier" to get to $20m per year or nearly there.

**B-more Ravor** · 02-07-2013, 12:02 PM

I'll take a shot at this -

7 years/ $126M base deal (yearly average $18M), with $50M guaranteed.

2013 Signing bonus - $20M
2014 Option Bonus - $10M
2015 2nd Option Bonus - $10M

Base Salaries:

2013 - $3M (guaranteed)
2014 - $7M (guaranteed)
2015 - $10M
2016 - $12M
2017 - $15M
2018 - $19M
2019 - $20M

That would produce Cap Numbers of:

2013 - $7M
2014 - $13M
2015 - $18M
2016 - $20M
2017 - $23M
2018 - $23M
2019 - $22M

Deal - like his rookie deal - would include escalators that would increase his base salary for the next year for Pro-Bowls made ($100K), playoff games won ($200K), MVP ($500K), SB wins ($500K), and certain statistical rankings.

**jonboy79** · 02-07-2013, 12:32 PM

Originally Posted by B-more Ravor

I'll take a shot at this -

7 years/ $126M base deal (yearly average $18M), with $50M guaranteed.

2013 Signing bonus - $20M
2014 Option Bonus - $10M
2015 2nd Option Bonus - $10M

Base Salaries:

2013 - $3M (guaranteed)
2014 - $7M (guaranteed)
2015 - $10M
2016 - $12M
2017 - $15M
2018 - $19M
2019 - $20M

That would produce Cap Numbers of:

2013 - $7M
2014 - $13M
2015 - $18M
2016 - $20M
2017 - $23M
2018 - $23M
2019 - $22M

Deal - like his rookie deal - would include escalators that would increase his base salary for the next year for Pro-Bowls made ($100K), playoff games won ($200K), MVP ($500K), SB wins ($500K), and certain statistical rankings.

What would Linta report this as? I suppose max contract value would increase each of the last 6 years salaries by $1.7m each for additional bonuses(3 playoff wins, SB win, MVP and probowl)??? So 7/136.2 m?