Exclusive or Non-Exclusive Franchise Tag for Flacco?

**Navy Raven** · 02-21-2013, 12:56 PM

No tag. Just pay the man. He earned it.

**GOTA** · 02-21-2013, 01:02 PM

Originally Posted by leachisabeast

Flacco is going to get paid in the next week stop worrying about it.

He will get signed, and will enable us to make some moves with other areas on our roster.

I was posting the exact same thing last year. I really thought they were going to get it done before the season but it never happened.

**leachisabeast** · 02-21-2013, 01:03 PM

Btw my contract prediction is

6 years 120 million. (Discounting any esclalors, bonuses etc)

2013: $7M
2014: $14M
2015: $24M
2016: $25M
2017: $26M
2018: $24M
2019: Free agent (Assuming Flacco continues to have a succsesfull career through out this contract, I would think the Ravens would by this time give Flacco a 2/3 year extension and draft his eventual replacement at this point.)

**Rochardrik** · 02-21-2013, 01:04 PM

Originally Posted by GOTA

It wouldn't have to be that much. It would just have to be whatever Flacco is looking for. If the Browns pay his number, which let's assume is $20 million a year with a Brees like $40 million guaranteed, and the Ravens instead offer him a 1 year Franchise tag with $14 million guaranteed, which would he take? $40 is a hell of a lot more than $14. If the Ravens aren't willing to pay Flacco what he wants after winning the Super Bowl, being the MVP and 8 TDs with no picks in the playoffs this year then they never will.

Flacco is going to have a tough time topping that. He'd be nuts not to take the money because his value will most likely never be higher. Not too many players would risk losing $100+ million for a 1 year $14 million deal with the promise to try and come to a deal in the future.

Your logic is off here. If the Ravens slap the non-exclusive tag and the Browns offer him $20 mill per year, and $40 mil guaranteed, they will have won the game. They know they are going to have to pay approx $20 mil per year, or more, and the $40 mil guaranteed especially if it's paid in the form of a signing bonus is a snap. They can give him the bonus, make his first and second year base salary $8-10 mil and end up with a cap # under 15 million, and the negotiations are all in the Ravens favor. Linta will have no additional leverage at that point!

**callahan09** · 02-21-2013, 01:08 PM

Originally Posted by LukeDaniel

The Giants appeared to be in the midst of one of their seasonal "give up" modes that game. Their defense was horrid down the stretch. I get your point however.

And the Ravens didn't appear to be in "give up" mode as well? Having lost 3 in a row and their previous 2 home games? If the Ravens had let the Giants game get away from them, they may not have won the division and then we would have had to face the Bengals at their house two weeks in a row and maybe we don't come out of their alive. At the very least Ray Lewis would have ended his career with 3 straight home losses. Wow. Two teams entered that game in need of a win, and our guys got it done. That's worth nothing as a strong positive.

**saintmatthew** · 02-21-2013, 01:12 PM

Originally Posted by StingerNLG

How is it that we forget how putrid this offense was before Flacco.

Seriously. Now that they have a ring together, I think it's official that the Harbaugh and Flacco ushered in the golden age of Raven's football and it's not near to being over yet.

**bt12483** · 02-21-2013, 01:27 PM

Originally Posted by leachisabeast

Btw my contract prediction is

6 years 120 million. (Discounting any esclalors, bonuses etc)

2013: $7M
2014: $14M
2015: $24M
2016: $25M
2017: $26M
2018: $24M
2019: Free agent (Assuming Flacco continues to have a succsesfull career through out this contract, I would think the Ravens would by this time give Flacco a 2/3 year extension and draft his eventual replacement at this point.)

I really don't care about the years/amount thing...that is for the press to run with.

The real thing is guaranteed money. That is all that matters in the NFL.

Brees' contract was 5/100...but only $40M is guaranteed. $37M as a signing bonus...which means only $3M more guaranteed. The $37M gets prorated over the 5 year length. No one in the NFL hardly ever sees their full contract, so the later years are almost pointless.

IMO Flacco is probably asking for $40M signing bonus guaranteed. A slight bump over Brees. The overall length and amount is almost meaningless...5/100 like Brees, 6/120 - same thing just longer...

Personally I hope for something a little under the $20M/year average, but with the little higher guaranteed $. Maybe like a 5/$90M. Or 5/$95M. Somewhere in the $18.5-19.5M range. With the $40M guaranteed.

**Paintballguy** · 02-21-2013, 01:28 PM

Originally Posted by callahan09

And the Ravens didn't appear to be in "give up" mode as well? Having lost 3 in a row and their previous 2 home games? If the Ravens had let the Giants game get away from them, they may not have won the division and then we would have had to face the Bengals at their house two weeks in a row and maybe we don't come out of their alive. At the very least Ray Lewis would have ended his career with 3 straight home losses. Wow. Two teams entered that game in need of a win, and our guys got it done. That's worth nothing as a strong positive.

The Giants were fighting for a playoff spot too. Losing that game pretty much put them out of it or at least out of their hands.

**GOTA** · 02-21-2013, 01:34 PM

Originally Posted by Rochardrik

Your logic is off here. If the Ravens slap the non-exclusive tag and the Browns offer him $20 mill per year, and $40 mil guaranteed, they will have won the game. They know they are going to have to pay approx $20 mil per year, or more, and the $40 mil guaranteed especially if it's paid in the form of a signing bonus is a snap. They can give him the bonus, make his first and second year base salary $8-10 mil and end up with a cap # under 15 million, and the negotiations are all in the Ravens favor. Linta will have no additional leverage at that point!

The Ravens wouldn't have to just match the money. They have to match the terms of the contract. The Browns have a massive amount of space. They would front load the deal. That would make it a lot more costly this year for the Ravens to match. Ozzie would have to find a lot more space to offer the same deal and that means getting rid of players he's not going to want to get rid of.

**jonboy79** · 02-21-2013, 01:38 PM

Originally Posted by bt12483

I really don't care about the years/amount thing...that is for the press to run with.

The real thing is guaranteed money. That is all that matters in the NFL.

Brees' contract was 5/100...but only $40M is guaranteed. $37M as a signing bonus...which means only $3M more guaranteed. The $37M gets prorated over the 5 year length. No one in the NFL hardly ever sees their full contract, so the later years are almost pointless.

IMO Flacco is probably asking for $40M guaranteed. A slight bump over Brees. The overall length and amount is almost meaningless...5/100 like Brees, 6/120 - same thing just longer...

Personally I hope for something a little under the $20M/year average, but with the little higher guaranteed $. Maybe like a 5/$90M. Or 5/$95M. Somewhere in the $18.5-19.5M range. With the $40M guaranteed.

Brees got $60 million guaranteed...

and years DO matter, as the Ravens in particular like to split bonuses up, as was done with McGahee, Suggs, Ngata, Rice and Yanda all getting split bonuses over the first 2 years of their deal, each of which can be prorated for 5 years. For this reason, I think Flacco should get a 7 year deal, so he can have a 3 part bonus, thus spreading his signing bonus over 7 years. With his youth and durability, I see no reason why NOT to guarantee his entire 3 year payout. It's a nice way to pump up an agents ego when you are basically on the hook for those 3 years due to the initial signing bonus to begin with.

Becuase the team is bent over the barrel and needs this deal done asap, they might as well jsut go straight to 7/$140m with $60m guaranteed. jsut make sure the structure is friendly and it gets done this week or next.

At Flaco's age, durability and career trend, he is likely to play out his entire contract and thus the "press numbers" as you call them are all important.

**jonboy79** · 02-21-2013, 01:41 PM

Originally Posted by GOTA

The Ravens wouldn't have to just match the money. They have to match the terms of the contract. The Browns have a massive amount of space. They would front load the deal. That would make it a lot more costly this year for the Ravens to match. Ozzie would have to find a lot more space to offer the same deal and that means getting rid of players he's not going to want to get rid of.

agreed, as an alternative to a signing bonus the Browns could easily guarantee him a first year salary in excess of $20m which would ALL count against this year's cap, which would either preclude us from making any other moves, or force us to let him walk,. Win/Win for Cleveland. From their standpoint, there is virtually no downside to doing so.

**bt12483** · 02-21-2013, 01:55 PM

Originally Posted by jonboy79

Brees got $60 million guaranteed...

That is with an *. Technically it is only $40M fully guaranteed...but the other $20M is so likely to happen they treated it as "guaranteed".

So it is a weird thing...did he set the bar at $60m or not, since the $60M isn't actually fully guaranteed, though it effectively is guaranteed. Maybe something the two sides are squabbling over.

While the waiver window gives the Saints an out, both the league and union view the $60 million as "guaranteed" because of the extreme unlikelihood the Saints would want to have paid Brees $40 million for one year or $55 million for two years.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/81...ecord-contract

I think the actual "fully guaranteed" record still belongs to Sam Bradford with $50M.