by Michael DeLuca
According to ESPN’s Michael Smith, Donovan McNabb and the Philadelphia Eagles have agreed to restructure the final two years of his contract instead of giving him the contract extension he had been seeking. Apparently, the Eagles are so opposed to the idea of having players play into their 30’s that they’d rather pay extra than have the 
option to utilize them in the future. McNabb is a was due to make $9.2 million this season and $10 million next season. The new deal is reportedly for $24.5 million, with another $1 million in potential incentives.
At a time when players such as Sheldon Brown and Shawn Andrews are griping about their contracts, which are much more offensive than McNabb’s, it is odd the team chose to go in this direction. In addition, why not at least have the option for an additional year if you are going to cough up the coin? This move should only create additional animosity in the locker room, not to mention it makes McNabb that much more difficult to trade should that be the direction the team decided to go next offseason.
I don’t buy that. I’m not sure McNabb wanted an extention when he knows that there is a good possibility of no salary cap in the near future. I think McNabb is happy with the new guaranteed money and the Eagles did what they had to do. Brown/Andrews situations are not at all similar. I think if Andrews can prove he can stay healthy the Eagles will take care of him – they took steps already with signing his bro and former roomate.. Would you give Andrews a long term deal after everything that happened last year?
Brown is a decent corner but doesn’t really have a leg to stand on in regards to a new deal. He and Samuel had comparable scenarios – Samuel passed on the early deal so he could pursue big money, he got it. Brown accepted the early security and now feels underpaid. That was his decision, play ball.
I agree on Brown and Andrews, they signed the deals for the early guaranteed money so they should have to live with the deals. It’s not different than McNabb though, he was already under contract for the next two years.
He signed the deal in ‘02 (ish) though and is now about 6 or 7 years in. It was a different world then. I hear you, the Eagles didn’t have to do it but they didn’t have to do the Westbrook deal either. The Westbrook deal was more risky due to the shelf life of RB’s but the fact was that they needed Westbrook. I feel like they need McNabb too.
If McNabb or Westbrook held out, that could cause some major problems. If Brown or Andrews held out, insert Hobbs and Jean Gillis and move on. I don’t think Andrews holds out, Brown maybe.
Andrews hasn’t griped about his contract at all that I know of. That was a media created perception as a result of the huge deals his brother and Peters received from the team. Fact is, this is a guy who’s missed almost two entire seasons and has mental issues, so it wouldn’t be wise if here were complaining.
Also, name another franchise quarterback in the NFL who recently played when the next year of his deal was not at least partially guaranteed. QB’s play by different rules in contract negotiations, and when a team is lucky enough to find that guy who can be the face of their team, they lock him up and make sure he is happy. You just don’t see players of that ilk reach free agency, much less play on a deal where they could be cut at any moment.
You both make excellent points. Once again though, why not extend the deal a year or two for the additional money and at least have the option on him in the future? And, using your rationale, does this mean that we’ll have to give him more money next year, since he’ll be in the last year of his deal at that point?
Seems to me the team’s front office intentionally tries to create turmoil. Reid and Mcnabb have been up each other’s butts for so long that this is just a 5.7 million dollar apology for benching him against the Ravens. It’s just like how the Packers bent over backwards for Brett Favre for so long and look how that’s working out for them now. The guy’s trying to stick it to them any way he can.
The Birds brass are a bunch of clueless wimps. The should have manned up a long time ago when #5 started whining publicly about his benching, which was caused only by his own poor play. It’s a shame that Kolb played terribly for that second half because it just scared the team into showering the crybaby with cash.
BTW, GO GIANTS
@ Michael
It all depends. What happens next is based on what happens this season. If Donovan stays healthy and continues to play at a high level, yes they’ll certainly have to extend him sometime next year. You don’t run the risk of your franchise quarterback becoming a free agent.
I don’t really look at the money aspect of this new deal as much as the fact that they guaranteed both years. Yes, he got a raise, but $5 million is kind of a joke when you think about it. It’s a very minor salary bump for a quarterback. You just have to look at this as Donovan saying, “Gee guys, if I get hurt and you cut me, no one is going to sign me for $10 mil.” Now if he gets hurt and the team decides to move on, they have to trade him and not only will he still make that money, but he’ll probably be able to parlay that into another big contract.
And it benefits the Eagles in trade talks as well. If they were trying to pawn off an injured player who was replaced and could be cut at any moment, teams might try to wait for McNabb to hit the market. With the money guaranteed, it makes absolutely no sense to cut him, which forces interested teams to make competing offers.
And I didn’t really answer the first question, but you don’t extend now for two reasons: one, the CBA is going to change the landscape of the NFL, and no one is sure exactly how. There are some serious questions as to what the salary cap will be, if any, and that obviously influences negotiations.
Second, you still have Kolb on the bench. What if you extend McNabb now, Kolb relieves him after an injury, and he sets the world on fire? Obviously you would want to keep the younger guy in that situation, but now you’re burdened with attempting to move a McNabb contract that another team might view as unfavorable coming off of some sort of serious injury.
Basically, this just allows the Eagles to keep their options open for one more year while also doing the right thing by McNabb.
First of all, well thought out. I agree with a lot of what you’re saying.
I have to disagree, however, when it comes to extending Mcnabb. Since contracts are not guaranteed in the NFL, we could have essentially given him the same guaranteed bump that we just gave him but add a year or two to the deal at say $11 million. If come 2011 we decide he’s worth that $11 million, then we keep him on board. If not, we trade or dump him, which would have no consequence.
Both sides would have had to agree on that though. I believe that McNabb only wanted to restructure, if he wanted to add years it was going to be more than 1 or 2.
Well there were probably multiple ways to go about it, but as doc says, why would Donovan only want to add one or two years? That means he wouldn’t become a free agent until he was 35 or 36, and by then the questions about his age and injury history will really have teams on alert. He knows what they did basically forces the Eagles to make a move next year, either give him the long term deal or trade him, and either way seems to benefit him.
Also, I think it’s becoming a little misleading to say NFL contracts aren’t guaranteed when so much of negotiations are now based upon guaranteed money. That was precisely what was at stake in this new deal. It wouldn’t benefit Donovan at all to add one or two years that were just like the years he reworked.
Unless I’m mistaken, NFL teams cannot actually guarantee a players salary. Rather the only guaranteed money would be in the form of bonuses.
As for why McNabb would want to add the new years, the up front money would be the reason. I’ve always been told “you don’t get something for nothing.” In this case, it appears McNabb did.
Well according to Derrick Gunn, every dime is guaranteed. As to whether or not teams are allowed to guarantee contracts, I can’t see a reason why they wouldn’t be able to, but if that is the case for some reason, the simple way around it is to convert his base salary into bonuses. Problem solved.
As for up-front money, you’re not going to get a lot of that on just a one or two year extension, which is probably why he received the raise. The longer the deal, the bigger the bonuses.
The following is from Mike Florio at PFT:
“Not bad for a guy who possibly would have been traded or cut if the Eagles hadn’t pulled a stunning late-season reversal, ultimately coming within a game of a Super Bowl berth.
But the move continues to make no sense to us. Why not add another non-guaranteed year at $10 million or more? It would have given the Eagles the option to keep him beyond 2010, if the Eagles had so elected.
Instead, the Eagles face losing McNabb in 2011 for no compensation, unless they use the franchise tag to keep him. If the franchise tag even exists come 2011.
There’s also a belief that one of the motivations of the McNabb deal was to help the Eagles comply with the 2009 salary floor. Thanks to years of carrying over excess cap space, the Eagles have (at last look) more than $30 million in cap space.
Either way, we can’t think of a similar situation from past NFL offseasons. Players typically don’t get more money without having to give up, at a minimum, another season of service.”
The fact of the matter is he got money for nothing. It’s not only unprecedented…it’s flat out stupid. And I love McNabb!
Does it really make sense to throw money at a guy to get over the salary floor? Couldn’t we have throw that money somewhere else. Personally, I thought we could have used another linebacker. I like Boley that went from the Falcons to the Giants. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to spend the money on a guy like that than just giving it away?