@L'Aveuglette @aragorn @Alex The Loyal
I couldn't grab quotes before the thread locked, but I'd like to respond to some of your comments that were directly or indirectly pointed at mine
L'Aveuglette:
I'm not sure what you want the team to do to prove they are willing to spend other than trading for some good players. I mean, if you're willing to part with Norris, Pinto, Greig, and/or Sanderson, I'm sure we could get to the ceiling. It's been three years since we signed Stone to that bridge deal that one year deal that walked him to UFA. Since then, we've been doing very well retaining AND adding talent (even if it's the wrong talent). You saw my post and saw some projected salaries, and you saw where that may land us in regards to the cap. Adding too much now means giving up young players and shrinking our competitive window in many cases.
If they've offered 8x8 to Brady on top of signing Chabot, White, Batherson, Dadonov, and Murray. All our other talent is on their
LEAGUE MANDATED ELCs. When they're off those deals, we might be actually be
losing players because we can't fit under the ceiling. I can't remember what your position on the Brady negotiation is in regards to long-term or short term, but I imagine you're looking for a short-term deal since it's the bar you've set for "proving they're willing to spend" not reasonable attainable.
"Greedy" isn't the right word to describe my feelings toward the Brady camp. It's more akin to how I look at a corporation taking advantage of tax loopholes to reduce the tax they are required to pay. They see an opportunity to extract more value and they're trying to go for it. That's not greed to me, that's effectively using the tools you've been given. If Brady gets more than the team was willing to give but they reluctantly do it anyway, that's on the team for giving it to him, not Brady or his camp for being tough negotiators and trying to get what they can. I want the team to exercise caution and find out how much they can concede in negotiations before it's not worth to give up anymore and dig in.
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I was writing the next two responses out and realized I was typing some things over and over again, so I'm just going to disclaimer this:
We know very little about the negotiations, so more information coming out can drastically change my opinion. I'm working under the assumption that the team is okay with 8x8 straight salary, and Brady wants bonuses or completely different term and dollars.
Aragorn:
I don't think the consequences of him sitting out games because we're still negotiating with him are so dire. I'm not advocating trading him. I'm not at the negotiating table, so I don't know how far apart they are, but I'm against a trade unless things are so impossible to negotiate that there's just no way it's going to get done without giving Brady the three years, big money ticket to a quick UFA payday wherever he wants, or a big overpay. In regards to the "structure" of the contract - i.e. including bonuses, Brady's camp may be conceding their desired length of contract for an increased dollar amount at 8x8, what are they willing to concede to get bonuses? If we see bonuses, I expect the team to push very hard for a lower dollar amount. Both sides have to give in a negotiation. It's only fair.
Alex The Loyal:
The team HAS put on their big boy pants with 8x8 and signing the guys we have over the last few seasons. We've lost very little talent for money reasons since the teardown and we've collected a good group of young players. We've signed some bigger contracts and are projected to be a cap or near cap team just with what we have in the system. What else needs to happen for players to be convinced? Do we have to pay the "bad team tax" and give everyone more than they're worth to stay? Is that a good way to be a competitive team? This isn't specific to Brady, it's a general question about how the team should approach negotiating.
I'm personally fairly satisfied that the team is pushing back and not rolling over in negotiations. There's a limit to how much you can do that, but I don't think we've hit it yet. I'm not afraid of Brady sitting some real games and I don't think the team should be either. Take away that extra leverage and get a deal that everyone is happy with, will help us stay under the cap when everyone's' deals are up, and show the other players we're committed to keeping everyone and building a winner. It's not an easy ask or task. It's extremely important to the success of this core. It shouldn't be too surprising that it's hard negotiation that's taking so long for something so critical.