Quote:
Originally Posted by FREE-AG3NT
I said I want him back.. But nobody mentions a number, that they think he's worth.. I want him to stay but not for top 5 money over 20 a year.
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I don't think he should get 25 mil a year but he does have the leverage. His leverage is "if I walk, you got nothing." Our leverage is "well we need to build a good team, if we give you all the money we are screwed."
TL;DR: 24 mil a year is my max, that would be manageable. 22-23 would be ideal but I don't see him settling for that. Keep in mind we always have the ability to renegotiate, and we do that every year with big money players. 25 and up would be "greatest thing since sliced bread" money but after the crappers against NYG and Carolina I think we can use that against him.
If Kirk is the good guy we believe he is, and recognizes that he needs a good team around him to be effective, then maybe he settles for 22/23. I'm putting 20% odds on that though, because his agent will be handling negotiations and so far his statements don't indicate he will settle for less in exchange for the good of the team. We can always hope though.
The final thing that people forget when discussing numbers is
percentage of the salary cap. Schneed would be my go-to guy on this, but the number isn't important, what is important is what percentage of the salary cap it will be. There is a quote from Kirk floating around the internet (I have searched but I can't find it, it is from his season ending interview last week) where the important # is 14%. With a projected cap of $168 mil (taken from Schneed's salary cap thread) 14% of that projects to be $23.52 mil. If that average annual value comes true, I would be satisfied with that as it would be in similar range to the going rate for a decent qb in this league. Andrew Luck's contract that he signed
after a down season in 2015 is for 6 years, 140 mil, with 87 million guaranteed for injury and 47 mil guaranteed at signing. And the hilarious part is that apparently
those were considered bad numbers by those who track these sort of things. The fact that Luck had a bad year after his huge deal also sucks for us, because the fact that Cousins had a better season than him means his agent might not be willing to settle for Andrew Luck money.
Final TL;DR: 24 a year hopefully, 22-23 would be nice but improbable. If Skins lowball him again, with an 18-20 mil/year offer that fans and possibly him would interpret as a sign of disrespect (let's face it, the man doesn't deserve Brock Osweiler money), then maybe it's time to be concerned. If he demands 25/year at the lowest and we concede then maybe we should be concerned that we can't build a good team around him. Hopefully both sides are willing to negotiate in good faith and we can get this shit over with. If not, he will get franchise tagged (we have no plan B, I don't value your opinion if you think Colt McCoy is a viable 16 game qb) and play the year on the tag again, while we hopefully think of a better plan B for next year.