Rumors of an Xavien Howard Holdout

[EDGECRUSHER]

I was mistaken, he has only played one year of his current extension contract. I thought it was two years. That makes it even more unlikely we renegotiate on a substantial level.

I'm usually on the players side when it comes to getting paid, especially in the NFL, but for this one I am 100% on Miami's side. Every contract is a risk for both parties, whether the player underperforms, outperforms his deal, gets hurt, etc... You take the risk and hope for the best.

[Spider-Dan]

LOL ... I knew you'd say this. You and your collusion theory. We all know it goes on between players and teams. That's one of them rules that is probably ignored more than it is followed.

Let's suppose, for the sake of argument, that this is true.
Do you personally believe this is a good thing?  Are you in favor of NFL teams doing it if they don't get caught?

Kind of like Pat Riley saying about LeBron ...

That statement got Riley a tampering fine from the league, so it seems like a bad example of a "rule that is ignored."

[CF DolFan]

Let's suppose, for the sake of argument, that this is true.
Do you personally believe this is a good thing?  Are you in favor of NFL teams doing it if they don't get caught?
That statement got Riley a tampering fine from the league, so it seems like a bad example of a "rule that is ignored."

Really because he sure didn't seem to care about it. Do you think he "tampered" by accident or do you think he just went ahead and ignored the rule and threw it out there?

[Spider-Dan]

Maybe he thought he could get away with it?  In any case, the league disagreed.

But back to the other question: do you think it's a good idea for teams to coordinate to avoid paying players?  Are you in favor of teams doing it as long as they don't get caught?

[EDGECRUSHER]

Maybe he thought he could get away with it?  In any case, the league disagreed.

But back to the other question: do you think it's a good idea for teams to coordinate to avoid paying players?  Are you in favor of teams doing it as long as they don't get caught?

Not addressed to me but I'll give my 2 cents anyway. It is absolutely not okay. In theory, every team is in competition with each other and if Miami wants to do something stupid like renegotiate every 12 months with a player then the other 31 teams should be overjoyed that they hurt their future cap.

However, their business is more money than winning so they will feel this can come back to haunt them down the road with their own players so they would be against Miami doing this.

[Fau Teixeira]

I'm not concerned about this at all, it's not my money. Steven Ross has plenty of it. I'm done sweating over the finances of billionaire hobbyists.

Pay him, great, don't pay him, ok. We have other players.

[EDGECRUSHER]

I'm not concerned about this at all, it's not my money. Steven Ross has plenty of it. I'm done sweating over the finances of billionaire hobbyists.

Pay him, great, don't pay him, ok. We have other players.

If there was no salary cap I wouldn't care either, but there is and this will affect our personnel decisions elsewhere. I don't want to lose Gesicki or Ogbah because Howard wants to renegotiate every year, nor do I want this to become the norm for players going forward. There has to be sopme type of cost certainty when you build a team.

[Fau Teixeira]

if the owners wanted cost certainty, they'd have an NBA or MLB style contract system where contracts cannot be randomly terminated, and even if a player is released, they're still owed the money. That would stop most of that.

[Spider-Dan]

if the owners wanted cost certainty, they'd have an NBA or MLB style contract system where contracts cannot be randomly terminated, and even if a player is released, they're still owed the money. That would stop most of that.

Absolute truth.

The owners don't want cost certainty; they want low costs.  How often do you hear of MLB or NBA players under contract trying to hold out for more money?  You don't.

[EDGECRUSHER]

Absolute truth.

The owners don't want cost certainty; they want low costs.  How often do you hear of MLB or NBA players under contract trying to hold out for more money?  You don't.

I am definitely on the players side over 90% of the time, but the NFL is a hard capped league. These contract renegotiations affect the onfield product and that's why I care and don't think we should do this. If this were an uncapped league, let the billionaires spend their money to win. As it stands, I don't want to miss out on future free agents or resigning our own guys because one guy wants to renegotiate every summer.

[Spider-Dan]

Nothing about a hard cap prevents guaranteed contracts.

Hell, you can still have year-by-year team options (or player options!) with a guaranteed contract.

[EDGECRUSHER]

I am cool if Xavier just wants his guaranteed money, but if he wants guaranteed money, a higher salary and will do this again next year if someone else makes more, then that is the issue.

In the end, I think a minor compromise will be made. I don't see him sitting out a few games every year for 4 years and I think Miami learned from the Minkah fiasco to not trade away players due to attitude issues unless they are catastrophic.

[Spider-Dan]

I think the financial danger to Howard is that if you asking for a pay increase every time you outplay expectations, the first time you underplay expectations, you'd better expect a pay cut (or: to be cut).

As an All-Pro CB, his current expectations are... pretty high.  So if he does manage to get a pay raise here, either he remains an All-Pro (which is hard!) or bad things are going to happen.

[EDGECRUSHER]

^^^

To be fair to us, while his onfield play has been outstanding, he has missed 24 games already in his career due to injury and gotten full pay for it. Extending him was a risk in the first place but we took the chance and it is working out so far. Everyone takes chances with contracts, very few people get exact market value, it's either above or below. Maybe guarantee a few more million as a peace offering but this is a dangerous precedent to set and we should avoid it.

[masterfins]

This is a year early.  Next year his salary is not guaranteed so I can understand re-negotiating next year, but not now.  I get that players want guaranteed pay to protect against possible injuries, but teams need to protect themselves also.  I hope he doesn't make a big thing out of this, and just shows up; because it seems like most of the time the players loose out when they sit out a season.