Owen Daniels Contract Negotiations

[da Bull]

Well I guess this begs the question of what positions are the most critical? Also, along those same lines, what players in those positions are the most critical to overall team success?

New England for example has been very successful for a number of years. But they always appear to have a defensive back who becomes a high priced free agent every year. On the other hand, quarterback would seem to be the most critical and yet they had a very good year with an unknown backup.

I guess what I'm getting at here is that you can't pay every position the high salaries, so which ones do you target? And, which do you let walk even though the player is extremely popular with the fan base?

[papabear]

Originally Posted by da Bull

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I guess what I'm getting at here is that you can't pay every position the high salaries, so which ones do you target? And, which do you let walk even though the player is extremely popular with the fan base?

The problem with that is trying to figure out if the 3rd best tight end in the league is worth more than the 20th best CB? CB's are generally regarded as more valuable than TE's, but if I had to pick between the two I'm probably taking a pro-bowler over an average starter the majority of the time.

Fan popularity really shouldn't come into play in most cases even though I'm sure it plays a part occasionally. It's hard to compare apples to oranges, but you have to decide how valuable that PLAYER is to your franchise. In the case of Daniels, I think he plays a vital role in our offense.

[Mike]

I think OD did the right thing by coming in for the voluntary camp. I think that buys him some good PR. While that only means so much, I think that helps.

Rick Smith has to start somewhere with negotiations, I wonder if getting OD done is the easiest of the three and then he can work on the other two.

I saw a snippet on rotoworld last night that the agents for Demeco have also been contacted recently by the GM. If I can get the link, I'll paste it.

I agree with Papa, OD is really important to this offense. Even if he does not make the catch, he puts pressure on the defense.

[Nconroe]

Yeah, poor OD will only make 2.9mil if he doesn't get a new deal. Demeco is the one who is relatively underpaid for now. I think all the salaries are too high and so are ticket prices, for average fan anyways. I think TE is important to our attack, not sure if it is OD or the position, some of both.

It is tough to be fair to all the guys who have four-five year deals, they wanted the security, and then salries go up , it puts everyone in a tough spot relatively speaking. And you have to keep total under a cap, which is good.

Philadelphia, Boston, Indianapolis , probably others, have to let some good veterans go every year it seems due to this problem, and they rebuild well enough it looks like.

[Mike]

[QUOTE=Nconroe;10104]Yeah, poor OD will only make 2.9mil if he doesn't get a new deal. Demeco is the one who is relatively underpaid for now. I think all the salaries are too high and so are ticket prices, for average fan anyways. I think TE is important to our attack, not sure if it is OD or the position, some of both.


That is irrevelant if you think salaries and ticket prices are to high. We are worth exactly what someone is willing to pay. You cannot just plug in another TE and have OD's production.

We are not good enough to let our good players leave without compensation.

[nunusguy]

I like OD personally, I like his hustle, and I like his talent but honestly I don't think any player is a bigger beneficiary of this offense that Kubiak is running than OD. He is after all a rather undersized TE who isn't more than a mediorce blocker. To me OD is a classic TE/WR tweener with good hands. For example I could see the kid from Rice (Casey I think his name is ?), doing pretty well in this system.

[Roy P]

Originally Posted by nunusguy

For example I could see the kid from Rice (Casey I think his name is ?), doing pretty well in this system.

This is most likely true. We could get another pass-catching TE in the draft and pay him like a rookie. However, there is a hidden 'cost' associated with that route. We already have a TE who is productive, that allows us to go out and use that draft pick on another position to make the team better overall. If we simply replace one with another (cheaper) version, then we aren't getting any better, we are simply standing in place. That's also assuming that the replacement player actually lives up to those expectations (as they sometimes don't). It's nice to know what kind of production you can expect from a young veteran, because he's already done it!

The guys that you let walk are players who think too much of themselves or simply don't want to stay with their team. So, the salaries that they are looking for are not in line with their production. Somebody like........Dunta Robinson?

[papabear]

Originally Posted by Mike

I saw a snippet on rotoworld last night that the agents for Demeco have also been contacted recently by the GM. If I can get the link, I'll paste it.

.

I saw that Ryans fired his agent and is looking for a new one...I'll look for confirmation on that too.

[papabear]

Originally Posted by papabear

I saw that Ryans fired his agent and is looking for a new one...I'll look for confirmation on that too.

yep...

from McClain:

http://blogs.chron.com/nfl/2009/04/a...a_cat_who.html

[da Bull]

After thinking about it some more, to me, it comes back to what positions become "plug and play" positions. You have to generate a out/in pipeline at point in time.

I think at this point, the offense could operate more effectively without Daniels than the defense could without Ryans. But hopefully at some point in the future it becomes a wash, not saying that I want either one to walk. Just that you have to be able to pay the Andre Johnson and Mario Williamses, because both make their side of the ball go, more so than either Daniels or Ryans, respectively.