Forum Replies Created
-
What is QB money? I would say that it has to be at least $26 million/yr to be QB money.(13% on a Cap of $200 million)
AgamemnonFor a long time we heard money wasn’t the issue. Now it is. But we still don’t know where each side stands. Demoff saying something, makes me think it is him trying to cover his ass. imo
AgamemnonLos Angeles Rams confirm two practices to be held with Baltimore Ravens prior to 2018 preseason opener
The Rams, along with CB Aqib Talib, will practice twice with the Ravens, along with WR Michael Crabtree
May 9, 2018, 9:40am CDTA month ago, we learned from the Baltimore Sun’s Jeff Zrebiec that the Los Angeles Rams and the Baltimore Ravens would hold joint practices ahead of the preseason opener on August 9 setting up a uniquely interesting practice situation for CB Aqib Talib and WR Michael Crabtree who have…a history.
Yesterday, the Rams confirmed those practices will take place on August 6 and 7, the Monday and Tuesday before the preseason opener on Thursday at the Under Armour Performance Center in Owings Mills, Maryland, northwest of Baltimore.
Outside of the obvious Talib-Crabtree beef, there’s plenty of intrigue. The Ravens put together a very enticing draft class with Louisville Cardinals QB Lamar Jackson headlining along with two tight ends in South Carolina Gamecocks TE Hayden Hurst and Oklahoma Sooners TE TE Mark Andrews along with Oklahoma OT Orlando Brown and massive New Mexico State Aggies WR Jaleel Scott. That offensive help is sorely needed for an offense that finished near the bottom of the NFL in yards gained in 2017. Still, they’ve got offensive line talent and elite QB Joe Flacco, so it makes for a solid practice-preseason game combo. Defensively, it’s the Ravens.
While they’re coming off of a winning season, they missed out on the playoffs for three years running. Ravens fans are certainly going to want to see some growth in Head Coach Jim Harbaugh’s 11th season after extending him through the 2019 season.
Mark your calendars…
Agamemnonhttp://www.latimes.com/sports/rams/la-sp-rams-donald-hernandez-20180801-story.html
Aaron Donald’s holdout undermines the Rams’ incredible potential
Dylan Hernandez
By Dylan Hernandez
Aug 01, 2018 | 9:15 PMThe first week of training camp confirmed the promise of a bountiful offseason.
The offense is dynamic. The defense is ferocious. The head coach remains a geyser of youthful enthusiasm.
Ironically, these strengths are vulnerabilities for the Rams in the one battle they have to win in order to win the Super Bowl: The never-ending contract negotiation with their best player, Aaron Donald.
Two years removed from a four-win season, the Rams now have something to lose. And an otherwise well-executed plan to transform them from city-wide laughingstocks to league champions could be blown up by the reigning NFL defensive player of the year.
All Donald has to do is not show up for work.
The question isn’t whether Donald deserves to be paid like a high-end quarterback. He won’t be. He can’t be. The NFL has a salary cap and the Rams would be unwise to have more than $25 million invested annually in a defensive tackle, regardless of how dominant he is.
The real question is whether Donald will exercise the only leverage play at his disposal, extend his holdout into the regular season and compromise everything the Rams have built over the last year.
And if he does?
Dump him.
More specifically, trade him.
It’s not as if the Rams are treating him unfairly. They have taken care of Todd Gurley by making him the highest-paid running back in the game and they want to take care of Donald by making him the highest-paid defensive player in football.
This is the second consecutive year Donald has held out, giving his absence from training camp a feel of normalcy. Only something like this should never feel normal.
The Rams can’t have this happen year after year, which will be their fate if they fail to strike a deal with Donald but retain him beyond this season.
Rams
Todd Gurley continues to be money for the Rams as they plow through workouts at training camp
Aug 01, 2018 | 8:45 PMRewarding him with a long-term contract after a prolonged holdout this season would set a bad precedent, as it would signal to players that the most effective method of extracting a desirable contract from the organization is to withhold their services. Donald is set to become a free agent after this season — he would be a restricted free agent as opposed to an unrestricted free agent if he doesn’t report by Tuesday — but the Rams could block his departure for as many as three years by putting a franchise tag on him.
The Rams would have Donald at a reasonable price in that scenario, but they would also have to deal with this sort of drama every summer. If he is holding out now, the guess is that he will hold out again if his earnings were determined by a franchise tag.
Donald would continue to have the power to hold the Rams hostage like this, his absence threatening to prevent the team from fully taking advantage of the developmental gains made by quarterback Jared Goff or the offensive innovations implemented by coach Sean McVay.
And that’s only part of the problem.
His holdouts will become a problem in the locker room the moment his performance declines. The assumption is that this won’t happen for some time, considering that Donald had a monster season last year after sitting out all of training camp. But Donald is already 27. Even if he has a similar season this year, could he do that again at 28 or 29? And if he misses a crucial tackle after sitting out training camp, his teammates will be grumbling.
The Rams remain hopeful the situation could be resolved before any of that happens, which is why they have been guarded and diplomatic when speaking of Donald and his representatives.
Kevin Demoff, the Rams’ chief operating officer, characterized the conversations between the two sides as “positive dialogue.”
“I give their side great credit,” Demoff said Wednesday. “They’ve handled themselves in a very professional manner. It’s a hard deal. You’re talking about an elite player. You’re trying to find the right deal for a really long time and fit into a hard salary cap on a team with a lot of talented young players. That’s what makes this deal difficult, but I’ll always be optimistic that we can bridge any gaps and find a way to get this done.”
NFL
GM John Lynch and the 49ers are ready for a renewed rivalry with the Rams
Aug 01, 2018 | 9:20 PMDemoff was predictably evasive when asked if he had any doubts whether Donald would be present for the season opener.
“I think our job is to try to figure out a way to focus that he’s here for the next six to eight opening days,” he said.
At this stage, the Rams can still laugh about the matter.
“Every night, I wake up with nightmares about it,” McVay said, jokingly.
When the laughter around him subsided, McVay said in a more serious tone, “That’s certainly something that you’d like to get taken care of. Let’s put it this way: I’ll sleep a lot better if we get that taken care of.”
Management’s kind words about Donald speak not only to his value to the team, but also the front office’s understanding of his stand.
Donald isn’t railing against the Rams. He’s railing against an economic structure that was collectively bargained by the union that represents him. He’s making the case that players at his position are underpaid, only this isn’t the right place or time to be attempting to subvert the system. That would be in 2021, when the current collective bargaining agreement expires. By then, of course, it’s too late for Donald.
And if Donald is too late in recognizing that, he could be earning his millions somewhere else.
I don’t think Donald can win by holding out, but I will not be upset if he does because I have no idea what is what at this time.
AgamemnonTo me, it sounds like…. everybody is cool, but I am going to cover my ass. If it doesn’t work it is Donald’s agents fault cause we have to we might have have to pay draft choices. 😉
.
If you don’t sign your best player, it really isn’t sustainable. imo
.
Of course, you really need the real numbers and terms to make a good decision. We can only guess. AgamemnonDemoff went into weasel mode a bit. But he is still in negotiations with Donald’s agents. I see nothing here, except they are working on things.
Agamemnon🗣 GREG ZUERLEIN FROM 63 YARDS OUT!
It ain't easy being GZ 😎 #RamsCamp pic.twitter.com/87EuxH8zeV
— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) August 2, 2018
Agamemnonhttps://www.therams.com/video/between-the-horns-interview-with-torry-holt
Between the Horns: Interview With Torry Holt
Rams legend Torry Holt joins Myles Simmons and D’Marco Farr at Training Camp for the latest episode of “Between the Horns.”Torry was a fun interview.
Agamemnon#RamsCamp LIVE with Robert Woods and Cooper Kupp https://t.co/bnj7NT8ZlJ
— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) August 2, 2018
Agamemnonbtw, Suh’s contract figures to 11.1% of the Cap, the way I figure stuff. That is for the entire 6 years. He got paid for 3 and over those years, I figure him for 12.9% of the Cap. Part of the $60 million Suh got, was dead money for future years. That is what raises the % numbers.
Agamemnon5 or 6 years, 11% to 11.5% of the Cap. Let’s say the Cap will average $210 million over the next 5 years, 2019-23. $23.1 million to $24.15 million. This year he plays for $7 million. You can do all sorts of things with numbers. That is why I like to stick to percent of Cap averaged over an estimated future. Take a good look at von Miller. He probably won’t see the last 2 years of that contract. The last 2 years are for $25 million/yr, so he gets $64 million over 4 years. Suh earned $60 million in 3 years with Miami. QBs don’t figure into for me. They historically get ~13% of the cap, although a real payout of $30 million/yr would equal 14.3% the way I figure it. QBs seem to be gaining on the cap, but not every position will be able to do that.
AgamemnonIn reference to Donald, Long says at 3:16 in that “I can say with some authority that some of the numbers you may have encountered publicly are not predicated on any fact….they’re kind of just pure speculation….I can take from that that what we know about the ongoing negotiation is still very very limited …the more private these conversations are kept and the less hostile and media driven they are I generally take as a positive sign that they’re going to find an amicable resolution…we don’t know from Donald’s standpoint what his camp has in terms of goals and whether or not they’re reasonable within the framework of where the Rams are trying to go this season and for many years to come”
At 4:21 in the interviewer says, we had Les Snead on, we asked him about the 21 M/25 M story, and Snead said “no.”
Long says “I will go along with Snead. …” …thinks the Rams and Donald will make this happen. Sort of hints that guarantees and offsets and that kind of thing might be the key things being worked out.
Right or wrong, that is what I thought when those numbers first came out, starting with 4 years as the length of the contract. They just didn’t quite make sense to me.
AgamemnonPeterson undercut a route, made the pick on the defense’s left sideline, and had no one in his path on the way to the end zone. It was a nice practice for the Oklahoma State product who intercepted a pair of passes in Week 17 last year.
Beyond Talib, Peters, Roby-Coleman, and Shields, we hear good things so far about Hill and Peterson.
They ain’t keeping 6 corners. Assuming they keep Shields, do they trade Hill or Peterson to someone? Like they did with Gaines last year?
Eventually the Rams will populate the entire rest of the NFL with their DBs.
…
Can’t have too many Corners. 😉
Agamemnon.@TG3II on the run! 🙌#RamsCamp pic.twitter.com/n8MSp88vXi
— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) July 30, 2018
Agamemnon.@brandincooks is very fast.#RamsCamp pic.twitter.com/bjfMtuxp92
— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) July 29, 2018
Agamemnon
Analytics challenging the status quo: Wins above replacement | PFF
Whatever you thought you knew about football. 😉 Agamemnon
