Today feels like the day after the 2018 draft. MONTHS of talking about something and it ended up the best way possible. Very rarely do we get to feel like that, let alone twice in one calendar year.
True, but I think K'OB's point is valid also: he gets $36m guaranteed, which he might not have collected with the contract offered by the Steelers if he got hurt. Assuming he doesn't get hurt - a bug assumption in today's NFL, especially with RBs - he could've collected more, but it's water under the bridge now, and let's hope he okay with how it worked out. Of course there's the point Tony Ft. Laud made: he might be treating this as a "prove it" year, where if he does well he tries to re-negotiate afterwards.
I understood his point but Bell's strategy failed miserably. The Jets guarantee is $35 million and Pitt's guarantee was reportedly $33 million. So it looks like his big gamble earned him a measly additional $2 million in guarantees. I'm sorry but that's not worth giving up $14.5 million or the $45 million he would have earned in his his first 3 years. Look, he wanted out of Pitt because he felt he was being undervalued/underpaid/disrespected. But he completely misread what his market value was going to be after sitting out a whole year and acting like a fool. He thought he was going to get more than $50 million in guarantees and an average annual salary of $16-$18 million.
Did you really forget all the discussion showing how Comp % by itself is a very poor indicator of QB performance? If so, go back through old TGG threads and refresh yourself.
Clarification on the guarantees: This is how Pitt has operated for a while. Like I said earlier, it's what they did to Brown, it's what they did to Bell and it's what they'll do to JuJu in a few years.
yeah and he wanted me to clarify it as if we didn't have this discussion 100 times already. We were all involved in that discussion.
yeah but the issue is he gave up 14.5mil guaranteed by not playing last year on the tag. he also turned down their offer of (the #Steelers’ final offer to RB Le’Veon Bell was 5 years, $70M with more than $30M over 2 years, his contract included $33 million in guaranteed money, which was going to be paid out over the first two years) so basically he gave up 33 mil guaranteed for 2018/2019. His reasoning was he wanted 17mil a year not the 14mil they offered him. the jets offer is 4 years 52 million with incentives to 61 million with 35 mil guaranteed. so he gave up a year of football and 9 million dollars to get an extra 2 million guaranteed and that assumes he hits every incentive. if not he gave up 18 million and a year of football to gain an extra 2 mil in guarentees. the steelers offer was 45 million in the 1st 3 years so 2018, 2019, and 2020. with the jets and the hold out his 1st 3 years was 2018 nothing, 2019 28mil + salary, 2020 ? so not really sure how he benefited. he gambled and lost. it happens. not only that but he goes from a team who has never picked in the top 10 during his tenure there, and competes for a SB every year with a HOF Qb, a top 5 o-line (best in NFL in 2018 per PFF) and 2 deadly WRs in juju and brown to a young team with a bad o-line, a young WR group, a young QB still learning, who hasn't won a playoff game in almost a decade. I guess in short his "the jets need to pay me 100 million to go there" statement, turned out to be a joke.
I'm not gonna defend Bell entirely, because I do think there was a better way going about his business with Pitt, but I'm reading a lot of bullshit putting the blame solely on Bell. It's no coincidence that both Bell and Brown had a problem with that organization. There is a lot of shit going on over there and I think Bell wanted out of it. Looking back now, Idk if his actions were solely because of the money. There might have been a much deeper reason he did not want to be a part of that franchise any longer. He now has a contract he likes and a fresh start in a new organization. Let bygones be bygones.
I’m not sure anyone knows that to a certitude. I’ve seen one guy report the $17 million “rolling” guarantee and I’ve seen multiple reports of $33 million fully guaranteed. He didn’t get what he thought was going to get. He wildly overestimated his worth. Anyone that thinks his strategy was a winning one is really stretching.
I’ve been fighting this battle for pages. He fucked up and left money on the table that he’s never getting back because he thought someone was going to build that $14.5 million into his new contract. For not playing last year.
bell wanted more money then they were willing to pay, he didn't sign the franchise tag because he was worried they would run him into the ground or he could get hurt and miss out on a big payday. brown was pissed because Big Ben criticized him. in bell's case it was a business move. Listen i don't blame him for the gamble. he knows RB shelf life is short, he's an elite player, and this was his chance to get his big payday. it didn't work out for him in the end, but he at least guaranteed himself 35 mil even if he blows out his knee tomorrow and never played a down for the jets so financially he is secured now brown was a whiny little bitch who couldn't take criticism.
Hence the fuck up. I’ve put the blame on him AND his agent. But to be fair, he saw was Gurley got and thought he’d easily top it. He saw Gurley’s $45 million guarantees and figured $50 mill was a layup.
Bell got one thing that's priceless, one year less of his body getting beaten. As long as he's smart with his money, what he got last year wont' be missed, however, being able to walk 20 years from now will be priceless.
there's also the issue if he played last year and truly got hurt he'd be screwed And if he played it safe his numbers go down and hurt his FA -- thus the "fake the injury" suggestions It's a tough business in addition to a tough game
They guaranteed him 10 to sign a long term deal with a floating guarantee if he wasn't cut. He actually was guaranteed more money by signing and playing under the TAG. This is what you're missing. You have been conned by the Steelers offer which was really big unless they cut him.
I’m not bothered by his money or his wealth. It’s the intellectual disagreement as to whether his strategy was a winning one or losing one. He lost. And he went about it like an asshole. Maybe you’ve been conned by misinformation floated by his team. Nobody knows the exact structure of Pitts offer. It’s not an issue now, we have one of or if not the best RB in football, we’re going to be exciting and entertaining as hell. Let’s just hope he doesn’t dog it because he didn’t reset the market for RBs.