Did the Jets truly demonstrate a long-term commitment to D'Brickashaw Ferguson? » By Manish Mehta Sometimes, the numbers lie. Although the terms of D’Brickashaw Ferguson’s contract extension aren’t a complete prevarication, here’s the question you should ask yourself: Did the Jets truly make a long-term commitment to the Pro Bowl left tackle with this latest deal? On the surface, it looks like a sweetheart deal for Ferguson. Early reports that Ferguson’s six-year, $60 million extension included $34.8 million in “guaranteed money” made it appear as if the Jets broke the bank to pay one of the team’s four core players. Pro Football Talk’s examination of the contract in greater detail raises legitimate questions whether the team did, in fact, demonstrate a long-term commitment. “I wouldn’t classify it as a long-term commitment, no,” said one independent agent, who has looked at the specifics of the contract. Here’s why: Ferguson’s deal really amounts to a one-year, $5.3 million contract. If he suffers a career-ending injury in 2010, he won’t see another penny. If he suffers a grievous injury in 2010 similar to Leon Washington’s fractured fibula last year, the Jets would likely rip up the deal, sign him to a lesser number or cut ties altogether. Ferguson essentially picked up an extra $2.2 million for 2010 (He was already due $3.1 million before the extension). However, there are no guarantees beyond that for this season. Before the extension, Ferguson was scheduled to earn the greater of $10 million or the franchise tag number in 2011. Now, he is in line to make a base salary of $5.615 million in 2011. His base salary for 2012 is $9.985 million and guaranteed only for skill, so if he suffered a serious injury in 2011, the Jets could cut him before the 2012 season without owing him a cent. Ferguson will be 34 when the contract expires in 2017, so it’s possible he’ll be long gone if his skills markedly erode over the next five years. In other words, there’s a chance that he’d never see the money owed him in the final couple years of the contract. The real numbers reveal that this isn’t a long-term commitment at all. The Jets have myriad outs. There are also some unrealistic landmarks that Ferguson would never reach. For example, he’d receive $1.3 million if he takes part in 97 percent of the special teams plays in 2015 and 2016 and blocks at least seven punts each year, something that clearly won’t happen. Here’s the bigger picture: Nick Mangold, Darrelle Revis and David Harris are simply seeking a true long-term commitment without strings attached not unlike the team’s current PSL situation. At a time when the Jets braintrust has invoked the uncertain collective bargaining agreement as a real obstacle in negotiations, the team has asked fans to blindly fork over PSL money with no guarantee of a partial rebate if there’s a work stoppage in 2011. The Jets didn’t make Woody Johnson available to discuss this topic. “We fully anticipate playing football in 2011 and have not determined how that scenario will be addressed,” said Thad Sheely, Executive Vice President, Finance and Stadium Development, about refunding a portion of the PSL money to season-ticket holders. The team is asking fans to make a no-strings-attached, long-term commitment by buying PSLs amid the uncertain labor landscape. Yet, they haven’t shown Revis, Mangold and Harris that same sort of unconditional commitment this offseason. That’s not to say it won’t happen. General Manager Mike Tannenbaum has openly expressed his desire to keep the nucleus of this team together. It should be an interesting next few weeks. Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/jets/2010/07/did-the-jets-truly-demonstrate.html#ixzz0tFRoE6g3
there is no guaranteed money in 2011 and beyond because of the extreme uncertainty going on. Brick will be fine.
This sounds like what Revis was offered. It may well be a deal we can escape from, but it keeps the player under team control, so it is a solid deal. Brick clearly believes in himself more than Revis does.
yes he does write great articles, but Who the hell is Mehta to say Brick can't block 7 punts in 2016.
haha! Anyways, first of all it's clear this contract was designed so that it could be called a 60mill 6yr contract while in fact it isn't. But it makes sense... it makes sense that a guy who's 33-34 (like D'brick in 2015-2016) doesn't get as much money as in his prime (this to explain the blocked punts bonus). It also makes sense that in contracts as big as this one teams have a way out if players get seriously injured. D'brick will still earn lot's of money (the only unreachable money is the 2.6 mill punt blocking bonus) but if his career is cut short the team has a way out... every contract should be structured like this one. Plus who knows, maybe D'brick has a cronic knee problem and the Jets want to reward him on one side and have a way out on the other... All in all if he signed the deal it's because he deemed it acceptable. So who are we to second guess D'brick's opinion of this contract?
This is the first time I saw the punt blocking part of this contract. WTF, it's like Tannenbaum was having so much fun toying with D'Bricks agent during this negotiation that he decided to put the most ridiculous thing he could think of in the contract to see if they would actually sign it.
Don't you think they did it as a favor to D'brick? So he could say he had a 6 yrs 60 mill instead of a 6yrs 57.4...
i felt the same way about it. negotiating and drawing up contracts has to be pretty boring a lot of the time, maybe throwing random shit like this into contracts is a way he can keep himself entertained while doing it.
I don't get the confusion. Why is this such a surprise to everyone? If a player gets a career-ending injury, the team can rip up a contract. NFL contracts have always been as such.
not like this though. when you see guaranteed money in a contract that usually means the guy is getting that money no matter what. in this case the only thing brick is guaranteed is 5 million or so, not the 30 something million that is being reported as guaranteed.
Probably during the negotiations the Jets gave them two options: 1) More money but more ways out of the contract. 2) Less money but with more guarantees. And D'brick chose to go with n.1 I don't get what the discussion is about, it's not like his agent and himself signed this contract blindfolded... if they agreed they agreed, end of story!
the discussion is about how odd this contract is. all we have ever hear about regarding contracts is that guaranteed money is the only thing that really matters and the jets just signed one of their most important players to a contract with hardly anything guaranteed. it is very odd.
so the jets have protection against injury this coming year... then what happens after the 2010 season ends/2011 begins? does the rest of the 34 mill become guaranteed at that point? I did not read the OP.
I don't think its that Brick got NO guarantees, I think it's that he gave the Jets some wiggle room this year so they could sign some other players and got his guarantees starting next year. If the new CBA ends up being substantially different than Tanny expects, they rip it up and start all over again. What's the mystery?
Looking at his contract he's screwed up if he gets injured this year or in 2011... but if he would've refused to sign this contract and went on playing on his old one if he'd gotten injured in 2010 or 2011 the Jets simply wouldn't have offered him a new one (at those figures). Staying on his old contract would've given him less guarantees than the ones he has with his actual contract...
I thought I was reading Cimini with the negative hook to the article. Brick got some extra cash for 2010 and if he stays healthy some nice bonus $ and the Jets protected themselves against career injury. Are Woody and the Jets going to be questioned about commitment and fans paying PSL's every time they make a good business decision?. How can anyone question our owners commitment to winning?. All of a sudden, the media cares about the fans and PSL's, where the hell were they in the spring when all this shit was going down with people being forced to move upstairs due to the PSL costs or the UD people being forced downstaits? Shitty article
