And I get what you're saying X and Sam has a right to prove himself, but I think even HE knows he's not worth the money he's earning. We got screwed by the final year before the rookie wage scale. I just don't understand why he can't take a pay cut and PROVE himself that way. The best QBs in the games have taken pay cuts to allow their teams to add or resign more talent around them, Sam is hindering the Rams ability to do that. I've been one of the biggest Bradford supporters of ALL, but even I can't deny how annoying his contract is.
Which leads me to: how much more is Sam worth than a rookie QB who is learning on the fly? Is he worth $13M more? Does he elevate the TEAM that much more than a rookie QB could? And who knows how much MORE talent we could acquire with $13M in the bank? Maybe the rookie QB we (would) add wouldn't be as good as Sam (now) in year 1, but Sam alone isn't worth more than a solid rookie QB and some additional talent. The easy answer is NO. I just can't wrap my head around the fact that PEYTON "55 Touchdown, MVP, Super Bowl QB" Manning is making the same salary as Sam next year. Sam's GOT to realize he's hurting our team TERRIBLY. Its already tough enough as it is to compete in the NFC West and make the playoffs, just ask the 10-6 Cards, but to have a guy who is eating up nearly 1/6 of your cap who has 2 serious injuries since entering the NFL who's never gone over .500 makes it really hard to compete with SF & SEA in adding TALENT.
Here's where I disagree with you, or at least see it a different way. And I was gonna call you and talk to you about this, but I've been tied up with various things all day. Plus, I didn't want you to keep me on the phone for four hours again. lol.
Anyway. Let's break it down.
"I think even HE knows he's not worth the money he's earning."
Let me ask you a question. Would YOU think you were worth that money in his situation? Taking for granted that you tried like a mother fucker to work with what the front office was providing you, and getting beat up in the process, would you think you were overpaid? When the Organization, through it's drafting and free agent acquisitions provided you with over 30 different receiving targets going into 2013, and over 25 different O-linemen going into that same year (most of which don't play football anymore), would you be of the impression that you were given everything needed to succeed? Would you take a pay cut? I wouldn't. You can't, as an Organization, commit to paying that hefty price tag that came with drafting him #1 overall, fail to set him up for success, and then ask for money back on the premise of your own failures. It's wrong.
"Sam is hindering the Rams ability to do that (add or resign more talent)"
No. No he's not. The Rams are doing that - willingly - by paying him what the NFL dictated was the going rate at the time. And he's not even the highest paid member of the team last year. How many times does the CFO of the Organization have to tell us that the contract isn't a problem before we realize it's true? They can cut him and add a rookie QB, but that rookie QB is going to, at some point, command a new contract. Then what? Cut him too? The Rams are building a team against the model all NFL teams have to build by. Pay the QB the highest salary (most of the time), and pay your key players a lot of money too. Fill the rest with positions that you CAN rotate personnel in and out of. You can't keep rotating QBs in and out to maintain cap flexibility. And Manning's contract is not structured the same as Sam's. Take a closer look at his guarantees. The cap figures may look the same, but there are enormous penalties attached to Manning.
Did you think he was hurting the team last year and prohibiting them from adding talent? I'm sure you did, because the situations were identical in the 2013 offseason. He was the high paid guy, and we were tight against the cap. So what did we do? Despite Sam's crippling contract? We signed Jared Cook to a 5yr/$35M contract, signed Jake Long to a 4yr/$34M contract, and drafted Tavon Austin, Stedman Bailey, Benny Cunningham, Zac Stacy and Barret Jones. How the hell did we pull THAT off??? Money management. Pretend Bradford is in his second contract already and the team has failed to reach their milestones because of various injuries and whatnot. It'll make it look less painful. Or we could cut him and sign a guy like Percy Harvin to a contract equally as high as Bradford's. That could probably put us over the hump. Not.
If they want to draft a developmental QB to hedge their bets and plan for the future (which I suspect they will), then great. That's a plan I can get behind. But complaining about his contract like it's some sort of albatross doesn't do anything but reveal how ignorant we truly are about the inner workings of the cap and how the muckity mucks up in the front office always seem to have a way to get around it. This whole ROI angle is tiring to me. You want a return on your investment? Then how about buying more than one share.
