Rams release OL Garrett Reynolds
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What is an injury settlement?
Posted September 3, 2014 ·
As each NFL team tweaks their 53-man roster this week, there is still a steady stream of negotiations going on between agents and salary cap managers. Some teams are still rounding off their practice squads and building their emergency short list. The other lesser known activity is the negotiation of injury settlements.
Injury settlements are agreements between players and teams spelling out compensation and other terms in which the two parties will immediately part ways. For example, if a player suffered a preseason injury such as a knee MCL partial tear, it usually takes about six weeks to heal and for the player to get back to full strength. If the player sustained the injury in the final week of the preseason (7 days prior to the 53 cut down date) and all parties agreed it would take six weeks for a full recovery, the parties may agree on a five week regular game settlement. A five-week settlement is appropriate because the first week of the six weeks is still during the preseason. Thus, the player would have most likely missed five weeks of the regular season on the inactive or the injured reserved list. Therefore, the team will pay the player for those five weeks in trade for a full release of liability. So the player will be paid 5/17th of his salary (there are 17 weeks in the season.)
Here are some typical terms and/or components of an injury settlement:
-Player and his representatives release team, doctor, trainers and team’s agents from all liability associated with the injury.
-Team will be responsible for the costs of all second medical opinions, rehabilitation, medical and related expenses. A player may choose to rehab his injury at a place of his own choice.
– Player acknowledges that he has hereby been given notice that he may have rights under
the applicable Workers’ Compensation laws of the state in which the team resides.
-Offset language preventing a player from double dipping. It usually goes like this:
The parties further agree if Player signs a new contract with another NFL Team during the first five weeks (using our MCL example) of the 2014 NFL Regular Season, Club’s obligation shall be reduced by the amount of any contractual compensation (including, without limitation, salary, signing, reporting, option and/or incentive bonuses) received or earned by Player from such other NFL Team and Player shall reimburse Club for any such amounts previously paid by Club.
Injury settlements are used in lieu of placing a player on the Injured Reserve (IR) until he is healthy enough to be released. If an injury is deemed to take longer than 17 weeks to recover the player will be placed on IR for the season and receive his full salary (unless he has a split contract). Injury settlements are also used to lighten the load of the training room. If a team has six players who have injuries that require rehabilitation it will tie up the time and resources of the training room. Teams want to move on from players they think wouldn’t have made their team, are expendable talents and/or are easily replaceable.
Injury settlements can also give a team a chance at getting a player back during that same season. There is a rule in place that the team (agreeing to a settlement) can’t resign that player until a minimum of six weeks passes following the amount of weeks of the initial settlement. So for our MCL example, the team cannot resign that player for the first eleven weeks. For a player who did a three week/3 game settlement, his team can’t sign him back until after week nine. However, the player is free to sign with another team.
If a player, usually upon the advice of his agent, doesn’t want to do an injury settlement, it’s the team’s obligation to rehab and give him medical treatment. Once the team and the team’s physician deem the player healthy enough to return to the field, the team will release the player from the injured list. If the player feels he is still injured, he has the right to file an injury grievance against the team. An independent arbitrator (as spelled out in the CBA) will hear the grievance.
Negotiating an injury settlement can be very tricky and can get downright nasty. A player has a right to a second opinion from a doctor of his choice. So a team doctor may say the injury should be completely healed in 6 weeks. A second opinion doctor may say that it could take up to ten weeks for the injury to heal. Therefore, the agent will ask the team for ten or even eleven weeks of salary. The team will propose five or six weeks. The two parties will usually reach an agreement in the middle of the two opinions. In most cases, agents will fight tooth and nail for a time beyond the predicted recovery table to make sure they don’t short change their client. Agents will also try to get a settlement equal to at least 3 game checks in order to garner that player a credited season which would lead to certain benefits if the player had at least three credited seasons. As agents, we know that injuries take longer to heal than what is typically projected.
Although this is how the system works, it is deeply flawed. For one, the system asks a salary cap manager/or GM and an agent to play doctor and predict when a player will be healthy. Two, it relieves teams of liability when an injury could possibly linger for months and/or years. Three, it takes the player out of a controlled football environment and sends him out on his own to rehab and workout.
Follow me on Twitter: @Jackbechta
Posted September 3, 2014 ·
As each NFL team tweaks their 53-man roster this week, there is still a steady stream of negotiations going on between agents and salary cap managers. Some teams are still rounding off their practice squads and building their emergency short list. The other lesser known activity is the negotiation of injury settlements.
Injury settlements are agreements between players and teams spelling out compensation and other terms in which the two parties will immediately part ways. For example, if a player suffered a preseason injury such as a knee MCL partial tear, it usually takes about six weeks to heal and for the player to get back to full strength. If the player sustained the injury in the final week of the preseason (7 days prior to the 53 cut down date) and all parties agreed it would take six weeks for a full recovery, the parties may agree on a five week regular game settlement. A five-week settlement is appropriate because the first week of the six weeks is still during the preseason. Thus, the player would have most likely missed five weeks of the regular season on the inactive or the injured reserved list. Therefore, the team will pay the player for those five weeks in trade for a full release of liability. So the player will be paid 5/17th of his salary (there are 17 weeks in the season.)
Here are some typical terms and/or components of an injury settlement:
-Player and his representatives release team, doctor, trainers and team’s agents from all liability associated with the injury.
-Team will be responsible for the costs of all second medical opinions, rehabilitation, medical and related expenses. A player may choose to rehab his injury at a place of his own choice.
– Player acknowledges that he has hereby been given notice that he may have rights under
the applicable Workers’ Compensation laws of the state in which the team resides.
-Offset language preventing a player from double dipping. It usually goes like this:
The parties further agree if Player signs a new contract with another NFL Team during the first five weeks (using our MCL example) of the 2014 NFL Regular Season, Club’s obligation shall be reduced by the amount of any contractual compensation (including, without limitation, salary, signing, reporting, option and/or incentive bonuses) received or earned by Player from such other NFL Team and Player shall reimburse Club for any such amounts previously paid by Club.
Injury settlements are used in lieu of placing a player on the Injured Reserve (IR) until he is healthy enough to be released. If an injury is deemed to take longer than 17 weeks to recover the player will be placed on IR for the season and receive his full salary (unless he has a split contract). Injury settlements are also used to lighten the load of the training room. If a team has six players who have injuries that require rehabilitation it will tie up the time and resources of the training room. Teams want to move on from players they think wouldn’t have made their team, are expendable talents and/or are easily replaceable.
Injury settlements can also give a team a chance at getting a player back during that same season. There is a rule in place that the team (agreeing to a settlement) can’t resign that player until a minimum of six weeks passes following the amount of weeks of the initial settlement. So for our MCL example, the team cannot resign that player for the first eleven weeks. For a player who did a three week/3 game settlement, his team can’t sign him back until after week nine. However, the player is free to sign with another team.
If a player, usually upon the advice of his agent, doesn’t want to do an injury settlement, it’s the team’s obligation to rehab and give him medical treatment. Once the team and the team’s physician deem the player healthy enough to return to the field, the team will release the player from the injured list. If the player feels he is still injured, he has the right to file an injury grievance against the team. An independent arbitrator (as spelled out in the CBA) will hear the grievance.
Negotiating an injury settlement can be very tricky and can get downright nasty. A player has a right to a second opinion from a doctor of his choice. So a team doctor may say the injury should be completely healed in 6 weeks. A second opinion doctor may say that it could take up to ten weeks for the injury to heal. Therefore, the agent will ask the team for ten or even eleven weeks of salary. The team will propose five or six weeks. The two parties will usually reach an agreement in the middle of the two opinions. In most cases, agents will fight tooth and nail for a time beyond the predicted recovery table to make sure they don’t short change their client. Agents will also try to get a settlement equal to at least 3 game checks in order to garner that player a credited season which would lead to certain benefits if the player had at least three credited seasons. As agents, we know that injuries take longer to heal than what is typically projected.
Although this is how the system works, it is deeply flawed. For one, the system asks a salary cap manager/or GM and an agent to play doctor and predict when a player will be healthy. Two, it relieves teams of liability when an injury could possibly linger for months and/or years. Three, it takes the player out of a controlled football environment and sends him out on his own to rehab and workout.
Follow me on Twitter: @Jackbechta
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Isn't that what IR is for?
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What's the point? He's a free agent after the year and if the Rams felt he couldn't come back from it release him with a settlement and if he's available before the season ends and back from injury he can sign with the Rams or any other team if he wants.
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It is an interesting subject. The first three years of this current regime i would expect (and hope) for a really young team...but i'm beginning to question it a little. There's very little veteran leadership on this roster. That usually doesn't translate to a ton of wins, playoffs, Super Bowl etc.
It's good to home grow your roster but IMO a nice blend of youth and vets is better suited to win in the playoffs.
In Snisher i trust, but 5 years running as the youngest team is weird.
Tron
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SanAnRam
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On O= Barnes, Saffold, GRob, Quick, Tavon, Britt, Kendricks, Harkey Cunningham ...
On D= Oh hell this list is even better , this don't ring true is my point
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There are a few guys. I wouldn't include a few of your examples as seasoned vets though in the context i was speaking of.
Also, IT IS the youngest team in the league by factual definition so i have to disagree.
LosAngelesRams
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Damn, cut one of our best offensive linemen from last year and our OL is already suspect as it is.
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That will change starting as early as 2017. Due to the Goff trade, the Rams lose a 1'st & 3'rd round draft pick next season, but we will grow older, at least somewhat, because we will have about $53.5 mil. in available CAP room. This estimate is based on the new numbers from Austin's contract, adding the annual league wide NFL CAP raise, and a carryover which is now close to $6.5.mil. The Rams have about 1/3 the players coming up for free agency in 2017 as they did this last pre-season. Re-signing guys like Brockers & Tru Johnson will be pricey, but probably less than $16.mil in CAP charges for the two of them together for the first year of their long-term contracts. If we re-sign Britt multi-year, his first year may not be much more than this years CAP hit for him. Also, our 2017 rookie class will be much less expensive because of no 1'st rounder. Seems less likely that the Rams would carry a 3'rd QB next season, so even more savings. After re-signing our 3 most expensive players, the Rams should still have something north of $26.mil to play with next year. Of course, any trades or additional cuts can radically change these estimates, but we are likely looking at building the team more thru free agency than the draft for the first time under the Fisher regime, ... at least if he gets that extension. jmo.
Picked4td
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Not only are you forgetting TJ McDonald, but if anything they would likely spend more money on the 1st year of those new deals because they have so much space. Dont forget they got Ogletree and Mo the following year and then 2 very high priced contracts for Donald and Gurley in the new future, and their whole oline around that same time too. Cant really afford to put money on the back end of deals if they want to keep the team together
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The Rams definitely front load contracts, but if you follow closely you will see they tend to take the first year discount, and year two is where they usually apply the biggest CAP hit to a contract.
I don't really see TJ getting anything near what McLeod commanded this year, and if he tries, he's likely just as gone. Ogletree is working on his option year next season, and while the Rams may very well extend him early like they did with Austin last week, if so, we'll just adjust the estimates, but for the time being, i'm not going to try and outguess management. Of those top 3 listed including Brockers, Tru Johnson & Britt, it's also possible the Rams get outbid on any one of them in free agency ... the Rams do have a tendency of allowing players to seek their value, then decide whether to match or beat the offers. jmo.
drasconis
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Fully agree. Yes Saffold & Britt are clearly veterans, not sure anyone would qualify players in their 3rd yr as "veteran". I also am not sure that guys who are bench players (non-starters) would qualify as veteran "leaders".
The other question to be asked is what the "veterans" bring with them. As a team how many playoff games do the players on this team have, it has to be very few.....the list of specific players he provided above has a total of 0.....
BonifayRam
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The loss Garrett Reynolds & his veteran OL leadership is big. GR played a major vital role in helping this OL keep itself last season. His cap cost this season was very little a little over 1 million. The injury appeared like a high ankle sprain that are not overly long term serious but very slow in time to recover from.
What did the Rams loose on this parting ways event besides #1- leadership? #2-GR was our best starting OLG last season (yes that includes Saffold). #3-Besides his many initial game starts @ OLG, GR has game starts @ ORT so he was our top reserve @ ORT. #4-GR was also a back up ORG so he was our top OL reliever to 3 OL posts. This was all in 2015.
2016 was different & it would seem many OL plans went into fail mode that slightly touched GR i.e. (Williams & Battle). The very early spring injury to starting ORT Havenstein originally gave GR a chance to be on the first team OL. But Boudreau shut that down & inserted Saffold over GR. That move made the LEFT OG post open for GR but Boudreau inserted our 2015 best performing rookie OG Cody Wichmann into the OLG post over GR. That left the ORG post open but Boudreau inserted the fully healed Jamon Brown back into that starting post over GR. So that put GR securely back in the rolse he started with in 2015 season....spot of versatile reserve OL'er once again. I am sure it was disappointing for the 8 yr veteran to have started 12 games & finished 3 others & having performed very well.
Andrew Donnal's play @ ORT was equal or IMO better than the performance by GR however GR was not outplayed by any other reserve OG. Folkerts, Arkin, Rhaney & Kush were not as effective @ both OG posts as GR. With the return of Havenstein the Rams were 3 deep @ ORT & OLT with Pace Murphy. With the Rams now having four OL'ers (Saffold, Wichmann, Brown & Donnal) who can play left & right OG pushed GR's value down. Add in Rhaney who could be an emergency plug in @ both OG's...well the future of GR landing a starting post with the Rams in 2016 or in 2017 is very slim to not going to happen. I can see why GR would want to move on from this Ram team situation. Good chance we will see GR starting @ OLG later in 2016 for another team.
What did the Rams loose on this parting ways event besides #1- leadership? #2-GR was our best starting OLG last season (yes that includes Saffold). #3-Besides his many initial game starts @ OLG, GR has game starts @ ORT so he was our top reserve @ ORT. #4-GR was also a back up ORG so he was our top OL reliever to 3 OL posts. This was all in 2015.
2016 was different & it would seem many OL plans went into fail mode that slightly touched GR i.e. (Williams & Battle). The very early spring injury to starting ORT Havenstein originally gave GR a chance to be on the first team OL. But Boudreau shut that down & inserted Saffold over GR. That move made the LEFT OG post open for GR but Boudreau inserted our 2015 best performing rookie OG Cody Wichmann into the OLG post over GR. That left the ORG post open but Boudreau inserted the fully healed Jamon Brown back into that starting post over GR. So that put GR securely back in the rolse he started with in 2015 season....spot of versatile reserve OL'er once again. I am sure it was disappointing for the 8 yr veteran to have started 12 games & finished 3 others & having performed very well.
Andrew Donnal's play @ ORT was equal or IMO better than the performance by GR however GR was not outplayed by any other reserve OG. Folkerts, Arkin, Rhaney & Kush were not as effective @ both OG posts as GR. With the return of Havenstein the Rams were 3 deep @ ORT & OLT with Pace Murphy. With the Rams now having four OL'ers (Saffold, Wichmann, Brown & Donnal) who can play left & right OG pushed GR's value down. Add in Rhaney who could be an emergency plug in @ both OG's...well the future of GR landing a starting post with the Rams in 2016 or in 2017 is very slim to not going to happen. I can see why GR would want to move on from this Ram team situation. Good chance we will see GR starting @ OLG later in 2016 for another team.