Aaron Donald’s contract situation

[Ram65]

Best article I’ve read about it is from Joel Corry at CBS sports. He’s a former agent. Gives a good educated guess about both sides, and the difference between them.

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/...-khalil-mack-are-still-waiting-for-new-deals/

Great article that everyone should read. Very educated guess with the adjusted numbers from different high contracts with cap increase adjustments. So in bold are the numbers below 23.5 Million average etc....for full adjustments vs 20.025 Million natural increase from years past not keeping up with QB increases. Somewhere in between would be the battleground. These are what my quesses were. I didn't think the Rams could go much higher than 22 Million average. One thing he didn't mention is the franchise tag numbers which would favor the Rams.

Part of the article...........................................................................................................................

Challenges to reaching an agreement
Based on the information currently in the marketplace, the data suggests the following contract for Mack/Donald.

Average per year: $23.5 million
Overall guarantees: $85 million
Fully guaranteed: $67.5 million
Contract length: 6-year extension

The Raiders and Rams are surely more comfortable with a modest increase over Miller's contract instead of a drastic re-setting of the non-quarterback market. The suggested deal would be nearly 25 percent more than Miller's contract. The modest increase would be in line with the trends of becoming the highest-paid non-quarterback since the lockout. The average increase over the previous standard during the five times when a player has become the highest-paid non-quarterback under the existing CBA is slightly under five percent. The biggest jump was in 2014, when Suh raised the bar by almost 15 percent as he replaced Watt. Standard growth would put Mack/Donald at approximately $20.025 million per year. If my suspicions are in the same general ballpark as France and Segal's actual offers, bridging the gap won't be an easy task.

There are additional dynamics with Mack's situation that don't exist with Donald. Contract security could be just as much of a sticking point as the overall dollars in Mack's negotiations because of Carr's $70.2 million in overall guarantees and $40 million fully guaranteed at signing. Typically, the starting quarterback is a team's standard bearer in most contract metrics when he has a lucrative deal in place.

The Raiders are likely to become the first team in league history with a $20 million-per-year non-quarterback and a $25 million-per-year quarterback. The Rams aren't faced with this dilemma for at least another season. Quarterback Jared Goff, 2016's first-overall pick, is a bargain on his rookie contract. Under CBA rules, he isn't eligible for a new deal until the conclusion of the upcoming regular season. Goff's 2018 and 2019 cap numbers are slightly over $7.6 million and just under $8.9 million. His fifth-year option salary in 2020 could be in the $23 million neighborhood.

A lengthy holdout isn't as viable of an option for Donald as with Mack. Donald didn't earn a year of service of free agency, which is an accrued season in the CBA, due to last year's holdout. A player doesn't get the free-agency service time (i.e.; an accrued season) if he doesn't report to training camp at least 30 days prior to NFL's first regular-season game. It doesn't matter that Donald played 14 games last season, because he missed the reporting deadline. Since Donald has three accrued seasons when four are necessary to become an unrestricted free agent at the expiration of a contract, he really can't afford to miss out on another one. The reporting deadline this year is August 7. Donald would need to be committed to missing multiple regular-season games, if not the entire year, to get what he felt was an appropriate contract after this date.

If Donald missed this August 7 deadline and played out his rookie deal with a failed holdout, it would make him a restricted free agent in 2019. From a practical standpoint, the Rams would probably use a franchise tag on Donald anyway because the first-round pick compensation for restricted free agents wouldn't be enough to deter another team from signing a player of his magnitude to an offer sheet. Getting the year of service isn't a concern for a Mack holdout because he already has the necessary four accrued seasons to qualify for unrestricted free agency should be play out his contract.
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Joel Corry
Former Sports Agent
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Joel Corry is a former sports agent who helped found Premier Sports & Entertainment, a sports management firm that represents professional athletes and coaches. Before his tenure at Premier, Joel worked... FULL BIO






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[Ramstien]

All I got to say is Fuck Donald's agent, that little Prick.

 

[DR RAM]

If true, it's really hard for me to justify him getting that much money.

 

[RamBall]

Same take here. But if it's true then this is going to lead to three years of Leveon-franchise-tag-drama. Guess there are worse things.

Like paying AD $25mil/year. If his agent truely is insulted,AD needs to find a new agent.

While IMO AD is the best defensive player in the NFL, it does not mean he can hold the Rams hostage. This may end up costing AD and his agent millions of $s, if he is franchised for the next 2 seasons after this season.

 

[Ramit]

It's easy for agents to manipulate their clients into holding out for more money, especially when he can keep telling Donald that Mack is going to get $25M a year.

I mean, it's his right if he wants to risk it for the biscuit. The fan in me really hopes he will stay for a reasonable amount. If he doesn't then I guess he will have to be content playing for a team with a ton of cap space i.e. losing team. I would think AD has had enough of that though. Who knows, maybe Pit didn't sign Bell bc AD is gonna go there. Who knows? It's all conjecture anyways, right?

 

[RamDino]

If I had a say in this, I would also look at Donald's productivity over the past 4 years, compared to his pay. He has been a great defensive player (the best actually) for 4 years, and has been paid what... 10 million? Whereas Kalil Mack has probably been paid around 30 million. I just hope the Rams consider what an absolute bargain he has been, and that they consider that when discussing his new contract. He deserves to be the highest paid defensive player, and maybe the Rams can throw in a little more. I really want this guy locked up for 6 more years. I know my opinion doesn't matter... but I think we will have an ending to this thread very soon!

 

[96GS#007]

AD is screwing himself after Aug 7th. Time to tell “ Poston Jr” to take a hike. Such a shame <=[sarcasm] to have to make ends meet with only $60M or $70M

Feels like the agent is more concerned about his personal payout from such a contract than what’s important to the person he represents.

Bottom line. Having one All World player didn’t get us over the hump of poor coaching and average players. Excellent coaching and multiple above average players did. I’ll take the wins and playoff football any day over bragging rights about having an All World player at one position.

 

[Steve808]

Obviously we all want AD to sign a long term deal but it's also obvious that being the "highest paid defensive player" will always be a temporary position as the cap goes up and more dollars are allotted.

I'm really curious where the middle ground is that will allow AD and the Rams to be happy with the contract?

Or is AD waiting for Mack to sign so he can ask to leapfrog whatever that contract is? I don't know but I'd like to know.

 

[12intheBox]

The more I am seeing of this free lance journalist, the less I believe him.

I still think this has a happy ending .... eventually

 

[Loyal]

I’ll take the wins and playoff football any day over bragging rights about having an All World player at one position.

Yeah, I’ll go ahead and take both.

 

[Legatron4]

 

[jrry32]

AD is screwing himself after Aug 7th. Time to tell “ Poston Jr” to take a hike. Such a shame <=[sarcasm] to have to make ends meet with only $60M or $70M

Feels like the agent is more concerned about his personal payout from such a contract than what’s important to the person he represents.

Bottom line. Having one All World player didn’t get us over the hump of poor coaching and average players. Excellent coaching and multiple above average players did. I’ll take the wins and playoff football any day over bragging rights about having an All World player at one position.

The agent is doing his job. Donald is paying him for that reason. It's a business. People need to stop taking this personally. And I'll take the Super Bowl win with the DPOY over taking the business personally and cutting off our nose to spite our face.

 

[ReekofRams]

View attachment 25619

We've already seen this, disvussed, and easily dismantled this as his mere speculation. If there was any real sources, as he reported a few hours ago, then by now many sites with credibility would have been all over this story. But what do we have? Silence plus nothing. Again, mere speculation.

 

[Legatron4]

We've already seen this, disvussed, and easily dismantled this as his mere speculation. If there was any real sources, as he reported a few hours ago, then by now many sites with credibility would have been all over this story. But what do we have? Silence plus nothing. Again, mere speculation.

Didn't see it posted. Figured it had no legs.

 

[XXXIVwin]

Don’t know if Geller is legit or not, but frankly the numbers sound plausible (Rams offering 21, agent Todd France demanding 25+).

If AD were “reasonable”, he’d take 21or 22 on a long contract, crow about being the highest paid defender in history, and know he’s set for life.

But AD is a supreme talent, and I suspect he has two other traits: a ginormous ego, and stubbornness.

Worst case scenario: AD lets his agent convince him that anything less than 25M per year equals “losing.”

Yes, the agent Todd France sounds like a prick... will he goad AD into foolish stubbornness?

Would love to hear the conversations between AD and some of his teammates.. I bet a few of them are begging him to dump his agent.

 

[ReekofRams]

Didn't see it posted. Figured it had no legs.

No problem, as you weren't here when we discussed it. Funny though, some people are still using that tweet to accuse Donald and his agent as villains. But we have absolutely no basis for doing thst, other than our own mere speculation.

 

[den-the-coach]

We are about the same age, I so remember that, my mother used to buy them lol.

Funny and my mother instructed me to look away.

 

[Akrasian]

Going back years ago at a very young age being the Super Market check out line and chuckle at the tabloids and now everything is a tabloid.

When I was in grad school one of my friends appeared on the cover of the Weekly World News. All her students recognized her. She was the woman with taste buds on the bottom of her feet. https://books.google.com/books?id=G...te buds on her feet weekly world news&f=false

The WWN apparently had two photographers, one of them based in New Orleans.

 

[dang]

8/7/18 - the Day of Reckoning!

 

[Ladoc]

Great article that everyone should read. Very educated guess with the adjusted numbers from different high contracts with cap increase adjustments. So in bold are the numbers below 23.5 Million average etc....for full adjustments vs 20.025 Million natural increase from years past not keeping up with QB increases. Somewhere in between would be the battleground. These are what my quesses were. I didn't think the Rams could go much higher than 22 Million average. One thing he didn't mention is the franchise tag numbers which would favor the Rams.

Part of the article...........................................................................................................................

Challenges to reaching an agreement
Based on the information currently in the marketplace, the data suggests the following contract for Mack/Donald.

Average per year: $23.5 million
Overall guarantees: $85 million
Fully guaranteed: $67.5 million
Contract length: 6-year extension

The Raiders and Rams are surely more comfortable with a modest increase over Miller's contract instead of a drastic re-setting of the non-quarterback market. The suggested deal would be nearly 25 percent more than Miller's contract. The modest increase would be in line with the trends of becoming the highest-paid non-quarterback since the lockout. The average increase over the previous standard during the five times when a player has become the highest-paid non-quarterback under the existing CBA is slightly under five percent. The biggest jump was in 2014, when Suh raised the bar by almost 15 percent as he replaced Watt. Standard growth would put Mack/Donald at approximately $20.025 million per year. If my suspicions are in the same general ballpark as France and Segal's actual offers, bridging the gap won't be an easy task.

There are additional dynamics with Mack's situation that don't exist with Donald. Contract security could be just as much of a sticking point as the overall dollars in Mack's negotiations because of Carr's $70.2 million in overall guarantees and $40 million fully guaranteed at signing. Typically, the starting quarterback is a team's standard bearer in most contract metrics when he has a lucrative deal in place.

The Raiders are likely to become the first team in league history with a $20 million-per-year non-quarterback and a $25 million-per-year quarterback. The Rams aren't faced with this dilemma for at least another season. Quarterback Jared Goff, 2016's first-overall pick, is a bargain on his rookie contract. Under CBA rules, he isn't eligible for a new deal until the conclusion of the upcoming regular season. Goff's 2018 and 2019 cap numbers are slightly over $7.6 million and just under $8.9 million. His fifth-year option salary in 2020 could be in the $23 million neighborhood.

A lengthy holdout isn't as viable of an option for Donald as with Mack. Donald didn't earn a year of service of free agency, which is an accrued season in the CBA, due to last year's holdout. A player doesn't get the free-agency service time (i.e.; an accrued season) if he doesn't report to training camp at least 30 days prior to NFL's first regular-season game. It doesn't matter that Donald played 14 games last season, because he missed the reporting deadline. Since Donald has three accrued seasons when four are necessary to become an unrestricted free agent at the expiration of a contract, he really can't afford to miss out on another one. The reporting deadline this year is August 7. Donald would need to be committed to missing multiple regular-season games, if not the entire year, to get what he felt was an appropriate contract after this date.

If Donald missed this August 7 deadline and played out his rookie deal with a failed holdout, it would make him a restricted free agent in 2019. From a practical standpoint, the Rams would probably use a franchise tag on Donald anyway because the first-round pick compensation for restricted free agents wouldn't be enough to deter another team from signing a player of his magnitude to an offer sheet. Getting the year of service isn't a concern for a Mack holdout because he already has the necessary four accrued seasons to qualify for unrestricted free agency should be play out his contract.
See All Newsletters
Joel Corry
Former Sports Agent
FOLLOW
Joel Corry is a former sports agent who helped found Premier Sports & Entertainment, a sports management firm that represents professional athletes and coaches. Before his tenure at Premier, Joel worked... FULL BIO






NFL Training Camps

Well one of the most important pieces of this is what Aaron ends up with in California.. after assumes agents fee and federal and state taxes... 22 million a year ends up being about 8.9 million.. a lot of money of course but not as much as he may want. The agent may be exposed to same issues and trying to get as much as he can..!! ??