Quote:
Originally Posted by mister_mcgoo
Honestly I think your best argument is that NFL contracts are not really worth the paper they are printed on (at least not to me, I think telling someone you will pay them 10-20 mil a yr for 6 yrs means you pay them 10-20 mil for 6 years, you dont' say 'oops we changed our minds' after a year or two, that's not a contract IMO,that's ****ing bullshit. But yes, that is the way it works and that is a major concern with the NFL, but c'mon dude, 120 mil? I did forget about Brees contract fair enough, but my core point stands, do you put Flacco on par with Brees for talent? Hell no! Niot even close IMO... I don't, he's a solid middle of the pack QB who can push deep with ease (and that makes him a little more valuable), but he's nowhere close to the talent of Brees, Brady, Rodgers, even Eli Manning and Big Ben even at this point. If he proves otherwise then I'll reconsider but I still think that's far too much money to throw at a guy who had a ton of help
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I think you are underestimating him here but more importantly you aren't fully considering the situational factors.
Flacco is younger than all of those guys. He's also insanely durable. If you are going to invest this much money you are probably going to give it to the young guy who hasn't missed a start in his entire career. Now quarterbacks tend to age well so the age factor isn't huge but it is still of value especially if you are considering Flacco's place on this scale. The more experience he gains will only help him continue to bridge the gap between the above that he isn't already at par with.
Brees is supposedly a big injury risk, which is part of the reason the Saints played hardball with him in free agency and is the reason the Dolphins didn't sign him back in the day. Now we don't know what the doctor reports are so I can't pretend to say if the injury risk is real (only the Saints really know) but there are other things we can draw from the Brees situation. We know from that experience that playing hardball with a quarterback doesn't work.
Rodgers I already discussed earlier why he has been a bargain for the Packers and also that he's gonna get an even bigger deal than Flacco in like a year.
Brady just renegotiated his deal but was scheduled to make nearly $15 million over the next two seasons and that's on a deal he signed several years ago. He's now making less than that - especially in the three years they tacked on but he's in a position in his career where he can give his team a home town discount and he's also at a point where the Patriots should reasonably be looking to find his successor. Brady is 35 and has already made his money and is worth way more than Flacco because of his endorsements and the fact he's married to a freaking model. He doesn't need to accomplish anything. Flacco just finished his rookie deal that saw him make less than $ 7 million last year. He wasn't going to be taking any discount.
As for Big Ben and Eli well I just flat out disagree that those guys are actually better. Ben has been deteriorating from years of being one of the most hit quarterbacks in the league. Now he has actually just restructured his deal but he gets more in guaranteed money and it reduces his cap hold from a very similar number as what Flacco's will be.
And Eli is essentially Joe Flacco just a few years advanced. He signed a six year nearly $100 million deal back in 2009, just a year after winning his first Super Bowl as the same sort of "I received lots of help and am a mad gunman of a quarterback" way that Flacco just did. Well even after signing that deal Eli and the Giants were still able to win another Super Bowl. General inflation doesn't account for the approximately $25 million difference between the two contracts but NFL salary inflation over the past four years does.
