I feel that Bobby will be there too when it's time to go to work and the Seahawks will be ther better for it because they have an increased chance to evaluate their young four receivers.
The Seahawks need to be able to decide by the time they've been in training camp for a week or so which of the four or if all four receivers have earned a spot on the final roster. Saying yes to all four means they're pretty much done looking at receivers and the WR lineup is set. No means start looking.
Not being sure about all four or having other guys play their way into contention like Gessner or some one else picked up before TC starts will slow the Seahawks down once TC starts if they have to spend too much time on evaluation instead of teaching and preparing for the regular season.
Having increased time to do evaluation in minicamps with these players getting reps with quality players surrounding them from the 1st and 2nd teams gives the players a chance see if they can perform at a high level amd the coaches a chance to evaluate. All of Bobby's time goes to the new guys so they get every chance to impress.
By training camp, a lot of the decisions will be able to be made quickly after a little real football played in pads with real defensive backs defending to confirm impressions. If Engram stays out all summer, we get a great chance to get ahead of the curve in these evaluations.
I like to look on the bright side of things. I also believe that you can defeat yourself before you start an endeavor if you don't believe you can do it. I believe that Engram's absence can work in the Seahawk's and the four young receiver's favor.
Nice way to look at the receiver situation but I still think the Hawks should at least give Bobby a little bit of a payday. I mean the guy has been the most solid receiver in this offense for years now.
Good work Mike.
jeremy,
I posted a few threads back about how players really need to decide on a performance based contract with low guarantees and high payoffs for actual performance which most GM's would certainly endorse, or a good guaranteed contract with up front money and whichever way the ball bounces, he gets paid.
Engram chose the latter. A guaranteed contract and consequently was overpaid for the season where he missed 9 games with a thyroid condition and was underpaid for the next season (2007) when he set all his personal records. He was paid according to his contract and one year was good for Bobby and the other good for the Seahawks.
In my opinion, Engram made a mistake by calling attention from every quarter to his request and has made it impossible for the club to honor his request. Hasslebeck has certainly overplayed his contract as did many of the younger players still working on their first contracts where they are vastly underpaid in relation to other players at their position who have been through free agency after playing out those first contracts and received market value for their services on their second contract.
If the Seahawks decide to give in to Bobby's demands then they have to re-elvaluate everyone's contract where the player performed better than he was paid and you just can't afford to set that precedent. It would bankrupt the game. Teams depend on having that 4 or 5 years of service from drafted players at a much reduced rate from what they will be paying later in a players career where they will pay market value for their services. Imagine if every player who played well after their first or second year came back and wanted to tear up their contract at that point and go to a market value contract.
You negotiate a contract based on your performance to date and then you live with it. If you overplay the contract consistently, next time you negotiate a contract you can get a better one because of your play. Everything like past performance, age, injury factors, and in some oprganizatioons like the Seahawks, character goes into the equation. Bobby is coming behind a ling line of players over the years who have felt that they didn't receive a contract worth what their performance indicated they should have been compensated for. He won't be the last. He also won't be successful for the reasons stated above.
It's a bit like getting a job as a salesman. If you think you're going to be damned good at it and can sell way above quota, you negotiate a commission based contract where you get rewwarded for making above average sales and the more you sell, the more you earn. If you aren't sure how well you'll do and want the security of being able to feed your family even if you don't sell well, you go for a salary that pays you a steady wage which you can count on regardless of your performance. That kind of cantract also protects you if you get sick and can't sell for awhile. Perfect analogy.
Most football players want that up front guaranteeed bonus money. Few are willing to take less at the top of a contract and have performance incentives written into the contract that could pay big dividends if reached. Football is too uncertain when you factor in possible injury and the fact that no one player can take over the game like a basketball player can for example. You need your teammates to play well to for you to be able to meet those big performance incentives. That's why players always go for the big bucks up front.
The player's agent also wants those dollars up front so they can get their payday now and not have to sweat out a player making incentives to get paid big. The player would have to have a hugh amount of confidence in himself and be able to convince his agent to wait for his money too to sign a performance laden contract. I can't remember a player in recent history who signed a low guaranteed, low salary contract with big time incentives built in.
No team is going to let a player use hindsight to back write those performance guarantees into his contract either because every player who feels they've overplayed what they were paid under the contract they signed would demand to be paid more after the fact. How would Bobby have responded if the Seahawks would have asked him to pay a million dollars back to them because he didn't play those nine games a couple of years ago when his thyroid was acting up?
If Bobby had gone quietly to the Seahawks and made his request known only to Ruskell and whoever had to know, they might have been able to make some addendum to his contract to quietly give him a little extra money for having an outstanding year or made a 1 year extension that would have included a very easy to reach incentive for extra money in compensation for his meritorious service so that it didn't trigger a mass rush from every player who felt he was due more money because of outplaying his contract. Bobby made a big splash and involved the media. The Seahawks predicibly threw out the anchor.
Bobby needs to come in and make a statement with his play this year and give the Seahawks something by which to justify a bonus on a new contract next year and everyone saves face and everyone gets what they want. If he fights them, he loses. That's the way of the NFL for a long time now.
This thing changed my userid again to William Tomisser from BillT. What gives?
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