Guaranteed money... it's the key to our Free Agency success.

[Feverdream]

We've all been surprised by Grier's march through free agency this year, but maybe we shouldn't have been. Chris has continued his pattern of offering veteran players lower than market contracts, but contracts with larger than market guarantees.

His game seems to be based upon making a bet that a nervous player will sign for less, if he is guaranteed baseline money. It works more than it doesn't. Yes, some players (like OBJ) resist the temptation, but a lot of them sign on the dotted line.

Let's start with today's victim Teair Tart. He signed for what looks to be vet minimum (1.15m) but Grier guaranteed about half of it. So Tart gets paid whether he makes the team or not.

Here's a partial list:
Teair Tart-- 1.15m (but 567k guaranteed)
Benito Jones-- 1.8m (all guaranteed)
Jordan Poyer-- 2m (1m)
Kendall Lamm-- 2.5m (1.6m)
Jeff Wilson-- 2.4m (1.2m)
Braxton Berrios-- 2.1 (1.2)
Siran Neal-- 1.9m (650k)
Robert Jones-- 1.8m (1.2m)
Jack Driscoll-- 1.8m (900k)
Neville Gallimore-- 1.8m (all)
Jonathan Harris-- 1.8m (625k)
Isaiah Wynn-- 1.6m (1m)
Elijah Campbell-- 1.5m (355k)
Anthony Walker-- 1.2m (917k)

There are more, but I think y'all can see the pattern. Vet after vet taking chump change money because (at least partially) of a nice guarantee.

...and Grier has made the same moves with UDFAs after the draft, giving guys like Pili,
Kohou, and Bonner more signing bonus than most teams offer. Upfront money.

Yes, we'll eat some of this when some of these guys get cut, but I'll wager that we'll save more money than we'll lose here.

Now... I wonder how much we'll offer Lawson. Experience shows me about 2 million with about half of that guaranteed.

 

[Highzenga]

Money talks! Solid work by Grier

 

[MrChadRico]

We've all been surprised by Grier's march through free agency this year, but maybe we shouldn't have been. Chris has continued his pattern of offering veteran players lower than market contracts, but contracts with larger than market guarantees.

His game seems to be based upon making a bet that a nervous player will sign for less, if he is guaranteed baseline money. It works more than it doesn't. Yes, some players (like OBJ) resist the temptation, but a lot of them sign on the dotted line.

Let's start with today's victim Teair Tart. He signed for what looks to be vet minimum (1.15m) but Grier guaranteed about half of it. So Tart gets paid whether he makes the team or not.

Here's a partial list:
Teair Tart-- 1.15m (but 567k guaranteed)
Benito Jones-- 1.8m (all guaranteed)
Jordan Poyer-- 2m (1m)
Kendall Lamm-- 2.5m (1.6m)
Jeff Wilson-- 2.4m (1.2m)
Braxton Berrios-- 2.1 (1.2)
Siran Neal-- 1.9m (650k)
Robert Jones-- 1.8m (1.2m)
Jack Driscoll-- 1.8m (900k)
Neville Gallimore-- 1.8m (all)
Jonathan Harris-- 1.8m (625k)
Isaiah Wynn-- 1.6m (1m)
Elijah Campbell-- 1.5m (355k)
Anthony Walker-- 1.2m (917k)

There are more, but I think y'all can see the pattern. Vet after vet taking chump change money because (at least partially) of a nice guarantee.

...and Grier has made the same moves with UDFAs after the draft, giving guys like Pili,
Kohou, and Bonner more signing bonus than most teams offer. Upfront money.

Yes, we'll eat some of this when some of these guys get cut, but I'll wager that we'll save more money than we'll lose here.

Now... I wonder how much we'll offer Lawson. Experience shows me about 2 million with about half of that guaranteed.

Great post

 

[Ozfin]

Good post Fever.
Good way to pad out the roster to bring in better talent, especially if you have a solid core group of players and draft ok to continue building the team.

Be interesting if some one went thro the Pats in the Brady years and see if they used a similar tactic.
I know they did sign a few vets to cheaper than expected contracts but wonder if those deals where loaded with higher guaranteed money.

 

[Third Eye]

We've all been surprised by Grier's march through free agency this year, but maybe we shouldn't have been. Chris has continued his pattern of offering veteran players lower than market contracts, but contracts with larger than market guarantees.

His game seems to be based upon making a bet that a nervous player will sign for less, if he is guaranteed baseline money. It works more than it doesn't. Yes, some players (like OBJ) resist the temptation, but a lot of them sign on the dotted line.

Let's start with today's victim Teair Tart. He signed for what looks to be vet minimum (1.15m) but Grier guaranteed about half of it. So Tart gets paid whether he makes the team or not.

Here's a partial list:
Teair Tart-- 1.15m (but 567k guaranteed)
Benito Jones-- 1.8m (all guaranteed)
Jordan Poyer-- 2m (1m)
Kendall Lamm-- 2.5m (1.6m)
Jeff Wilson-- 2.4m (1.2m)
Braxton Berrios-- 2.1 (1.2)
Siran Neal-- 1.9m (650k)
Robert Jones-- 1.8m (1.2m)
Jack Driscoll-- 1.8m (900k)
Neville Gallimore-- 1.8m (all)
Jonathan Harris-- 1.8m (625k)
Isaiah Wynn-- 1.6m (1m)
Elijah Campbell-- 1.5m (355k)
Anthony Walker-- 1.2m (917k)

There are more, but I think y'all can see the pattern. Vet after vet taking chump change money because (at least partially) of a nice guarantee.

...and Grier has made the same moves with UDFAs after the draft, giving guys like Pili,
Kohou, and Bonner more signing bonus than most teams offer. Upfront money.

Yes, we'll eat some of this when some of these guys get cut, but I'll wager that we'll save more money than we'll lose here.

Now... I wonder how much we'll offer Lawson. Experience shows me about 2 million with about half of that guaranteed.

Some of these guys are in fact chumps taking chump change, let’s not forget this

 

[bradmcnutt13]

Doesn't hurt that we're #1 in the player survey either

 

[spiketex]

Some of these guys are in fact chumps taking chump change, let’s not forget this

But what he is doing is getting multiple veterans and setting it up for competition as starters and subsequent roster depth. We pay top $ only at a small number of key positions eg WR (Tyreek), pass rusher (Chubb), CB (Jalen Ramsey).

 

[Danny]

We've all been surprised by Grier's march through free agency this year, but maybe we shouldn't have been. Chris has continued his pattern of offering veteran players lower than market contracts, but contracts with larger than market guarantees.

His game seems to be based upon making a bet that a nervous player will sign for less, if he is guaranteed baseline money. It works more than it doesn't. Yes, some players (like OBJ) resist the temptation, but a lot of them sign on the dotted line.

Let's start with today's victim Teair Tart. He signed for what looks to be vet minimum (1.15m) but Grier guaranteed about half of it. So Tart gets paid whether he makes the team or not.

Here's a partial list:
Teair Tart-- 1.15m (but 567k guaranteed)
Benito Jones-- 1.8m (all guaranteed)
Jordan Poyer-- 2m (1m)
Kendall Lamm-- 2.5m (1.6m)
Jeff Wilson-- 2.4m (1.2m)
Braxton Berrios-- 2.1 (1.2)
Siran Neal-- 1.9m (650k)
Robert Jones-- 1.8m (1.2m)
Jack Driscoll-- 1.8m (900k)
Neville Gallimore-- 1.8m (all)
Jonathan Harris-- 1.8m (625k)
Isaiah Wynn-- 1.6m (1m)
Elijah Campbell-- 1.5m (355k)
Anthony Walker-- 1.2m (917k)

There are more, but I think y'all can see the pattern. Vet after vet taking chump change money because (at least partially) of a nice guarantee.

...and Grier has made the same moves with UDFAs after the draft, giving guys like Pili,
Kohou, and Bonner more signing bonus than most teams offer. Upfront money.

Yes, we'll eat some of this when some of these guys get cut, but I'll wager that we'll save more money than we'll lose here.

Now... I wonder how much we'll offer Lawson. Experience shows me about 2 million with about half of that guaranteed.

Hopefully not too much for Lawson......not sure if he'll be the same player or not

 

[tay0365]

We've all been surprised by Grier's march through free agency this year, but maybe we shouldn't have been. Chris has continued his pattern of offering veteran players lower than market contracts, but contracts with larger than market guarantees.

His game seems to be based upon making a bet that a nervous player will sign for less, if he is guaranteed baseline money. It works more than it doesn't. Yes, some players (like OBJ) resist the temptation, but a lot of them sign on the dotted line.

Let's start with today's victim Teair Tart. He signed for what looks to be vet minimum (1.15m) but Grier guaranteed about half of it. So Tart gets paid whether he makes the team or not.

Here's a partial list:
Teair Tart-- 1.15m (but 567k guaranteed)
Benito Jones-- 1.8m (all guaranteed)
Jordan Poyer-- 2m (1m)
Kendall Lamm-- 2.5m (1.6m)
Jeff Wilson-- 2.4m (1.2m)
Braxton Berrios-- 2.1 (1.2)
Siran Neal-- 1.9m (650k)
Robert Jones-- 1.8m (1.2m)
Jack Driscoll-- 1.8m (900k)
Neville Gallimore-- 1.8m (all)
Jonathan Harris-- 1.8m (625k)
Isaiah Wynn-- 1.6m (1m)
Elijah Campbell-- 1.5m (355k)
Anthony Walker-- 1.2m (917k)

There are more, but I think y'all can see the pattern. Vet after vet taking chump change money because (at least partially) of a nice guarantee.

...and Grier has made the same moves with UDFAs after the draft, giving guys like Pili,
Kohou, and Bonner more signing bonus than most teams offer. Upfront money.

Yes, we'll eat some of this when some of these guys get cut, but I'll wager that we'll save more money than we'll lose here.

Now... I wonder how much we'll offer Lawson. Experience shows me about 2 million with about half of that guaranteed.

That is very interesting, Great post.

Thanks Feverdream