Bailey: peerless defender ~ ~ ~

[kelly]

> http://www.timesdispatch.com/sports/redskins/MGBSEL29NKD.html

[Spence]

Thanks, Kelly. The signing bonus for Champ has gotten blown out of proportion. Champ is still a very young man. His signing bonus can be huge without a problem for the same reason Laveranues Coles could get a huge signing bonus: Youth. Since signing bonuses are prorated over the length of a contract, giving a player a big signing bonus is only a problem if he doesn't play anywhere nearly as long as his contract is supposed to last. A good example of this is Deion Sanders. The Redskins gave him an $8 million bonus and he played just one year. Disaster. But Coles will play for longer than seven more years, which is the length of his contract. [Injuries permitting.] The same is true of Champ. Why not give Champ a $16-17 million bonus over an eight-year contract? He'll play eight years! [Again, injuries permitting.] The reason the Redskins got into trouble in 2000 was giving big bonuses to old guys with little or nothing left in the tank. [Not just Deion, but Mark Carrier comes to mind, too.] Coles has plenty left in his tank; he's just getting started. The same is true of Champ.

[RichardBradley]

give him what he wants... Make Champ happy

[SkinsKY]

he makes the game completely different just by being there. No one wants to test him. We need to pay the man and show we want him.

[Seebs]

SHOW HIM THE MONEY!!!!

[bigcmr]

Pay him he is the best CB in the NFL.

[GolfFreak]

Since only the signing bonus is guaranteed, why not give him a very large bonus and then only the vet. min salary? Maybe add some incentives to the contract to keep him motivated in the later years, but I don't see why a player wouldn't want this deal.

[SkinsKY]

Originally posted by benjamce
Since only the signing bonus is guaranteed, why not give him a very large bonus and then only the vet. min salary? Maybe add some incentives to the contract to keep him motivated in the later years, but I don't see why a player wouldn't want this deal.

We can't give him too larage of a signing bonus because if something goes wrong and he leaves our roster, we take a huge cap hit. That limits the signing bonus and he wants a deal that averages 6-7mil, so we can't offer him a $35mil signing bonus to keep him close to league minimum in salary. Can you imagine potential cap hits? we could hardly field a team, and definitely not any of our core players. The only way to increase the value of the deal is to increase the salary. Players want to get paid more than that first year, and incentives are less guaranteed than base salary. This deal wouldn't happen because it doesn't make good sense.