The-Hogs.net - Washington Football Discussion, Redskins to Commanders Era

Fanforever wrote:We took Portis off Denver's hands because he was an unhappy camper with his origional contract, came here and received a sizable new one. My contention has been and will always remain, if you sign it play for it.

Steve Spurrier III wrote:

Fanforever wrote:We took Portis off Denver's hands because he was an unhappy camper with his origional contract, came here and received a sizable new one. My contention has been and will always remain, if you sign it play for it.

To be fair to Clinton Portis, he was being vastly underpaid with the Broncos. If I recall correctly, he was making 560K a year. That's practically nothing in the NFL. Portis had established himself as a premier NFL runningback, and he deserved to be rewarded for it.

To draw a parrallel, when Joe Gibbs first signed with the Washington Redskins, his contract was one of the smallest in the NFL. When it became clear that he was one of the top coaches in the league, Jack Kent Cooke didn't tell Gibbs to go screw himself, but instead rewarded him with a new contract. By the end of his tenure with the Redskins, Gibbs was one of the highest paid coaches in the league. I believe that is the proper way to run an organization, by rewarding those who have excelled.

Now don't get me wrong, this does not apply to everyone. A guy like Sean Taylor is not being underpaid. He signed a contract one year ago after being drafted number 5 overall. He is not making chump change, and does not deserve a new contract. But I don't think it is fair to label all players who request a new contract as malcontents. Sometimes players do deserve new deals...

NO NEW DEAL FOR TAYLOR

A year ago, the Redskins passed on Miami tight end Kellen Winslow due in part to their history of bad experiences with his agents, Carl and Kevin Poston. Several months before the 2004 draft, the Postons claimed that the 'Skins deftly had removed a $6.5 million roster bonus from the final draft of linebacker LaVar Arrington's contract extension, which for reasons we'll never quite comprehend the agents didn't read.

So the 'Skins instead selected Miami safety Sean Taylor with the fifth overall pick. Winslow was drafted by the Browns with the sixth selection.

Taylor had hired agent Drew Rosenhaus before the draft, but then oddly fired him in the days thereafter. Taylor then signed with Eugene Mato and Jeff Moorard, who negotiated a contract with the 'Skins before Kellen Winslow had signed his deal with the Browns.



But when Winslow's deal ended up being comparable to if not better than Taylor's, Sean sacked Moorad and Mato and returned to Rosenhaus, who since then has been hoping to land Taylor a contract that reflects more favorably Taylor's self-perceived value.

Even though Taylor is now staying away from the Redskins' involuntary voluntary workouts in an effort to display his displeasure with his deal, we're hearing that the Redskins simply will not renegotiate the contract. Period.

In hindsight, by the way, Taylor ended up doing a lot better than Winslow, since the Postons' failed to drop that huge minimum play-time incentive bonus into years other than 2005, when a broken leg kept Winslow from bagging the money.


Regardless of the value of Winslow's deal, Taylor really doesn't have much leverage here, given that he'll only jeopardize his signing bonus if he at some point extends his boycott of involuntary voluntary workouts into the realm of the truly involuntary sessions.