Friday, April 17, 2009

NetRat 2009 First Round Contracts

When you hear people talking about the contract for the first pick, many refer to 6 year deals worth X (I'm looking at you Peter King), etc. Following is a short list related to the overall contracts that are likely, and specifically the #1 overall. Very good information.

1. Every single first rounder can have a contract no more then 5 years long. No 6 year contracts allowed this year.

2. Last year and every year before the QB got a bigger contract then those around him. Look at #3 and #18 from last year.

3. The salary cap per team went up nearly 10% from last year.

4. Agents will attempt to get the equivalent contract from last year's slot plus 10%, the amount of the cap increase from last year.

5. A QB will get more then any other position.

6. The #1 pick will be around $74 mill in total for 5 years and around $35 mill guaranteed if it's a QB. It will be around $62 mill for 5 years with around $32 mill guaranteed if it's not a QB. These amounts are estimates.

7. The Lions do not need the player to actually sign the contract before the draft, just agree to the terms.

The last point is very important, as it allows the Lions to trade the pick, and yet not take a huge cap hit for having already signed the player, while still allowing them to, in essence, have the player signed. Will they pull a San Diego - New York trade ala Manning for Rivers and Picks?? We can only hope, since Sand Diego ended up with Rivers, Merriman, and their kicker...

10 comments:

CHIEFGER139 said...

IM
NOW THINKING just take stafford, he seems like a good kid and will become the face of the franshise, he looks like he has all kinds of tallant and they can build from there. I would just get him I think he will at lest be a mid-level qb and has the potential to be a great qb-he may actually put us on the map for a change like farve did the pack. look at what labron james has did for clevland in basketball, i think stafford could do this for us. If i thought we were even close to a playoff team id be targeting certain positions-were not-so lets get the most important piece of the puzzle-the qb!! signed the wize chief!!

Anonymous said...

no way... pass on stafford next years QB corp will be much better (namely Bradford) and we will have a high pick and then grab bradford. I was hoping he would come out this year bc he's better than stafford in my eyes but he didn't

Lambo

PS
Detfan... how does next years draft effect this one? with a guy like Bradford coming out next season I think he is a much better fit would that play into any decision here?

Isphet said...

What the Lions need more than ANYTHING is to draft a 1st rounder that stays on the team for more than 3 years. Curry is that guy, barring injury.

Mark in AZ said...

Ok I said when I got a chance to go into depth on why Curry is first choice I would so here it goes.

I know the smoke is blowing hard in Motown on who is going to be picked first overall so what I did is to look into how things are said and worded I have not seen many press conferences to see body language of Mayhew or Schwartz so this is just what I see happening and why from a words stand point only.

The first press conference that Jim Schwartz had was to say that the Lions needed to replace Bobby Layne (Smoke screen) to have everyone to believe Stafford was the guy. I feel this was to create a trade option which would have happened if the combine worked they way it should have what I mean by that last line is Stafford, A. Smith and Crabtree had either a bad showing, got hurt or did participate so that hurt the trade out option but, still a slim possibility. Now on to the next press conference the hiring of Jim Schwartz and what was said. Both Mayhew and Schwartz said they had many holes to fill and they needed to stop the run and run the football. That statement is so true on both sides of the ball but, to a degree to the offense if you look at the numbers last year they were poor but, picked up at the end of the year especially on the right side where Gosder and Pearman started the last few games. Just from a note of yards per carry at 4.1 from Smith and that mostly came from the last few games of the year that’s not bad at all. The left had trouble no doubt and needs to get better and with the signing of Loper I think that happened does it still need addressing yes but, when? So an OT is still possible at #1, #20 or #33 at what point?

So onto stopping the run how bad is our Dline right now? We don’t really know the reason why we have Avril, Fluellen and 5’O they have not played much but, when they did they did good job Avril especially. They are putting on weight so I see that as wait and see. The LB corps got so much better with the Peterson trade so that helps but other that line what helps stop the run? That’s right MLB which we don’t have one and have not had one since #54. We need to upgrade that position now. If you see how things have been worded with Mayhew and talking of Stafford he’s not a Curry with a slight smile that tells me it’s Curry. Most of the pressers have a hint of Curry to them smoke? Not sure. Look at some of the best run stopping Defenses around the Bears, Ravens, Pittsburg and Giants also Miami a few years back they have a strong line but a very good to great MLB. A MLB can be the face of the franchise just look at the Ravens-Lewis, Bears- Urlacker, not now but 3 years ago Miami-Thomas, so on so fourth.

We know the QB position is the most important position on the team and we need to upgrade but, with Mayhew wanting C Pepper last year and bring him in than bring in Linehan this year I see it as C. Pepper is the guy for right now. I don’t seeing a #1 pick QB starting out of the gate and I don’t see him sitting on the pine as well. I’m not saying we don’t draft one this year I see that at #20 with Freeman. Also with so may holes we have and what the Offense did last year I know not great numbers 3299 passing yards 18 TD’s and 1332 rushing yards and 10 TD’s could we improve yes but, that’s not the weakness.

So with the adds that we made and the weakness that we have which is Defense and as I see it us picking in the top ten next year (I hope not) but, that’s how I see it with better QB prospects next year as well also with Mayhew and Schwartz saying stop the run and run the ball I just don’t see QB at #1 this year. Now I’m going to get hammered on the better prospects next year bit so I will address it now. Question is why did Stafford wait till Bradford and McCoy declared to stay in school for there SR year before he declared for the draft? My thought is if Bradford and McCoy would of declared for the draft he would of stayed in school due to the fact he would have been a late 1st or 2nd round pick so that’s why he came out just look at his numbers their really no better than Statons.


So my pick is Curry. Possibly Smith but still see a trade down happening.

LionWing19

Mark in AZ said...

Opps forgot one thing the other reason I feel Curry is the guy. I sell cars and the one thing we are taught is ask this questions to all customers is this you first stop at a dealership. Why this is a key piece of info is if yes this is the place they want to do business or the type of car they want to buy. The reason why is no body likes to shop and you know what you want. So with that and the first agent that came into Detroit is Curry's agent I see he's first now if they sign him or not his their guy.

LionWing19

Team Widowmaker said...

I haven't posted in awhile. Still a daily reader though, great work all of you through this past month. I've had too much anticipation pent up and have just been trying to read, read, gobble up info, and read some more on everything I can before Saturday. The anticipation of what we will do is killing me and I love being able to come here daily and find great articles by Josh followed by great comments.

Just my two cent conspiracy theory here that some of you will like and I wanted to drop for fun:
I noticed the other day in Birkett's blog that he was mentioning some of the number changes. Coincidence that Alex Lewis all of a sudden switched from number 59 to number 52?? You all know whose college number is 59. Ha ha just thought I'd let you all stew....

I'm sure you'll see it soon enough but also Killers latest today saying he believes the pick will be Curry:
http://www.mlive.com/lions/index.ssf/2009/04/after_watching_minicamp_lions.html

Team Widowmaker said...

Julian Peterson is wearing 59, cancel that one. =(

Anonymous said...

so apparently the defense is in MUCH worse shape than i first thought. i'm now on the curry wagon and i think we need to use at least 6 of our picks on defense starting with curry at #1. hopefully we'll be able to trade back from 20 and/or 33 so we can get more picks too.

Isphet said...

The Lions' defense was historically bad last year, and so far all they have done this offseason is dump Redding and pick up some backups.

Killer's reporting on Mlive that the defense looked horrific in practice the last 4 days.

The Lions' offense is a huge question mark heading into the year. We don't know if it's going to be good, or bad. But; the Defense is no question mark. We know it's going to be historically awful once again without a whole lot of help from the draft. That's the main reason I want to see the Lions draft defense first, and Curry is the highest rated player on the board, so....

Oh, and J.P. already said that he would play as the Mic if the Lions want him to. Could leave Curry outside at first until he learns the mic and have Curry and J.P. switch when(if) Curry looks like he can handle the Mic position.

Or the Lions could play a 3-4 with Sims, Curry, Lenon, and Peterson. Everyone keeps forgetting Lenon, but he had a lot of tackled last year and still is a serviceable LB.

Isphet said...

OK, I was being super lazy by saying the Lions hadn't picked up any defensive players, because they have. But they still have a ton of holes and are especially pathetic up the middle where they have no good interior lineman and no MLB to speak of.