I wonder if they've ever considered combining a partially guaranteed salary with an insurance policy against injuries resulting in loss of playing time. The player still gets his money, but his non-playing salary is paid by the policy and doesn't count against the cap.

I cant give you the legal text, but I think thats not going to work. I believe the bonus money promised is fully funded. Like a trust fund.

The Haslams are idiots. They have made a terrible deal with Watson. They have made a sex predator their biggest liability. And that big ass contract will prevent them from trading him. Now they have set the bar for every other owner, this is what all other Qbs are going to demand.

The crazy part of this is that Running Qbs have a very short careers. In the last 30 years the best Qbs, with long playing careers have been the ones stay in the pocket and distribute the ball. Manning, Brees, and that cheater from NE.

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...eed-contracts/

Jim Irsay on Lamar Jackson: Money not a problem, I don’t like fully guaranteed contracts
Posted by Michael David Smith on March 28, 2023, 7:33 AM EDT

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The money free agent quarterback Lamar Jackson is asking for is not too much for the Colts. But the guarantees on his contract might be.

That’s the word from Colts owner Jim Irsay, who told reporters that the Colts are willing to pay Jackson a lot, but not to give him a fully guaranteed contract.



Irsay told Stephen Holder of ESPN that “the money is not a problem,” but Irsay also told Zak Keefer of TheAthletic.com that “I do not believe in fully-guaranteed contracts.”

The precise nature of Jackson’s demands is not known, but the fully guaranteed five-year, $230 million contract that Deshaun Watson got from the Browns a year ago is believed to be in the neighborhood of what Jackson wants.

Irsay also indicated that the draft pick compensation the Colts would have to give the Ravens might be too much. If the Colts signed Jackson to an offer sheet and the Ravens didn’t match it, the Colts would get Jackson and the Ravens would get the Colts’ next two first-round draft picks. It’s also possible that the Colts and Ravens could agree to some other form of compensation, but the Ravens would surely demand a significant trade offer.

And so the Colts don’t seem to be close to landing Jackson. But at a time when most of the league is oddly uninterested in a 26-year-old former NFL MVP, Irsay is at least willing to consider making an offer.

The Colts would win the division with Jackson....I don't know, it is tempting. Not sure our defense is good enough to win the AFC, even with Jackson?

This must not be allowed to happen in the NFL. Cleveland made a stupid decision, and if the rest of the NFL teams have to collude in order to prevent it from ever happening again, so be it. The Cincinnati Reds are paying Ken Griffey Jr. $3.5M this year (their 4th most expensive contract) and he retired in 2008. The Mets are still paying Bobby Bonilla $1.2M per year until 2035, when he'll be 72 years old! He retired in 2001! Different sports, but guaranteed contracts in the NFL are a disaster waiting to happen. Let the Browns wallow in their continued stupidity...for years to come. We don't need that in Indianapolis.

When those deals where made the capitol gains tax would have gutted those deals. When Bonilla saw the suggested payment plan, and tax savings he demanded a pen and signed it. He got more money over time. Whats $3 million a year to MLB?

Guaranteed contracts are here to stay and I say great. Player have been fucked by owners forever. Everything is a gamble anyway. You take AR (my personal choice) and it doesn’t work out it sets you back almost as much as Lamar. I’d rather root for a young kid and watch him try to develop and keep them draft picks.

I would also like to roll with a rookie, the cost (cap and draft capital) is too much for lamar.

I think someone mentioned insurance for players. I think something like that needs implemented. I agree with you on players being screwed over, but full guaranteed contracts like that can also screw a team in such a violent game where injuries are commonplace. If a player is injured then he still gets paid with insurance, but it comes from a different pot that doesnt cap restrict the team. There would need to be all sorts of details/provisions/etc worked out for something like though.

I don't see how you make them work in the NFL. More than any other league, the salary cap governs the competitive parity. It's not so much a principled position about a guy being worth X-amount of dollars. It just fucks with one of the main elements that keeps the NFL as competitive as it is.

These kinds of contracts make comparable sense to giving a rookie Sam Bradford or Matthew Stafford $70m+ contracts with a ~$120m cap before they ever played a down.

They ended that shit, hopefully they end this before it starts.

I totally agree that guaranteed contracts in the NFL will be a huge problem, I just see it as inevitable. Mitigating the risk somehow makes incredible sense. Hence I believe it won’t happen anytime soon.