Bears 'optimistic' Roquan Smith will be in camp soon

Hmm....

Trying to figure this out. You clearly like football. So you must like the "product".

That product is produced by a business. A "for profit" business.

So why are you opposed to owners continuing to manage their business in a manner that has produced a great, and successful product - that even you like?

In my book, I think the players are doing just fine. And if they weren't, they would find something else to do and the product would suffer. Why unnecessarily tip the balance?

With that said, this is a guy who has contributed literally ZERO to the NFL. He's not owed anything more than fair market for his draft position. his agent is a dick and trying to squeeze the organization.

I'd love to see everyone happy and a deal get done. But right now, he's missing valuable practice and that WILL hurt the team. So fuck him.

 

Hmm....

Trying to figure this out. You clearly like football. So you must like the "product".

That product is produced by a business. A "for profit" business.

So why are you opposed to continuing to manage their business in a manner that has produced a great, and successful product?

In my book, I think the players are doing just fine. And if they weren't, they would find something else to do and the product would suffer. Why unnecessarily tip the balance?

With that said, this is a guy who has contributed literally ZERO to the NFL. He's not owed anything more than fair market for his draft position. his agent is a dick and trying to squeeze the organization.

I'd love to see everyone happy and a deal get done. But right now, he's missing valuable practice and that WILL hurt the team. So fuck him.

 

I’m not fully opposed but I’d fully stand for the players to “get theirs” because it’s a “user situation”. Gold digging? Call it what you want, but the players put their well-being on the line and if a player feels he’s getting fucked... it’s probably true, especially in the “business sense”, considering this is your angle and the vehicle you want to drive in this debate.

 

How does a draft pick get to believe he's "getting fucked" when he knows exactly what the player drafted before him got, and the player after him?

If his number falls in between those two, he's getting fair market value for his draft pick number.

Now, if the Bears offered him what the 31st player picked got, hell yes. He should hold out. But that's not what this is about.

His lawyer... aka agent, is having him hold out for more. It may get him a couple hundo K more. But he's never going to get a better deal than the guy drafted before him.

Here's what the first rounders signed for:

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/draft/

 

Smith isn’t holding out for more money Mongo. He is holding out for the sake of keeping the money he signs the contract for. They could take away his guaranteed money because of what he does on the field.

 

Has that actually been reported or is that an assumption?

With that said, it is still a "value" that may be being negotiated.

If it is a value to him, it is a value to everyone who signed before and after.

So if the player before him and after got it, he has a leg to stand on. If he did not, it is not a fair value based on his draft position.

In that regard, he is still missing valuable practice with the team and there is zero doubt that hurts his value to the team.

Again, my position is that if he was offered a fair market value based on his draft position, and he is holding out, fuck him.

 

It’s the new helmet rules

 

Fair market value is based on numbers. The sticking point is a poison pill based on his ability to not commit a penalty that was just written a couple of months ago and no one in the league knows how it will be implemented. IF he gets penalized for this new rule, all of his guarantees in his contract (Guarantees that every other player in the draft has, without the poison pill) disappear.

I can certainly see his point, if everything being reported is accurate.

And before you go saying "you can't listen to what's being reported", you are making a bigger assumption than any of us are, as no one has stated it's about fair market value...no one.

 

The new helmet rules are to PROTECT the players and in effect protect the owners investment. If the hold up in Smith’s contract is over the team being able to recoup guaranteed money do to suspension I am sure the team is talking about drug, PED’s or beating your girl suspensions. Not getting suspended a game for bad tackling. The agent I am sure will try to use the new rules to try and avoided d such language in the deal. After all it’s a hot button topic.

 

That actually makes a lot of sense...I could see that being the case. What is being reported isn't always accurate, I get that. But, in this case, it is being reported that there is specific language concerning the helmet rule.

 

One thing is for sure, this idiot Roquan Smith isn't making any fans in Chicago.

 

The longer he's out the better chance he pulls a hammy first week he shows up .

 

I can’t find anything being reported that says the hold up has to do with the new helmet rules. I have read that a POSSIBLE holdup is language pertaining to guaranteed money being voided if the player is cut before the contract is fulfilled.

Now we all know that you can’t just cut a player for poor performance or injury and be able to void any of the guaranteed money. So that leaves you with off the field behavior like getting arrested, failing drug tests and what not. I would imagine that this type of language is common in NFL contracts these days. I could also see how an asshole agent would try to use the possible suspension due to the new tackling rules, as a reason to try and remove ANY type of suspension language from a deal. Now if it is proven that the Bears were attempting to write in language pertaining to the new rules before a single game has been played with those new rules and use their first round pick as the guinea pig I need to find a new favorite team.

The article that was posted earlier in this thread made a feeble attempt theorizing how the new helmet rule could be a hiccup in contract negotiations because Smith is a linebacker who is expected to make a lot of tackles. Come on Man!

 

Oops.

https://www.thescore.com/nfl/news/1576405Bears rookie Roquan Smith unsigned due to helmet rule concerns

https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports...th-hung-up-helmet-rule-contract-language/amp/

 

I just read this:

The National Football League's new rules concerning players lowering their helmets to initiate a tackle have been giving teams a great deal of trouble throughout the offseason, as it presents yet another handicap for defensive players across the league. The Chicago Bears are finding that the new rule is not only forcing them to adjust as they prepare for the season in training camp, but that it is also affecting their negotiations with their prized rookie.

According to a report by Patrick Finley of the Chicago Sun-Times, the hangup in contract negotiations for Bears linebacker and first-round draft pick Roquan Smith has partially to do with the NFL's new helmet-lowering rules. According to Bears head coach Matt Nagy, "part of the issue" is that Smith is seeking financial protections should he end up being ejected from a game or suspended due to violating the rule.

Nagy declined to go into further detail concerning negotiations out of respect to both Smith and the Bears organization. He did note, however, that the chief issue in negotiations is contract language concerning hypothetical situations such as the aforementioned discipline for violating the new rules.

"For both sides, it’s more of a language deal, a language-type deal," said Nagy. "Again, for me, as a first-year head coach going through this, my thing is just collaborating with (general manager) Ryan (Pace) and what they have going on with the agent and making sure that we understand, together, I need to as a head coach just continue to keep plugging away with what we have and who we have. We’ll eventually get (Smith's contract) figured out."

As the Bears have gone a week into their training camp, Smith has been staying away from the team as he seeks to get his contract done. He is only one of two rookies in the league to have not signed his contract, the other being New York Jets quarterback Sam Darnold, who was the third-overall pick in the draft.

As Smith has held out, the rookie linebacker with high expectations has faced more scrutiny. Former Bears coach Dave Wannstedt, who presided over a rookie holdout of his own by Curtis Enis in 1998, insisted this week that Smith needs to stand up to his agent.


Smith was a Consensus All-American with the Georgia Bulldogs, winning both SEC Defensive Player of the Year and the Butkus Award for the 2017 season.

 

I stand corrected. I will note that this news broke today and I hadn’t seen or heard Nagy’s comments before I posted. And since his comments every sports news outlet is posting a story. That being said It would seem that the Bears are not the ones looking to put specific language pertaining to the new helmet rule in the contract but Smiths representation trying to get specific language put in to protect Smith in the case he gets suspended by the league for an infraction.

Supposedly the Bears did give Smith assurances that they would not automatically recoup money from him for a suspension due to an on field illegal hit giving Travathans suspension last season in which the Bears did not fine him as an example.

Media is eating this up right now gonna get interesting.

 

Thank you

 

Great, we spent the #8 pick on a drama queen.

 

I don’t blame him. Who would want to risk hundreds of thousands on an obscure, inexact, and completely arbritray brand new “rule”?

 

In the end, it seems as though it does boil down to a financial dispute in the contract.

Smith wants the Bears to act as his insurance policy should he break the rules and is fined or suspended. Now, I get why he's trying, I get that there is vagueness to the rules. But it still comes down to fair market. Neither of the defensive players drafted before him go this in their contract, and none of the players drafted after got an exclusion to this language either.

The irony here is that the Bears are actively working with their defensive players in camp to coach them on the rule. And he's not there getting that experience and practice.