Foster transitioned! (wow!)

You don't get compensation on the transition tag.

Ooops

 

Woops! you are correct sir. I think I got that part from an article and forgot to check it against the CBA. Good catch! I will edit my above.

 

I doubt they did this without the intention of Foster being our guy for the future. I just hope he can stay healthy.

 

Or, per Collin's scenario as I understand it, Foster will:
1) Not test the marketplace, being able to see from here that his market value is not that high, and
2) Sign the "stupid high tender" from the Panthers asap, knowing that no other stupid high contract is likely to materialize, and
3) Accept the risk that the Panthers will cut him before the season as a small price to pay for the one good opportunity he's likely to have to make $5+ million this year.

Either way, it appears to make sense for the team, if their real intention/hope is get someone better than Deshaun. By applying the transition tag, they know their worst-case is to have an overpaid Foster for this one year. But their actual plan may (must?) be to sign someone more durable and cut Deshaun (or pull the tag if he doesn't sign on right away), or negotiate a more reasonable long-term deal with him.

Meanwhile, did anyone pick up on the last line of that PFT report? What the heck does this mean:

 

I agree with this paragraph but let me say (to the "Collin scenario") there is NO WAY that Deshaun signs the tender right away; NONE. And he'd be absolutely idiot if he does. He wants to test the marketplace AND he wants a longterm deal. If he signs he's signaling the end of the talks for a longterm deal with the Panthers making it FAR more likely Carolina will turn around and hunt for his longterm replacement (either via free agent market or draft). Because he is injury prone and still somewhat suspect performance wise, he NEEDS a longterm deal structured like Morgan's to make it hard for the team to dump him in year two. No, Fosters latest injury and the strong free agent market has cost him millions. Right now the Panthers AND Foster have time (till July 15th) to come to a longterm deal set by what others are getting ("Foster, do you really think you deserve more than Jamal?") and by whose avaliable to replace him if he goes.

 

Pretty sure you're wrong about us having two, but it wouldn't matter anyway because Foster wasn't tagged by February 15th. And the downside is that we have to pay Foster $5 mil if we want to keep him and can't reach a contract, match a badly structured contract offered by some other team, or offer him an inflated deal because he could settle for $5 mil this season if he wanted to. I wouldn't have given him more than $5 million per every two seasons, but now we're going to have to offer substantially more than that to keep from having him just play under the transition tag or lose him altogether. Basically it's like having some idiot team give a mediocre pitcher $10 million a year, except we're doing it to ourselves. We basically ruled out the possibility of keeping Foster for a reasonable price.

Moreover, it makes me wonder about whether or not we think DeShaun actually wants to be here. Why would we need the transition tag if we thought he would take an equal contract from us instead of some other team?

 

IMO, DF isn't dying to be here. He's got that Fred Couples type personality, rife with indifference. He's never publicly trashed us, but he hasn't exactly forged into one of the die-harders (Minter, Davis, etc.)

He's a WC guy. I am sure he wouldn't mind strapping it on in San Fran or Arizona, in spite of obvious red-flags. He just doesn't seem to care. Helluva talent. Adds a nice dimension to the O. Should run lower, and perhaps that will improve. I know that Fox has publicy beamed over Foster--his attitude, work ethic, patience.

Maybe it will work out. Maybe it won't. One way or another, it's going down.

 

Yeah, he beams over Morgan too. Honestly I think Hurney's lack of knowledge is really hurting the team. He's a cap guy, so he constructs contracts that are as friendly as possible, but he obviously has no idea which players are actually any good and therefore he is easily swayed by Fox's emotional opinions. They need a third head in the front office to be more forceful when it comes to pro personnel, and stop giving out truckloads of cash to guys Fox "likes."

 

Perhaps you should forward them your resume.

 

to be fair, Hurney loves Foster. JR loves Foster. I'm sure he's awful fucking likeable, but you don't pay based on that. But I'd say it's consensus that the team wanted him, and that's fine. I think that a reasonable contract is very doable, but having franchised him, it sets a value on how much they feel he's worth. A highly unrealistic value at that.

But we set the bar very high for our own guys. Back in the day, we signed Rucker to a deal that was reasonable then, and is reasonable now. Jenkins, at the time, was a bargain, and still would be if he were simply playing and taking up doubleteams. Then we paid heavily for Smitty and Delhomme, which the only problem I had there was bonuses for each - when you have a $7 mil a year average contract, you have to make room for the ability to restructure a couple times. We didn't, on either.

And then we simply overpaid to keep John Kasay, Todd Sauerbrun, and Mike Minter. Then we overpaid for Morgan. We'd probably have paid Witherspoon as much as Morgan (and who's to say we don't). We're on course to pay Foster a truckload to be a guy who'll be a part-time back again in a couple years, if not sooner.


And that's the frightening part.
Because I like Deshaun, too. I like that he can create things. I like that he makes us be more diverse and creative on offense when he's in - that we throw to more than just a WR, that we run more than dive plays or power sweeps. While this offense is built for a bull back, in theory, it really looks for this type guy - the slashing "create something out of a blank page" runner. Foster's style doesn't bother me at all.
The fumbles don't even bother me. They're a non-issue.

It's just the staying on the field. And guys traditionally don't get better with more exposure, they tend to stay just as injured.