WT: Bailey wants a big deal

[bubba9497]

Bailey wants a big deal

http://www.washtimes.com/sports/20030805-115856-9688r.htm

By Mark Zuckerman

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Like most cornerbacks in the NFL, Champ Bailey is confident.

When Bailey says he's the best corner in the league, he is sincere. When he says he's one of the top two or three defensive players, regardless of position, he truly believes it.

So when Bailey says he expects his next contract with the Washington Redskins to treat him as such, he means it.

"Whatever I ask for, they're probably not going to give it to me," Bailey said with a sly grin. "I don't even know what [my first offer] is yet. It's probably going to be something they look at and go, 'Wow,' but I know I'm worth it. I'm not going to ask for anything I'm not worth."

The Redskins soon will find out just what Bailey's contract extension demands are. Agent Jack Reale was supposed to meet with club officials in the next few days, but NFL sources said the initial meeting was pushed back to sometime around

Washington's Aug. 16 home exhibition opener against New England.

Once negotiations commence, both sides expect to talk about the kind of numbers only a handful of players have seen.

"I feel like I'm the No. 1 corner now," Bailey said. "So I should be paid as one of the top two or three defensive players in the league."

The Redskins aren't commenting on Bailey's situation, but if he gets what he wants, the 25-year-old will find himself in the company of a pair of well-paid players: Baltimore's Ray Lewis and Chicago's Brian Urlacher, both middle linebackers.

Lewis established the benchmark for defensive players last year when he signed a seven-year, $50 million contract that included a $19 million signing bonus. Urlacher reached a similar deal with the Bears in June: nine years, $56 million, $19 million in bonuses ($13 million up front to sign).

Ty Law owns the largest signing bonus given to a cornerback: $14.2 million handed out by the Patriots in 1999.

Clearly, Bailey believes he deserves more. It remains to be seen whether Redskins owner Dan Snyder agrees, but there's no question Bailey's teammates hold him in the highest regard.

"He's the best," safety Matt Bowen said. "I haven't seen anyone, even on film, with that type of feet and that type of mental toughness and dedication and ball skills. I mean, he's the complete package."

The Redskins knew they were getting a potentially great player when they made Bailey the seventh pick overall of the 1999 draft and handed him a five-year contract with a $5.2 million signing bonus. What they might not have known was how quickly the former University of Georgia star would realize that potential.

In just four professional seasons, Bailey has made the Pro Bowl three times. He intercepted three passes in the fifth game of his career, becoming the youngest player to pull off that feat.

And despite his relatively young age, Bailey became the longest-tenured Redskin after Dan Wilkinson's release last week.

Bailey has tried to take on more of a leadership role of late, especially following Darrell Green's retirement at the end of last season. That said, he's having a hard time accepting his sudden veteran status.

"It's funny. I go in [to team meetings], and I'm really not the old man, but I've been around the longest," he said. "And everybody looks at me like, 'Champ, you're the oldest. Say something.' "

Bailey will have to act like a veteran this season when it comes to his contract talks. He has seen negotiations drag over an entire season and become a distraction for teammates. Tackle Jon Jansen's ordeal last year comes to mind, and Bailey is committed not to let that happen.

"I'm going to try to stay out of it as much as I can because I know the business side of it can really stress you out," Bailey said. "[but] it's your life you're talking about. I'm not going to say it's easy. I'm definitely going to be aware of it going on."

In an ideal world, Bailey would like to have his new deal in place before the Sept. 4 season opener against the Jets. That may be too optimistic a deadline. It seems inevitable the Redskins will take contract talks into the regular season as they attempt to find a way to re-sign one of their top players without breaking the bank. (The decision to cut Wilkinson was made in part to help set aside money for Bailey).

This much is certain: As much as Bailey wants to get his just deserts, his desire to remain a Redskin is even greater. For that reason, he says, the last thing he wants to do is remain unsigned for the entire season and wind up an unrestricted free agent, available to the highest bidder.

Of course, it should be obvious by now Champ Bailey won't settle for anything less than what he believes he deserves.

"I know Dan has a way of trying to get the players he wants and putting up any price," he said. "But he's going to have to put up a big price to get me."

[glorydays]

46 - 18 SB then 14 up front - 4 divided over length of contract of 7 yrs. (4.6 a yr) (7th yr negotiable?).

[Steve Y]

I don't know he sounds a bit too sure that he is one of the greatest ever...I bet 4.6 a yr wouldn't get it done. He sounds like he wants something groundbreaking...I'm nervous about this one...

[Buddha]

Originally posted by bubba9497

Lewis established the benchmark for defensive players last year when he signed a seven-year, $50 million contract that included a $19 million signing bonus. Urlacher reached a similar deal with the Bears in June: nine years, $56 million, $19 million in bonuses ($13 million up front to sign).

Here are Urlacher's base numbers:

2003: 1.05M

2004: 1.75M

2005: 1.25M

2006: 3.95M

2007: 3.95M

2008: 3.95M

2009: 4.95M

2010: 6.15M

2011: 7.35M

I'd do a similar deal with Champ, increasing this year's base salary as far as the cap will allow with performance escalators in years 2-3. The larger 2003 base salary would help to bring down the overall signing bonus slightly. The overall goal should be to have Champ count no more than $5-6 million per season against the cap as one of the league's best paid CBs.

[jbooma]

here is one problem we have coming

Champ and Lavar and Samuels, are we going to be able to keep all of them?

Don't forget if Ramsey is as good as he says then we HAVE to pay him more. We are not going to be able to keep all of these players. I wish we could be doubt it.

[Art]

To be perfectly honest, Champ is starting to annoy me. I love the guy as a player. But, I hate seeing how uncomfortable he is to express himself as a veteran player with his teammates when he has no problem expressing himself in terms of how much money he wants. I realize money is a huge motivating factor for a lot of players. You see Priest Holmes mention getting paid every time he talks anymore.

But, it's somewhat disconcerting to me to see Bailey as fixated as he is. Obviously he's going to get a massive deal and that's great. I just wish he'd start staying out of it for the most part pretty soon.

[codeorama]

Art,

Well said.

[Thinking Skins]

Art no...Don't turn on Champ. Its not like Champ is pulling a Stayley and taking out an ad in the Washington Times saying what he's worth. All he's doing is coming to practice. Is it his fault that these dumb reporters keep asking him the same questions over and over again?

I mean half the people on this board have the same attitude. Its normal to think you're the best at what you do, especially if you have shown that over the past few years. What makes Champ any different. Is he supposed to be like, well I know I'm the best corner in the league, but I'll settle for a middle of the road deal to help the team out? It'd be unrealistic to think that he'd think like that. But I can almost gurantee that if the reporters stopped asking him questions like this, then he would stop making statements like this.

jbooma, As far as signing all three, I would put Champ's importance at the lowest level of importance among these three positions; LT, LB, and CB. Especially when we've got a nice secondary to compliment Champ's skills. However I don't doubt that with Snyder and the way we always seem to go after somebody big every offseason, we should be able to do this fine.

But other than Ramsey, once we get these guys under contract, who else will we have coming up? Gardner and Candidate are the only people I can think of.

[@DCGoldPants]

I know Lavar is a beast....but Champ has been our best pick in the past 10 years. No doubt.

I believe he is one of the top 3 CB's in the league and should be paid like one.

[bigchuck]

Originally posted by Art

To be perfectly honest, Champ is starting to annoy me. I love the guy as a player. But, I hate seeing how uncomfortable he is to express himself as a veteran player with his teammates when he has no problem expressing himself in terms of how much money he wants. I realize money is a huge motivating factor for a lot of players. You see Priest Holmes mention getting paid every time he talks anymore.

But, it's somewhat disconcerting to me to see Bailey as fixated as he is. Obviously he's going to get a massive deal and that's great. I just wish he'd start staying out of it for the most part pretty soon.

Art I agree with you. This guy is good, but the ****y attitude is really gettin on my nerves. We all know you re good. Tell all this crap to Danny Boy. We as fans dont wanna hear this. Just do like Jansen did. He handled his contract situation with class He knew he was gonna be paid pretty good. Just sit back and relax. Champ seems like he's lobbying for a phat contract through the media. Dont get me wrong, I want Champ here just like the rest of us. But the attitude is starting to get a lil Deionish!:mad:

[Funkyalligator]

I'm getting sick of seeing an article every day about how much money Bailey wants.....he will get it just quit talking about it and concentrate on football.

[codeorama]

Originally posted by bigchuck

We as fans dont wann hear this. Just do like Jansen did. He handled his contract situation with class He knew he was gonna be paid pretty good. Just sit back and relax. Champ seems like he's lobbying for a phat contract through the media. Dont get me wrong, I want Champ here just like the rest of us. But the attitude is starting to get a lil Deionish!:mad:

Well Said, I'm tired of hearing champ pop off all the time too... just shut up and let the agent and team work it out. Have some class like Jansen.

[Riggo-toni]

Bailey is more important to us than LaVar (so far) or Samuels, but he is not the same impact player that Ray Lewis or Urlacher is.

[Thinking Skins]

riggo-toni wrote

Bailey is more important to us than LaVar (so far) or Samuels, but he is not the same impact player that Ray Lewis or Urlacher is.

I disagree. I meanif you look at the top defenses in the league, how many actually have a top tier corner? Its just not a necessity. Consider also the option that Smoot is better than half the corners in the league and I mean We dont NEED Champ.

Now I'd definately put Lavar ahead of Champ because he is solely responsible for turning around our seasons the past two years. The pic vs Carolina and the sack vs the Rams. Champ doesn't have such a credible resume, I'd be fine with seeing him walk if it meant we got to keep Lavar.

Then look at Samuels and I'd say just about the same thing. He may not have turned our season around, but do you remember what it was like under Norv Turner having LT by committee? That was horrible and I don't want to go back to that. LT is a crucial position on the field and if we need to let Champ go to keep Samuels, then let him walk.

But otherwise I'd like to keep all three and I'm confident we can.

[Awesome]

Originally posted by bubba9497

This much is certain: As much as Bailey wants to get his just deserts, his desire to remain a Redskin is even greater.

That really stuck out to me and I hope it's true b/c it could go a long way towards Champ being conducive to working with Dan so as to keep the interest of the team in mind while still giving him what he's worth.

Yes, LaVar has to be dealt with too and I don't know what Samuels' situation is. Doesn't he have the same contract length as laVar? I'd rather have laVar but losing Samuels in a year or two would be very bad.

To whoever mentioned Ramsey having to get paid: That's a long ways away. He held out last year b/c it was obvious he was the future starter and he finally got a deal that treated him as that and not just another rookie coming in to backup a vet.

[Hitnskins]

No doubt.......Champ sounds more like a ****y salesman.......who's he trying to convince of how good he is?.....sounds like he's trying to convince himself more than anybody.......if he was so good, he would just shut up and play, then let his actions speak louder than all his money grubbing words!

Sounds like a GREEDY prick to me................I love Champ, but, I don't want to break the bank just to have him in DC.

[SonnyJ]

He can just simply say "Sorry, guys, there's nothing more to be said about that. It'll get done when it gets done. Next question."

This quote seemed ridiculous:

This much is certain: As much as Bailey wants to get his just deserts, his desire to remain a Redskin is even greater. For that reason, he says, the last thing he wants to do is remain unsigned for the entire season and wind up an unrestricted free agent, available to the highest bidder.

It directly contradicts the next sentence, which is far more honest:

Of course, it should be obvious by now Champ Bailey won't settle for anything less than what he believes he deserves.

I'm not too keen on breaking the bank for Champ. I'd like to see him make more game-changing plays, of which he produces little. And, if he really wants to remain a Redskin, how about being a little more accommodating in your demands? Riiiiight, dream on.

[Art]

It's not that I'm turning on Champ here. It's that he keeps saying he's not going to talk about his contract but every few days he's talking about his contract. He says he's going to stay out of it, but he keeps talking about it. At the same time he's talking about how he is still uncomfortable taking on a leadership role with the team. Just apply the same aggressive nature he's using to get his contract done and he'll be fine as a leader.

[@DCGoldPants]

I just believe deep down that Champ is the kind of player we want on this team. He doesn't taunt or usually run his mouth. When asked...he's confident....he should be. He's been in 3 straight Probowls.

Screw Charles Woodson....always hurt. Champ might as well be the best CB in the NFL He's barely thrown at.

[sashae]

One thing that makes me nervous... when you think of Urlacher and Lewis, how many other players on their teams are compensated the same way Samuels and Arrington are going to need to be?

I'm sure Snyder can figure out a way to finagle them under the cap, but wow... crazy thought, having 3 top-5 guys on the same team. If Ramsey turns into the second coming of Troy Aikman... well, I don't want to think about what that'd cost.

-s

[Yomar]

Give the man his due, but instead of tacking everything onto the signing bonus, frontload this year as much as possible and guarantee this season's salary, just as good as a signing bonus and much more cap friendly

[Yomar]

oh yeah, and if its a matter of choosing between Champ, Samuels and Arrington, bye bye Lavar

[Flowtrain]

The Coles signing bonus becomes pretty interesting here. Everyone knew that his real value was probably closer to $10M, but Snyder purposefully juiced it up to $13M to make his offer prohibitively expensive for the Jets to match. It worked. As a recent and somewhat unnoticed point of comparison, Pro Bowler Torry Holt, had 3 great seasons and just received a smaller signing bonus (though larger salary that he may or may not see).

Even though it's probably more appropriate to gloss over Coles' contract due to the unique RFA circumstances under which it came, I don't know that Champ is willing to do that. As we see from Holt's contract v. Coles (and some may argue to a lesser degree, Morton and Thomas), there's a disconnect between the market value of Redskin players and those in the rest of the NFL. We all understand the reasons that this came about, and this is not at all a criticism of the approach. It simply is what it is.

So will Champs new contract factor in Redskin inflation? Do you think it should, since he'll suit up next to these guys every Sunday who haven't played at his level and haven't even earned that money playing for the Skins? Or should Champ only look at the NFL market at large since that's where he'd be headed next year if he didn't sign or get tagged? Tough decision for the FO to make, but we know which way Champ will lean.

Either way, that Urlacher contract ($19M/$7M per) will be put under the microscope. That's the neighborhood Champ will demand.

[The Evil Genius]

Remind me again, why are we using the Moonie Times as a credible source now?

They haven't been since Snyder took over. Why the change now? Because they redid their website?

[Yomar]

the RFA contracts are irrelevant because they are not in the same ballpark as what Champ is asking for and would demand on the open market, so no, the contracts for Coles et al have no significance in the negotiations...