Zen-like Todd Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54368-2003Dec10.html Arrington Is Offered Extension By Mark Maske Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, December 11, 2003; Page D01 The Washington Redskins have offered a long-term contract extension to linebacker LaVar Arrington, NFL sources said yesterday. The details of the team's proposal were unclear. But the Redskins apparently are attempting to keep the two-time Pro Bowl selection in the fold for most, if not all, of the remainder of his career while also reducing his impact against the club's salary cap over the next few seasons. His current contract runs through the 2006 season and eats up a lot of the Redskins' salary cap over the next three seasons. The Redskins are about $1.8 million under this season's salary cap and could put that cap space to use by signing one or two key players to contract extensions this month. The club offered three-time Pro Bowl cornerback Champ Bailey, who is in the final year of his contract and is eligible for unrestricted free agency after the season, a nine-year, $55 million extension during the preseason. Bailey rejected the offer and the two sides said they would resume negotiations late in the season, but the talks have not been revisited yet. The team apparently would like to re-sign defensive tackle Darrell Russell, another prospective free agent, before he goes on the market and could renegotiate the contract of left tackle Chris Samuels. The Redskins probably would like to sign Arrington, 25, to a deal of seven years or longer, enabling the club to prorate a hefty signing bonus over that period and make the contract salary cap-friendly in the early seasons. Arrington signed a seven-year, approximately $50 million deal (including a $10.75 million signing bonus) with the Redskins after the team made him the second overall choice in the 2000 draft out of Penn State. That contract, after being reworked this year, contains salaries of $6.7 million next season, $6.9 million in 2005 and $7.8 million in 2006. With salary and pro-rated bonus, Arrington is to count more than $10 million against the Redskins' salary cap annually. Arrington declined to comment yesterday and his agent, Carl Poston, did not return a telephone call. Arrington could be headed to his third straight Pro Bowl and ranks second on the team in tackles with 98 and second in sacks with four, but he and fellow linebackers Jeremiah Trotter and Jessie Armstead have been criticized for being caught out of position at times. Arrington's frustrations have shown, as he has refused to talk to media members in recent weeks except for his paid weekly radio appearance. "When you're the franchise, that's a part of it," Armstead said of Arrington yesterday. "That's part of the territory. If you're the second pick in the draft, everybody looks at you. . . . You take the praise when it's good, and you take the [criticism] when it's bad." But the veteran linebacker said he sees better days ahead for his talented young teammate. "I think everything will work out for the best and he'll get what he wants around here, get some winning going on," Armstead said. "He's smarter as a player. He's starting to realize that it takes a lot of people to make things happen. You've got to realize that you just can't do it by yourself. . . . He's starting to realize that day by day." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ford Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 I'd be happy, but the last person we said we signed as a Redskin for life was Stephen Davis' deal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
@DCGoldPants Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 Arrington has been a vocal leader of this team and is always about the town and the fans. This is smart. Keep your own. He needs to agree with the NFLPA though....get that kid on some posters and bigtime comericals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laurent Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 You know, for somebody that's been said to be washed up Armstead has been a great presence with us so far. I hope he's going to stick around for a little bit and take on a bigger leadership roll. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyansRangers Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 Come on Arrington SIGN BUDDY SIGN!!!!!!!!!! He wont sign until they keep edwards around for another year. He is sick of new DCs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whiskeypeet Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 I'd be happy, but the last person we said we signed as a Redskin for life was Stephen Davis' deal. Hopefully the FO learned something from that experience. From the sound of the article it appears that we are looking to give him a massive signing bonus. Hopefully that will allow us to avoid the escellating base salaries that killed us with Davis's deal. We will see..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RTerps2002 Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 Hopefully we can get some of these things done before the end of the season Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevieInferior Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 I think it's a PR move for the Skins to say we are tring. I am sure Lavar will reject it. How many times have you read about the Skins negitiating with someone to see nothing happen? Lets see Gardener, Champ, & Powell. However, when serious negotiations happen you never heard about it ala Jansen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 Arrington has done more as a player than Davis had when we signed him. The need to protect yourself against Arrington's failure is less and you can structure the deal differently to account for that. Arrington is a big key to the near term cap health of the team. If he resigns we'll be in really good shape for the next few years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bang Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 Davis also had the franchise tag laid on him, which guarantees him top five money at his position every year contractually. Without the tag, the cap and contract hits from an extension for Arrington can make things a lot more friendly than Davis' deal ever was. I hope he signs it. I am glad to see the FO aggressively pursuing the core players. Thinking for the future. ~Bang Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubba9497 Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 if Lavar rejects it, will fans turn on him like they did Champ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KDawg Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 Doubtful. His contract isn't up at the end of THIS year... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoCalMike Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 Come on Arrington........SIGN IT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wildbill Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I say sign LA to an extension, and then sign Russel to a deal before the offseason comes around. Then in the offseason we can restructure Samuels, and concentrate on filling a couple holes. Champ's gonna have to decide what he wants to do, he's already been offered a fair deal and refused it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hitnskins Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 If Lavar signs this deal, that will be a very good omen for this team..............everybody knows he wants to win, and signing a longterm contract will let some of the other players know that he's going to be here for the long haul.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lowghost Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 Come on Dan, make Lavar a Redskin for life. :applause: :dallasuck :eaglesuck :gaintsuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbooma Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 anyone here anything about details of the contract yet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riggo-toni Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 Whil we're at it, how about extending Smoot, not to mention Iffy and DMac Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 Originally posted by bubba9497 if Lavar rejects it, will fans turn on him like they did Champ? I don't think so. Not unless his accompanying quotes are out of line. Arrington still talks the game well. He still seems to want to be here. He seems to take losses hard. He seems to hurt perhaps even for the fans when we lose. Bailey wasn't turned on immediately. The turn on him began when he was offered a deal that gave him $15 million in guaranteed money and he not only turned it down, but never replied back to the team with what he would take, and then pretended he wasn't sure why the team wouldn't negotiate with him. Comments during the year have not been ideal either. Even there, I don't know that the majority of fans are against him. Some are. Many aren't. Arrington has a bit more good will right now built up than Champ does. Simply rejecting the offer won't be enough to turn people around on him. But, we should expect a difficult negotiation. He has the Postans as his agents. They aren't easy to work with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 Originally posted by riggo-toni Whil we're at it, how about extending Smoot, not to mention Iffy and DMac From the rumblings in the personnel department, it seems Cerrato isn't convinced the safety position is totally done yet. He's said more than once that safety is a position we'd like to add. That means either Bowen or Ohalete aren't set right now. I've no real idea which, but, I'd GUESS Ohalete. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
@DCGoldPants Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 I think Lavar is one of the few players in the NFL that feels real loyalty to his team. This is a Darrell Green type of "I'm here for the long run" thing. He signs a long-term deal. That really opens up more room for the Smoot & Bailey extensions.....Iffy and D-Mac. All the Sudden, we're an attractive team to a few FA's because we've got no turn-over now and we're loaded with talent. I think the key is to give Edwards another year though. Rookie DC isn't going to be the Bears of 85 here. He needs this offseason to watch film from this year and from 2 years ago and see how he can be more like 2002. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 Bufford, Champ's room is already there. It's created by his already $5.5 million cap hit next year as the projected franchise player. Arrington's room simply would give the team enormous flexibility in the next couple of years. If you can get Samuels to do the same you're all the better set. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
@DCGoldPants Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 extending Arrington and Smoot give more room that just "cap" room. Its a statement that we're keeping the pieces in place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redskin56 Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 This is a very saavy move on behalf of the FO. It may even give Champ a little reason to resign. Just as most have mentioned here, LA signing a long term deal would show stability and devotion to key players. I think Champ will see that the FO and the organization is changing and on the road to something promising. If winning is truly what its all about for Champ, then he'll have to see that the FO is attempting to build a cohesive winner and he's a big part of it. If its all about the Benjamins then all I can say is its been nice knowing ya Champ, good luck (except, of course, against the Redskins). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Henry Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 What I find a bit unsettling is that Arrington and Samuels numbers accelerate so much next year that if they wanted they could simply refuse to renegotiate and the team would almost have to cut one of them. Arrington is a great player, but a $10 mil hit every year for the next three years? Big ouch. Like all of you I hope that these guys will choose to renegotiate, but I wish I didn't have to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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