Thread: Forte wants $25M guaranteed?

Originally Posted by Dagan81

I've always believed that the NFLPA was a weak entity in comparison to Major League Baseball's and the NBA's player unions. For instance, when the NFL went to using a salary cap, the players were essentially powerless to stop the owners who have always ruled over the NFL landscape with an iron fist. In baseball and maybe to a lesser degree, basketball, there are no hard caps, and that's because there was good leadership in those leagues' players' associations. We may see something happen in the NBA, but so long as baseball is making money because of teams like the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, I just can't see the implementation of a hard cap coming to fruition.

The ownership in the NFL is a lot stronger group and more united than the MLB. Their revenue sharing arrangement tends to discourage or at least control their maverick owners. Plus the NFLPA never had a Marvin Miller representing it.

The NBA is a whole different breed of cat. There player salaries are a much larger percentage of total costs than they are in either football or baseball and those salary expenses are eating them alive. That's why their demands for a rollback. Role players coming off the bench can be making over $5 mil per year and stars are hauling down in excess of $30 mil and it keeps escalating. I won't pay $120+ per game (season tickets) for a good seat at a Nuggets game when we paid about $35 for that same seat 15 years ago. The product isn't worth it to me.

Originally Posted by WindyCity

I think that you have to make a MAX offer to Forte of 5 years 45 million/20 guaranteed.

If he wants more then he is going to have to live with the Franchise tag for a couple of seasons because the Bears hold all the power.

I don't see us putting anywhere near a $45 mil offer on the table for him Windy but I do think they've got to get nearer $20 mil in guarantees than they have so far. That's been the stumbling block from the very beginning.

Originally Posted by WindyCity

I would give him up to 45 million guaranteed because he will need to average 8-9 million a season with the way he is playing. I do not see the deal getting done for 6 million a year, maybe in training camp, but no know.

But I think 20 mil guaranteed is very fair.

I think $8-9 million per year is fair, plus incentives if he continues to perform at a high level for a long time to come. I personally would offer him more along the lines of $25 million in guaranteed money. Not as much as Chris Johnson, per say, but certainly putting him in the top three RBs in the NFL. If he suddenly starts scoring a bunch of touchdowns - and remember that he struggles running down in the red zone because the defenses usually line up 8-9 guys in the box - then I would definitely sweeten the pot as much as possible. He hasn't shown the ability to completely dominate games from a scoring angle yet, which is why Angelo went out and acquired Marion Barber. If Forte goes out and scores 10-12 touchdowns combined both rushing and receiving, then I think you have no choice by to sweeten the pot in order to pacify his demands.