Thread: Forte won't discuss contract

He'll be there and it wouldn't surprise me if they get him under contract before that July 16th deadline. The last thing he WANTS to do is to play for that $7.74 mil tag. He'll get at least that much as a SB now and then add his salary and the security of more guaranteed money to that and it becomes foolish for him not too.

The best deal he can get right now is the best of what the Bears are willing to offer. He has no leverage and nothing to gain by holding out and by listening to the way he talks about the offseason moves he's still emotionally invested in this team. He blows off the question about the opener but then has this to say about playing.

"They made good moves," Forte said. "(I'm) just excited about the upcoming season. Great addition to have a big receiver on the outside like (Marshall), kind of take that eighth or ninth guy out of the box when we're playing defenses that like to stop the run." "Alshon should help us out on the outside, too, as well," Forte said. "He's a big receiver, too. I'm looking forward to playing with those guys."

Forte also said he felt healthy and was ready to get back on the field. "Definitely healthy," Forte said. "At this point of the offseason, everybody's usually a little healthy at this time. You got time off. It's time to start playing again."

So he's excited about the upcoming season and getting back to playing with these guy but he doesn't know about playing the opener? Bullshit! As far as his agent is concerned they might just as well carry this on until the 11th hour because it's costing them nothing to do it and if they can squeeze just a little bit more out of the Bears with a last minute "take it or leave it" then why not?

He really doesn't need the OTA's. They're a huge risk for him without a contract anyway and he'll probably get little out of camp and preseason either since they won't use him much even if he is there. It's just learning the new offense and getting his timing down and my guess is he's already got a playbook on the new offense. He's already proved he knows how to get in playing shape all by himself so that's not a concern either.

What he needs to decide is whether or not he's willing to risk another season without a long term deal. That $7.74 mil is a lot of money but it pales in comparison to the $20 mil or more he's looking for in guarantees or whatever amount less than that the Bears are offering him. Somewhere along the line somebody needs to make a move off dead center and get this done and I think it will be Matt Forte. At a point in time, like it or not, you have to realize that what you can get is the best you can get and just suck it up and do it. You may not like it but he won't be happy playing for the tag so he might just we well take the best he can get.

That would be nice JJ. That McCoy deal really doesn't do anything to help his guy sell it any harder. There's no real upfront money involved in that deal. Just $2.1 per over the next two years and even over the first four years it only averages about $5-$5.2 mil per if he gets 100% of his guarantees. All of the big dollars are squeezed into it from 2015 on.

I have no doubt Forte is doing his own training and getting/staying in shape. However, with the recent injuries to Suggs and Peters while doing their own training separate from team activities and being subject to possible docking of their salary because of it, I was wondering what Forte's liability is if he also hurts himself while doing his own training? Would he be subject to this same penalty, or, since he hasn't signed his FT, is he exempt from that penalty? Would this be another good reason for him to sign the FT, a la Welker, and then continue working on a longterm deal?

Originally Posted by Papa Bear

I have no doubt Forte is doing his own training and getting/staying in shape. However, with the recent injuries to Suggs and Peters while doing their own training separate from team activities and being subject to possible docking of their salary because of it, I was wondering what Forte's liability is if he also hurts himself while doing his own training? Would he be subject to this same penalty, or, since he hasn't signed his FT, is he exempt from that penalty? Would this be another good reason for him to sign the FT, a la Welker, and then continue working on a longterm deal?

He's on his own right now PB. He's still the property of the Bears via that tag but he hasn't signed it so right now he's a franchised free agent. He's not under contract. If his attorney/agent was smart he got him an insurance policy that would indemnify him in the event of an injury. Bakari has a lot of money riding on this deal so I'm certain he'd want to protect both his interests and Forte's.

Originally Posted by Riczaj01

Soul you don't know how the mccoy deal is set up; Those details have not been released. You only what a web site(which is inaccurate as we've already shown) said it COULD be set up. It's very possible it's set up that way, or something completely different.

I think every RB deal that get done is one step closer to helping the Bears/Forte get the deal done, it's one more deal that sayd 40mil/20 guaranteedish is the new standard for the top rb's. regardless of where they are in their contracts, FA, 1 year left, FT'd.

Ric I have a very good idea of how most of these deals are setup because there is more detail on them than this one has today. Tomorrow there maybe more added to it and/or a correction made. If you read what's posted by Philly themselves it says the deal is worth up to $45 mil. Whenever those terms have been used in the past it means there are incentives or future roster bonuses that make up a significant portion of the deal.

It's entirely possible that $8 mil is in future ULTBE bonus money like leading the NFL in rushing or scoring a certain number of TD's or yardage gained. Things which have yet to ever happen during his career to date. That's what makes them ULTBE and they are not counted against the cap unless they are. If that's the case they would usually add those footnotes in the area where they list the guarantees. They may have overlooked that or it maybe roster bonuses in early years but here's what's solid info that both Philly and Spotrac agree upon.

He gets $20.765 mil guarantees which includes this years salary. If you add up the first 4 years it comes out to $1.6 mil more than he's guaranteed so somewhere in those first four years in one way or another he gets his $20.765 mil. Anything beyond that isn't guaranteed. So even if that $8 mil is added into the first few years it will go towards meeting guarantees unless they are incentives over and above that guarantee. Make sense?

In essence he's got a 4 year deal (including this one) guaranteeing him $20.765 mil or an average of $5.2 mil per year. He may earn more than that but that's all that he's certain to make so all of the rest of it may produce some nice bragging rights but those are still not hard dollars beyond that $20.765 mil. Until he earns them and gets paid the other $25 mil is air. Monopoly money.

If I had to take a guess at where the error in the Spotrac data might be it would be that he's either getting another $8 mil as a SB or he has a couple of roster bonuses due in 2013-2014 that may total $8 mil. That would come out very close to the amount guaranteed and he'd get it in three years a rather than 4 which pushes that average per year number up to around $7 mil per year.

Sorry, when I posted on this I was still in the middle of something else and didn't have time to audit all of their numbers. It's not too often that they make big mistakes but it's also not all that difficult to ferret out the unknowns either if you have most of the data. No matter how you slice it he probably makes $30 mil over the next 4 years if he remains healthy and productive. After that that other $15 mil is pretty iffy as it is in all of these $40 mil plus deals that are getting done.

These guys have been in the league for 3-5 years now and the average career of an NFL RB is not anymore than that to begin with. These guys are all past their warranty date so just how far do you want to stretch. How many of them will have Walter Payton's career span or Emmett Smith's? They'll collect their $20-$30 mil but beyond that I have my doubts.

Originally Posted by soulman

Ric I have a very good idea of how most of these deals are setup because there is more detail on them than this one has today. Tomorrow there maybe more added to it and/or a correction made. If you read what's posted by Philly themselves it says the deal is worth up to $45 mil. Whenever those terms have been used in the past it means there are incentives or future roster bonuses that make up a significant portion of the deal.

It's entirely possible that $8 mil is in future ULTBE bonus money like leading the NFL in rushing or scoring a certain number of TD's or yardage gained. Things which have yet to ever happen during his career to date. That's what makes them ULTBE and they are not counted against the cap unless they are. If that's the case they would usually add those footnotes in the area where they list the guarantees. They may have overlooked that or it maybe roster bonuses in early years but here's what's solid info that both Philly and Spotrac agree upon.

He gets $20.765 mil guarantees which includes this years salary. If you add up the first 4 years it comes out to $1.6 mil more than he's guaranteed so somewhere in those first four years in one way or another he gets his $20.765 mil. Anything beyond that isn't guaranteed. So even if that $8 mil is added into the first few years it will go towards meeting guarantees unless they are incentives over and above that guarantee. Make sense?

In essence he's got a 4 year deal (including this one) guaranteeing him $20.765 mil or an average of $5.2 mil per year. He may earn more than that but that's all that he's certain to make so all of the rest of it may produce some nice bragging rights but those are still not hard dollars beyond that $20.765 mil. Until he earns them and gets paid the other $25 mil is air. Monopoly money.

If I had to take a guess at where the error in the Spotrac data might be it would be that he's either getting another $8 mil as a SB or he has a couple of roster bonuses due in 2013-2014 that may total $8 mil. That would come out very close to the amount guaranteed and he'd get it in three years a rather than 4 which pushes that average per year number up to around $7 mil per year.

Sorry, when I posted on this I was still in the middle of something else and didn't have time to audit all of their numbers. It's not too often that they make big mistakes but it's also not all that difficult to ferret out the unknowns either if you have most of the data. No matter how you slice it he probably makes $30 mil over the next 4 years if he remains healthy and productive. After that that other $15 mil is pretty iffy as it is in all of these $40 mil plus deals that are getting done.

These guys have been in the league for 3-5 years now and the average career of an NFL RB is not anymore than that to begin with. These guys are all past their warranty date so just how far do you want to stretch. How many of them will have Walter Payton's career span or Emmett Smith's? They'll collect their $20-$30 mil but beyond that I have my doubts.

I say that Forte will be in the league for at least ten years. But I know that's not what we're talking about.

I am starting to side more and more with Forte in these franchise negotiations, but I do believe he should, in good faith and in keeping with his previous pledge, sign the franchise tag tender, and make the negotiations process much easier. That being said, like I originally started this post having said this, Forte should fight for every last nickel and dime that he can get because the average lifespan of an NFL player is not very long, especially for running backs. He's going to be feeling physical pain later after all the hits he will have taken, so he'd best take advantage of what he can get, and all he can get, while then gettin's good.

I grant him every right to go for top dollar but there seems to be some divided opinion between him and the Bears over what that is. I think he has a right to be as well paid as any of the other top ten backs accepting AP and CJ. Those deals are outliers to the mean and the average and even bringing them into negotiations is worthless. Not gonna happen.

Matt and his agent need to realize that the Bears have a budget for RB expenditures that they'll spend up to for him but not over. There's a salary cap to keep within the bounds of and you can only squeeze that old nickel until that buffalo shits so much. After tat you have to gut him and the Bears will not gut their roster for one player. Not Matt Forte or anyone else either.

Lovie made that clear when he said that it's not just about one person. That's par of what he was referring to.