Damn 12 to 14 million? I would structure it at $800,000 per game played in the regular season and 1 million per playoff win.
Tony Romo is not going to sign some heavily incentivized contract. He's a healthy 37-year old QB - why should he settle for less than market value? The Broncos didn't even know if Peyton Manning could throw a football and they gave him $18MM guaranteed up front; once he passed a physical the following year, that guaranteed another $22MM. As I think about it, THIS must be why fans are so hesitant to deal for Romo - they think he's going to settle for some league-minimum deal in which all the guaranteed money is wrapped up in game checks. Uh, no. Again, and I've said this for weeks: Tony Romo is healthy. He is not going to sign a team-friendly deal because he *might* get hurt. No player does that. And if this is what the Texans are thinking... they're dumber than I thought. He has a non-guaranteed salary of $14MM this year; that's a reasonable price to pay (it's $5MM less than they would have given Osweiler) and the Texans would be fools to be scared of it or that he wouldn't be 100% open to renegotiating the final two, non-guaranteed years (which he most assuredly will be). My guess is that his final deal - be it restructured or new - will have a signing bonus, a reasonable guaranteed base salary for '17 ($7-10MM) and broader, easy-to-obtain incentives that also fully guarantee (and, at least in year 1, brings his total deal to at least $14MM) + non-guaranteed salaries in place in for '18 and '19 (with the incentives extended through the life of what I'm guessing will be a three-year deal).
Yeah. Bottom line is QB's are in demand in the NFL. Even the risky ones come at a price if there is even the slightest hint of upside. Wouldn't say its beyond possible that Romo gives a new team a discount in an effort to win now, but that will be up to Romo's camp.
Seems to me like the Texans are playing a game of chicken that they are too stupid to be playing. We have no viable fallback option. They never learn. Choke up a 4th rounder, stroke Jerry's ego, and move on.
I so 1,000% agree with this; I'm flabbergasted they're content to let him hit the open market and lose control of the situation. If Tony Romo is not a Houston Texan... I mean - maybe they know something we don't about Savage. Or they maybe they REALLY love a QB in the draft. But from my vantage point, Romo is the best option (and a good option, in general) for this team and they're fools to be passive about it. Like a 5th round pick is going to have near the potential impact of Tony Romo?....
He is. I don't understand why people are so dug into this idea that he's damaged goods. He could very well break his wrist signing his contract - but as of this very moment, he's probably as healthy as he's been in a long time.
Or a 6th with option to become 5th if he starts a minimum number of games or a 4th if he starts in the playoffs. I think it is stupid to play this game of chicken if you could structure something like this.
Yeah, I mean - there's a way to "protect" the pick via incentives. The only reason I can see them being hesitant... if they offer a pick and Dallas immediately calls Denver, Denver can easily trump offer with higher pick in round - that's a viable situation and if they're avoiding that... that's actually not dumb.
"Free" of course meaning that they'll get him by just paying his salary once he's cut, so not truly free obviously. There's no reason to throw away assets on a guy that will be cut in the next 3 days or so.