MJD Open to Trade

[Dutchrudder]

Well this is interesting. There are only a few teams that really need a running back, and that can afford MJD's new demands of (I'm guessing here) roughly 8 million a year. If I'm the Bengals, Broncos or Packers, I get on the phone right now and see what they want for him. They are all good teams severely lacking a RB right now. MJD on any of them would be sick. MJD in the backfield with Aaron Rodgers? Instantly the best team in the division by far, and the NFC favorite. No question there. I'd give two Packers' 1sts for him.

...

Last week, however, Khan said MJD's absence "doesn't even move the needle" in terms of stress. Khan reiterated his stance Tuesday by saying, "This is not a team about one person."

His message to Jones-Drew?

"Train's leaving the station. Run, get on it," Khan said.

Bakari made it clear that those statements don't sit well with Jacksonville's biggest star.

"Obviously, he's not happy that what started as a very cordial and private conversation is now public and contentious," Bakari said.

Now, with both sides seemingly digging their heels in as deeply as possibly, it is unclear when or if Jones-Drew will show up in Jacksonville. The Jaguars open the season Sept. 9 at Minnesota.

Jones-Drew's holdout is fairly simple. He wants a new deal after leading the NFL with 1,606 yards rushing last season. He has two years remaining on a five-year, front-loaded contract worth $31 million. He is scheduled to make $4.45 million this season and $4.95 million in 2013.

Khan and general manager Gene Smith insist they have no plans to negotiate a new deal with MJD, not wanting to set a precedent of paying players with two years remaining on lucrative deals that included large signing bonuses.

Jones-Drew skipped the team's entire offseason workout program, including a mandatory, three-day minicamp last month. If new coach Mike Mularkey is fining Jones-Drew the maximum allowed under the collective bargaining agreement -- $20,000 for each day of minicamp and $30,000 for each day since training camp opened -- the total is up to $870,000.

...

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/82...now-open-trade

[Playoffs]

Report: MJD open to bridging gap with Jaguars

Posted by Josh Alper on August 22, 2012
...
Jones-Drew wasn’t happy that Khan told him it was time to run and catch the train before it leaves the station, leading to reports that MJD was open to a trade and speculation that his holdout could last into the regular season. There was no formal trade request, though, and Steve Wyche of the NFL Network reported Wednesday morning on NFL AM that the Jaguars running back remains open to making it work in Jacksonville.

“After speaking to his agent, Adisa Bakari, he’s also open to bridging what is becoming a more fractured relationship because of the comments of Khan, not only Tuesday, but late last week,” said Wyche. “The issue is who is going to extend the olive branch if there is going to be a reparation, because Jones-Drew, he is further entrenched in his holdout — he does not like the situation, the fact that Khan is discussing publicly what was supposed to be handled in private.”

[b0ng]

He would really hurt his value he may be building up for a future deal by doing this but he is an RB. That offense is probably going to be Real Bad again if MJD isn't there.

[Ryan]

And if he does report to the Jags eventually he owes $800,000 in fines from missing all of training camp.

[Playoffs]

Yeah, I think the new Jags owner is wrong taking this public & trying to humiliate MJD. He needs to keep his mustache shut.

If Jacksonville wasn't so apathetic about football, there'd be a public outcry. MJD is a great guy -- on the field & in the community.

[Double Barrel]

Originally Posted by Article

He has two years remaining on a five-year, front-loaded contract worth $31 million. He is scheduled to make $4.45 million this season and $4.95 million in 2013.

Cry me a river. Get over it. You signed on the dotted line, and with two years left, the Jaguars would be fools to pay this guy $8 million/year.

[eriadoc]

Originally Posted by Double Barrel

Cry me a river. Get over it. You signed on the dotted line, and with two years left, the Jaguars would be fools to pay this guy $8 million/year.

Not only that, but he signed a front-loaded deal to make sure he got what he felt he was worth. The team paid him up front based on expectations. So when he met those expectations, he started crying about his contract.

Business is business, and if he can get it then good for him. But if I were the Jags owner, I'd probably tell him to go to hell. Actually, I'd write clauses in that say if you don't fulfill the contract, then you have to pay back the money.

[Doppelganger]

Originally Posted by Playoffs

Yeah, I think the new Jags owner is wrong taking this public & trying to humiliate MJD. He needs to keep his mustache shut.

If Jacksonville wasn't so apathetic about football, there'd be a public outcry. MJD is a great guy -- on the field & in the community.

The jags owner is in the right here. MJD demanded a contract front loaded so he could get paid and got it. Now he has gotten to the leaner part, he no longer wants to play for it. MJD still has 2 YEARS on his contract. Here is the thing: MJD led the league in rushing and the jags still stunk. The Jags owner has wisely made this a public issue and has made MJD look small and petty. The Jags owner wants MJD to HONOR his contract while MJD thinks his 4 mill plus salary is too low. MJD has lost, for the most part, the support of the fans. In this case, its not the ownership low balling, its a player refusing to play for a contract with 2 years still on it.

If I were the ownership I would not trade him. I would tell him show up or sit out: its your choice.

[NastyNate]

I'd get two firsts for him or pay the man. That's a huge part of their team, they're an average qb away from the playoffs. If Gabbert can make any sort of improvement from last year, with MJD in the backfield they'll still be dangerous. It's not like we were blowing them out last year.

[thunderkyss]

Originally Posted by Doppelganger

The jags owner is in the right here. MJD demanded a contract front loaded so he could get paid and got it. Now he has gotten to the leaner part, he no longer wants to play for it. MJD still has 2 YEARS on his contract. Here is the thing: MJD led the league in rushing and the jags still stunk. The Jags owner has wisely made this a public issue and has made MJD look small and petty. The Jags owner wants MJD to HONOR his contract while MJD thinks his 4 mill plus salary is too low. MJD has lost, for the most part, the support of the fans. In this case, its not the ownership low balling, its a player refusing to play for a contract with 2 years still on it.

If I were the ownership I would not trade him. I would tell him show up or sit out: its your choice.

Well, if I'm MJD's agent I'm telling him to force the trade. Yes the contract was front loaded, but if he had a career poor year they'd be talking about cutting him, especially with a few young stallions in the stable.

If you take his guaranteed money and his salary over the last 3 years, it averages $8M/year. That's what he gave them imo. He should get $8M for next year as well. I think he deserves a new contract.

But the Jags are in a good position. MJD is probably not going to be the difference between a play-off run & a top 15 pick for the Jags. But a team like Greenbay maybe even NYJets.... they might be willing to part with a future 2nd & 3rd to secure a back like MJD.

[Dutchrudder]

For those of you saying he should shut up and play, I agree with you. Look at his contract details:

Jones-Drew signed a four-year extension, that makes for a five-year deal worth $31 million. A $17.5 million signing bonus in guaranteed, sources told ESPN.com.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4070094

So 17.5 million in signing bonus, divided by 5 years, is 3.5 million a year in cap hit. While he may have gotten a nice payday in the first year, his cap hit for the Jags has been consistently around 8 million dollars. LINK That's just stupid to hold out now because the salary dips, he's truly getting paid as well as Foster, McCoy, and slightly less than AP or CJ. I have no sympathy for him in that case.

Edit: the reason why the numbers are kind of weird is because it was a 4 year extension added with 1 year remaining on his previous deal. The math is off a bit, but the cap hit numbers should be about right.

[thunderkyss]

Originally Posted by Dutchrudder

For those of you saying he should shut up and play, I agree with you. Look at his contract details:


http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4070094

So 17.5 million in signing bonus, divided by 5 years, is 3.5 million a year in cap hit. While he may have gotten a nice payday in the first year, his cap hit for the Jags has been consistently around 8 million dollars. LINK That's just stupid to hold out now because the salary dips, he's truly getting paid as well as Foster, McCoy, and slightly less than AP or CJ. I have no sympathy for him in that case.

Edit: the reason why the numbers are kind of weird is because it was a 4 year extension added with 1 year remaining on his previous deal. The math is off a bit, but the cap hit numbers should be about right.

5 goes into 31 a little more than 6 times. There's no way he's been an 8M/yr cap hit for the Jags. He is & has been worth 8M/yr & if the Jags don't want to pay it someone else will & the Jags should get something in return.

[Doppelganger]

Originally Posted by Fiddler

Well, if I'm MJD's agent I'm telling him to force the trade. Yes the contract was front loaded, but if he had a career poor year they'd be talking about cutting him, especially with a few young stallions in the stable.

If you take his guaranteed money and his salary over the last 3 years, it averages $8M/year. That's what he gave them imo. He should get $8M for next year as well. I think he deserves a new contract.

But the Jags are in a good position. MJD is probably not going to be the difference between a play-off run & a top 15 pick for the Jags. But a team like Greenbay maybe even NYJets.... they might be willing to part with a future 2nd & 3rd to secure a back like MJD.

I think the jags need to hold firm. The worst thing you can do is establish a bad precedent. Players need to understand that contracts will only be looked at when there is 1 year left on the deal. If you pay MJD, other Jags will do the same thing. They may ask for when there is 3 years or more. Maybe they will ask for a new contracts every year. No. The problem has to be nipped in the bud. Trading him only reinforces the issue. The Jags need to operate like the Steelers and the Patriots. They draw a line in the sand and keep it that way. The Jags need to do that as well.

[thunderkyss]

Originally Posted by Doppelganger

I think the jags need to hold firm. The worst thing you can do is establish a bad precedent. Players need to understand that contracts will only be looked at when there is 1 year left on the deal. If you pay MJD, other Jags will do the same thing. They may ask for when there is 3 years or more. Maybe they will ask for a new contracts every year. No. The problem has to be nipped in the bud. Trading him only reinforces the issue. The Jags need to operate like the Steelers and the Patriots. They draw a line in the sand and keep it that way. The Jags need to do that as well.

The Patriots would have already traded him & the Steelers never would have paid him to begin with. & as far as precedence goes, next time a player leads the league in rushing, we'll be at the table. Rewards & recognition in a WHYDFML league goes a long way.

[Playoffs]

Originally Posted by Doppelganger

The jags owner is in the right here...

I disagree. Bob McNair would defer questions to his GM, and Rick Smith would keep it in house. Neither McNair nor Smith would attempt to draw laughter & attention to themselves at the expense of the player, much less one of the character on & off the field of MJD.

[PapaL]

Is he the best player on that team? By Far.
Should he be crying about having 2 years left? Nope
Then again it is his HIS money, HIS health, and HIS career.

Hell didn't we redo AJ's deal when he had 2 years left on it?

[Dutchrudder]

Originally Posted by Fiddler

5 goes into 31 a little more than 6 times. There's no way he's been an 8M/yr cap hit for the Jags. He is & has been worth 8M/yr & if the Jags don't want to pay it someone else will & the Jags should get something in return.

You're not understanding it right. He signed a 4 year extension with one year left on his rookie deal. Rookie deals cannot be modified, so he had to play out the last year of it, which apparently was worth ~4 million, likely due to performance escalators (like Duane Brown this year gets and extra 1 mill for his performance in 2011). MJD had 14 TDs in 2008, so it wouldn't be surprising to see him get escalators in 2009. (no source on that, only speculation)

There are conflicting reports of the signing bonus for the deal, but the total numbers still add up to 33 million over 4 years. Rotoworld:

4/15/2009: Signed a five-year, $30.95 million contract. The deal contains $17.5 million guaranteed, including a $9 million signing bonus and Jones-Drew's base salaries in years one and two. Another $1.8 million is available through incentives. 2012: $4.45 million, 2013: $4.95 million, 2014: Free Agent

The signing bonus was 9 million for the extension, years 1 and 2 of the extension were guaranteed, which add up to 8.5 million. That's where the 17 million guaranteed comes from.

He also had another 1.8 million in incentives (showing up to camp, work out, etc) that were easily obtainable. So the total extension was ~33 million over 4 years, which comes out to an average of 8.25 million a year. It goes down a bit if you average in that last year of his rookie deal, but the bottom line is that he has been in the 8 million a year range since 2010. He has no grounds to claim he's being underpaid right now.

[Dutchrudder]

Originally Posted by PapaL

Is he the best player on that team? By Far.
Should he be crying about having 2 years left? Nope
Then again it is his HIS money, HIS health, and HIS career.

Hell didn't we redo AJ's deal when he had 2 years left on it?

Yes, and it was his own damn fault for hiring a moron of an "agent" who was related to him. He didn't report to camp on time that year until they had a deal in principle. Redoing that deal is going to hurt this team down the road if AJ can't stay healthy, he still has a lot of guaranteed money left on it. I love AJ, but that was a dumb decision on the organization's part.

Owner Bob McNair gave Johnson a $13 million guarantee. Johnson’s extension is two years for a base of $23.5 million. It has a maximum value of $38.5 million.

lemon squares

[HOU-TEX]

MJD has zero leverage and is basically making himself look foolish. Actually, both sides are being foolish by acting this way through the media. Using the media as the "middle man" is ridiculous.

[Double Barrel]

Originally Posted by Dutchrudder

Yes, and it was his own damn fault for hiring a moron of an "agent" who was related to him. He didn't report to camp on time that year until they had a deal in principle. Redoing that deal is going to hurt this team down the road if AJ can't stay healthy, he still has a lot of guaranteed money left on it. I love AJ, but that was a dumb decision on the organization's part.



lemon squares

AJ missed some OTAs earlier that year, but showed up at TC on time.

Johnson participated in the team's first training camp workout on Friday, setting aside his still-unresolved contract situation. He wants a new deal, even though he has five years left on his current $60 million contract, but he also said he didn't want to become a team distraction by holding out.

"I know if I wasn't here, it would be a big thing," Johnson said.

------------

Johnson's desire for a new contract came to light in the summer, when he skipped three voluntary workouts during offseason training activities. He took the field on Friday with the contract out of his mind.

Source