Forever His, Forever Ours
March 10, 2014
Salazar’s debut, Playoffs?, and True Detective: While We’re Waiting
March 11, 2014Early Monday evening SI’s Peter King tweeted about Browns center Alex Mack. Last week the Browns applied the transition tag to Alex Mack meaning he could negotiate a deal with another club, but the Browns had the right to match the offer and retain the free agent.
According to King, Alex Mack’s agent (Marvin Demoff is the lead representative) believes that a deal can be made that the Browns won’t want to match.
Agent for transition-tagged Cle C Alex Mack tells me he's "confident" he can structure pact w/a "reasonable likelihood" Browns won't match.
— Peter King (@peter_king) March 10, 2014
Not the point whether he wants out. Point is, if you're transition-tagged, only way to make real money is to get an offer. That's the goal.
— Peter King (@peter_king) March 10, 2014
And I'd say the odds are against an offer for Mack. But you never know.
— Peter King (@peter_king) March 10, 2014
If Mack doesn’t accept an offer from another team, he can sign the one year tender from the Browns for just over $10 million dollars and become the highest paid center in the league and be a free agent next season.
One tactic that agents have previously used to get around these kinds of situations are the inclusion of “poison pill” clauses. These clauses guarantee outrageous bonuses for things like number of games played in a certain stadium or state. The most famous of these happened between the Seattle Seahwaks and Minnesota Vikings when they were bidding for the services of Steve Hutchison and Nate Burleson respectively.
These clauses are not believed to be illegal technically, though the NFL “discourages” the use of them.
If King is correct that Mack stands to gain by getting another team involved in making an offer, then this statement by his agent could be a ploy the day before free agency begins as well.
[Related: The Alex Mack contract gamble]
18 Comments
Mr. Demoff…
http://www.kellyhills.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/morpheus1.gif
***Agent confident he will try to get as large a commission as possible
Hey Marvin, a transition tag is not a challenge to escape the clutches of the Browns…or is it?!
Is Mack trying to Houdini his way out through a masterfully crafted contract that the Browns won’t match—or is Marvin just making noise because he’s bitter about the tag and potentially delayed gratification (Waiting For Next Year for the big payday)? Very interesting. Guess we’ll have to stay tuned to the never ending Mack saga….
AKA doing his job
Technically doing his job would be getting his client everything he wants/doing what’s in the client’s best interest long term, which doesn’t always mean the largest commission possible now.
Hmmm, I really really hate to say this, but I’m smelling a strong odor of rookie general manager. Farmer has done nothing to instill any confidence in anyone.
Hope I’m jumping the gun, but I just don’t like the vibe so far.
Mack and Ward should have been extended last year. Plus three heads coaches in one year….
Don’t blame Farmer for being slow in towing the truck out of the ditch that Haslam and Banner drove into.
Yeah, but Banner left Farmer with tons of cap money. What’s he saving it for?
Farmer’s job is to get good players, not to show everyone what a genius he is. Money is worthless if you don’t spend it.
True. However, you shouldn’t overpay someone who doesn’t want to be here. Not sure how committed Mack was to negotiations, just saying.
That’s all this is. Not the commission but it’s the only way to get teams to even talk to him. Could very well be that anybody they’ve talked to has said “er, we aren’t going to waste our time”.
Didn’t the Cavs get hoisted on their own petard when they tried something clever like this with Carlos Boozer? The Browns are too clever by half using the transition label to save money instead of the franchise tag. Add center to the list of needs in the draft along with (and in no particular order) quarterback, running back, middle linebacker, free safety, cornerback and guard.
The best long-term plans do not involve the Browns.
I suspect he would gladly leave money on the table to go somewhere he’d rather be. Now his agent has to craft a way to make that happen without the Browns matching.
Boozer was saying how he loved clevaland and didn’t want to leave and they didn’t sign him because they were restructing his contract to pay him more. Then he went behind the cavs backs to get a deal and sign elsewhere. I don’t see why Mack’s agent would feel he would need to get him out of CLE. That is what is puzzling to me. If Mack leaves, he won’t be a villian in CLE. I think Mack will either sign here when CLE matches another teams offer, or he will play out the one year and test FA next year. What happens when a team offers him 5 years 30M? Can he turn it down or can CLE just say, OK we will match it!
Dear Mr. Marvin Demoff, here is a clue. The team most interested in your client’s services is the Cleveland Browns. So much so that they are willing to pay your client considerably more than any other player at his position this season. Plus they have a ton of salary cap space, and are the only NFL team not deterred by the threat of another team matching an offer. If you want a long term deal that provides security for your client as well as a hefty commission for yourself, perhaps you should be talking to the Browns instead of boasting about how you might be able to get around them.
Wasn’t Ross Verba’s agent confident that he could get his client a better deal if he forced his way out of Cleveland? If I remember correctly, Verba ended up sitting a year and then got a contract from the Lions for less than what the Browns would have paid him.
both sides have to agree to sign on that line. i’m not so sure that Mack was willing to sign. we shall see what happens.
with our FO history, it is always safer to err on the side of stupidity but I tend to be an eternal optimist when it comes to this stuff.
Okay, riddle me this: Then why didn’t they franchise him if they were worried that he wouldn’t agree? Because they were suddenly infused with a new-found empathy for players’ wishes?
I hear a train a-comin’, comin’ down the track, and it’s name is the Dysfunctional Debacle-icious Stooge Express. Hope I’m just being irrational.