It looks like the Green Bay Packers have decided they’re done paying guys this offseason. Even though cornerback Sam Shields expected, and the team was reportedly working on, a long-term deal, that isn’t happening.
Shields signed his one-year restricted free agent tender on Monday after his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, showed up at Packers HQ. As Tyler Dunne tells it, good ol’ Stonewall Thompson gave Shields and Rosenhaus the old “this is my offer and you will take it and like it,” deal.
By the sounds of it, the Packers and Shields’ agent, Drew Rosenhaus, were not seriously close to reaching a long-term deal. Shields said there was “a little progress” when Rosenhaus met with the Packers Monday but “it didn’t happen.” An extension “was getting there, then it wasn’t.” Eventually, Shields decided it was best to sign his tender and start practicing after skipping voluntary organized team activities.
So, Shields will probably join B.J. Raji in playing out his contract and becoming a free agent after the season. The Packers have decided not to negotiate a new, long-term with Raji either. We haven’t even mentioned James Jones, Jermichael Finley and Ryan Pickett. Those guys are in the final year of their current contracts as well.
Apparently the Packers strategy was 1. pay Aaron Rodgers, 2. pay Clay Matthews, 3. force everyone else to play for peanuts and like it.
Now, these guys aren’t actually playing for peanuts, but we’ve discussed it several times. If any one of these 2014 free agents has a huge season, their price tag just gets higher.
Our bet is at least three of those five guys won’t be on the 2014 roster.
On the positive side, these guys will all be hungry for a payday. When you couple that with the added competition, the Packers will probably end up back in the Super Bowl.
[schema type=”person” name=”Sam Shields” orgname=”Green Bay Packers” ]
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Shields hasn’t shown enough to get what he was asking for. He’s not even guaranteed to be a starter. Let him battle with the other young corners and earn that big payday
Hmm… Gonna be some motivated dudes on this squad. Superbowl, indeed.
Cant pay them all bro
I have to agree that a good many of these players don’t come back. it will be interesting to see who stays. I would have to say with the current talent in the DB room that Shields is going to need a whopper of a year to get that big payday.
Realize also that you would tear TT apart if he paid Shields and he ended up being a mediocre player ala A.J. Hawk.
I think TT is learning it’s better to replace a player than be stuck with and overpay a player who has reached his potential.
Is that what Drew Rosenhaus said?
Haha… how come whenever a player doesn’t agree to a contract it is because the team was “low-balling”? Maybe the player wants too much damn money.
If the ice cream truck comes around and you tell the Arab driving the thing that you want a SpongeBob Popsicle for your kid, and he tells you $10. You tell him to kiss your ass. Is that low-balling?
No doubt Shields wants to be paid like a starter, which is the $5-$8 million range, and the Packers are wise to not hand that over until they find out if Shields indeed IS going to be the starter or if it is going to be Hayward and Williams.
I would like to dispel the notion, which I know is impossible, that the Packers don’t have the money to pay Shields. They have plenty of money. They are around $10 million under the cap yet.
Why pay a guy more if you don’t have to? If he starts playing like a top CB then he’ll get paid like one. Plain and simple.
Total Packer writers:
You really need to stop taking your assumptions based on loose foundations and reporting them as facts.
The Dunne article did not have nearly the tone you are projecting here. There was no strong indication that the Packers are lowballing Shields. You assumed that because no deal was reached.
The Packers just made 12 the highest paid player ever, and 52 the highest paid OLB ever. This team will pay its own. This could just as easily be Rosenhaus or Shields making unreasonable demands.
If you want to do interpretive opinion pieces, then fine, do them. But don’t present them as if they are the news.
Drew Rosenpenis is hardly credible. Just cuz he says it doesn’t make it so. Players tend to overvalue their contributions. Since RosenRosen gets some percentage of that salary, and more is always better, of course he’s going to start singing the “TT is cheap” song. I think ARodg and the Claymaker would disagree with that sentiment. Earn your paycheck Sammy, then we’ll talk.