Defensive lineman Mike Daniels is the Green Bay Packers’ top target for a contract extension, probably by a wide margin. And while there have been negotiations, there has been no progress.
The Packers and Daniels are reportedly several million per season apart, with Daniels seeking an average salary of $10 million.
The request isn’t ludicrous.
Daniels is the Packers’ best defensive lineman and he’s on pace for a career season.
Giving Daniels $10 million annually would slot him just below the top 10 defensive linemen in terms of average salary.
These are the players in that neighborhood (6-10) — Arizona’s Calais Campbell ($11M), New Orleans’ Cameron Jordan ($11M), Cincinnati’s Geno Atkins ($10.7M), Pittsburgh’s Cameron Heyward ($10.5M) and San Diego’s Corey Liuget ($10.25M).
Looks about where Daniels belongs to us, but the Packers aren’t budging at the moment.
“I haven’t heard anything,” Daniels said Friday. “I don’t want to really get involved. Think about it. Am I going to worry about a contract when I got Peyton Manning across from me?”
This is typical.
When the Packers negotiate with someone before their contract has expired, they do so with the motive that they’ll try to get that player to take less than market value. That has worked from time to time. Look no further than the three-year, $13 million deal Jordy Nelson signed in 2011.
The exceptions to this rule were the massive deals handed to Aaron Rodgers and Clay Matthews.
Just last season, it was revealed that the Packers were negotiating with receiver Randall Cobb. Those negotiations didn’t get anywhere until the eve of free agency, when it became clear the Packers needed to pay Cobb what he wanted or he’d go sign with the Raiders for even more.
We suspect the same will happen with Daniels.
i like Belichick’s philosophy: if you reward great performance with a huge salary, you can expect the motivation to continue playing great [at the risk of injury exposure etc.] to diminish, what with the goal of the motivation in the first place already having been achieved.
that is why NE has so much turnover [other than their franchise QB of course, because they have been able to obtain a true competitor, whose motivation to win and become a candidate for the GOAT is greater than his motivation for personal glory, personal stats, and selfish monetary gain]. NE doesn’t hesitate to save money by letting FA cut loose for more lucrative offers, and using the savings to contract “hungrier’ talent.
can you think of any players in GB who could be a personification of an “anti-Brady”?????
Daniels clearly belongs in that category and is worth $10 mil a year. I doubt the gap in negotiations is on the yearly amount. It is more likely on the money up front, the guaranteed amount or the money in the first 3 years, which is the sticking point on most these contracts.