A veteran QB we could sign if Alex retires

[e16bball]

6 minutes ago, Thaiphoon said:

I think you're looking at Credited Seasons (which determines contract $$, not free agency status). That language is 3 games, not 6.

Yes, this is the distinction. I believe he has 5 “credited seasons” and only 3 “accrued seasons.” In both 2017 and 2020, I believe he was on active rosters for only 3 or 4 games — which is enough to qualify for “credited season” status, but not “accrued season” status. 

Edited January 11, 2021 by e16bball

[e16bball]

22 minutes ago, Thaiphoon said:

Picking your legal brain here... IIRC, if there is ambiguity in the contract language, it kinda defaults to the players' side, correct? At least that is how it is in my corporate/consulting world. But not sure when there is collective bargaining.

As a general rule, an ambiguity in a document will be construed against the party who created it. The other party is deemed to have had less control over the terms of the document and thus less ability to resolve the ambiguity. Since they were presented with an ambiguous document, it would be (more) unfair to hold them accountable to any possible definition of the terms in someone else’s document.

Which is what we see in the most common two-party agreements, like product end-user agreements and typical service contracts. Many of those end-user agreements don’t get enforced anyway, but in general, if you buy Office and there’s some ambiguous term in Microsoft’s user agreement, it gets construed against Microsoft as the creator of the document. Same thing if someone hires me to be their attorney and there’s an ambiguity in my legal services agreement — I wrote it, so it will be construed against me. 

Long way of getting to the point, which is that I’m not exactly sure what happens in collectively bargained agreements like this where both parties are well-represented and well-informed, have similar negotiating power, and are mutual participants in crafting the exact terms of the document. 

[turtle28]

12 minutes ago, e16bball said:

Yes, this is the distinction. I believe he has 5 “credited seasons” and only 3 “accrued seasons.” In both 2017 and 2020, I believe he was on active rosters for only 3 or 4 games — which is enough to qualify for “credited season” status, but not “accrued season” status. 

Taylor said this morning on the junkies that he’s a restricted FA. It was a great interview if anyone wants to go to the 106.7 website and listen.

[Thaiphoon]

10 minutes ago, e16bball said:

As a general rule, an ambiguity in a document will be construed against the party who created it. The other party is deemed to have had less control over the terms of the document and thus less ability to resolve the ambiguity. Since they were presented with an ambiguous document, it would be (more) unfair to hold them accountable to any possible definition of the terms in someone else’s document.

Which is what we see in the most common two-party agreements, like product end-user agreements and typical service contracts. Many of those end-user agreements don’t get enforced anyway, but in general, if you buy Office and there’s some ambiguous term in Microsoft’s user agreement, it gets construed against Microsoft as the creator of the document. Same thing if someone hires me to be their attorney and there’s an ambiguity in my legal services agreement — I wrote it, so it will be construed against me. 

Long way of getting to the point, which is that I’m not exactly sure what happens in collectively bargained agreements like this where both parties are well-represented and well-informed, have similar negotiating power, and are mutual participants in crafting the exact terms of the document. 

Okay. That's exactly what I was getting at. I told a major consulting firm to pound sand because of ambiguous language in a non-compete.

[offbyone]

1 hour ago, e16bball said:

Since he’s an RFA, we have the option to tender him a one-year contract at certain levels with protection — but you’re right, we don’t have to use the RFA system. We could refuse to tender him and simply make him a UFA.

Then we could offer him a one-year contract for as low as $990k. This is tricky, so just skip to the next paragraph now if you don’t care about the CBA minutiae stuff 😂 Basically, there are two separate concepts regarding the amount of credit for time in the league a player has. There are accrued seasons, where you have to be on the active roster for at least 6 games, and that’s what determines your eligibility for FA. Heinicke only has 3 of those, which is why he’s an RFA. There are also credited seasons, where you have to be on the active roster for at least 3 games, and that’s what determines your minimum salary. Heinicke has 5 of those — 2017 and 2020 both qualify as credited seasons but not accrued seasons — so he’s eligible for a minimum salary of $990k. 

If we non-tender him and offer him that $990k salary (or thereabouts), he’s just a regular old UFA at that point. No right to match and no compensation if he leaves (aside from the standard possibility of a comp pick). 

We also could offer him a long-term deal, but I think that’s pretty far-fetched. Surely even he must understand that we’ll need to see more from him before we can commit to long-term money. 

So that leaves us with 5 basic options, listed in order of most commitment to least.

1. Long Term Deal on whatever terms they agree to

2. 1 year / $4.6M (we get a 1st rounder if he signs elsewhere)

3. 1 year / $3.2M (we get a 2nd rounder if he signs elsewhere)

4. 1 year / $2.1M (we get the right to match any contract he signs with another team)

5. 1 year / from $990k to $2.0M

Good break down.  Personally, I hate one year deals especially for the qb position.  If they really like him I would lock him up for a couple years.  The truth is he made Kyle Allen as a back up look very expendable. 

The problem no one is talking about, is we have 2 backup qbs to consider resigning- Heinicke and Allen.  Allen is free agent as well.  They were both ok, but I think I have already seen Kyle Allen's ceiling and I would like to find out what Heinicke's is.  Do we sign them both?  I am not sure.  I doubt either get a competitive offer from another team so I think it is more up to us than anything.

[turtle28]