QB renegotiation driving me nuts

[Vaevictis_386]

Would love some help from more experienced players out there...

I started offers to my QB at 85% of what he was asking, then increased by 5% until I was matching his total dollar request. Early in the process, at the 85% and 90% stage, I tried several variations on offers such as knocking 8 million out of years 2-5 salary and replacing it with 4 million more as bonus. Also tried offering him an extra year with a 5% bonus increase.

None of those worked.

We've offered something at every stage of FA, and late FA stage 2 just ended. The last and most generous offer was total dollars he requested, plus a 4% increase in bonus over that, but with the contract backloaded to the tune of 33% more salary than he requested in the last year.

Couple of questions --

I was scared to death he'd hold out. He's making about 10% in salary compared to his peers. He hasn't yet. Do hold outs only come at the start of late free agency?

Can I play with the offers all through the season, messing around to get lucky/come up with the magic formula? Any risks to doing this?

How stubborn can a player get? What should I offer this guy?

[aston217]

I typically keep the bonus the same and compensate by pumping up first year salary. When I do this I aim for about 75-85% of total demand.

After you fail a few times, though, the player will raise his demands. When this occurs, it *seems* he will be substantially less accommodating. I forget what I did. It wasn't over 100% of the demand I don't think, but I did have more bonus and greater year 1 salary, while reducing later year salary somewhat.

Holdouts only come at the start of free agency and can be put off by using capouts. I have never seen a player with more than 2 years on his deal hold out, so it's possible that the odds of that are very insignificant.

I think you should probably be more judicious about how often you offer. You don't want to get to the point where he ups his demands. If he's already done this I don't know if it can get worse (in SP, it definitely can - you can get past injustices this way. Presumably MP is the same), but I think you have to be prepared to pretty much meet his demand. Don't backload. He won't be impressed and it doesn't help you at all, anyway.

Here's a Google Docs spreadsheet I use to help me figure out where my offers stack up for most of my major renegotiations: Welcome to Google Docs (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AiFIcxXsa56ydDBqRndrcTVTTUhzanlqVHM5WFlnMFE#gid=0) (The second example there, the TE, signed at the offer shown. I don't remember about the others)

[Julio Riddols]

My policy has almost always been to offer a deal at a flat rate around the level of what the player is asking for for the second year of the deal. If his bonus + salary for year 2 is 3.8 million, and he wants a 4 year deal, I offer him something like 10m bonus, 1.0m a year over 4 years. Generally that works. I play it pretty safe with contracts though, so I tend to end up spending a little much on some guys, but I would rather just make sure they stick around and not bother with being too nit picky.