Contract questions from a rookie...

[kuykenda]

Hi guys. I have been stumped by what the "This Season" salary means when trying to re-negotiate a contract during the regular season. In my multi-player league I have 1 game remaining in the season. My player is requesting $890,000 for "this season". He is currently playing this year for the veteran minimum of 510k. My question is...am I throwing away 890k and essentially paying this amount for 1 remaining game? I have not been through the free-agency period and don't know if this player can walk if I dont sign him now. I basically want to sign him for 2008 and 2009 but dont understand what the 2007 salary demand or request means for what is essentially 1 game left in the 2007 season. I would like to offer him the 890k he is asking for + 80k bonus he is asking for over 2 years and bump up the 2nd year salary a bit. I am unsure why I have to pay the 890k for the remainder of "this season" as part of what the game would deam a 3 year contract as opposed to the 2008-09 2 year deal I want to sign him too.

On a similar note, someone in my league just signed a player for "this season". Did that basically give the player 1 year deal money for 1 game? I am really stumped by this and hope this isnt something really basic that I am missing. Is it best to do these type of mid-season signings during the first few games so that you arent wasting alot of money or am I completely lost on this. Any help would be great. Thanks!

[mac]

I think there boosting his salary from 510 to 890 will oly cost an extra 480

However there is a problem both with the way players negotiate in-season in that they always act as if it is still preseason.

Even worse is the problem you mention about signing someone mid season as they paid for the full year for example if you want a punter for the last game of the season (due to injury) you have to pay him a full years salary. Even though in the nfl players are paid per game so the player would only get 1/17 of an annual salary.