PFT Bennet to sign with Bears....

[mikeak]

If he is gone - I think we dropped the ball. We should have non-exculsively tagged him and worked out a deal. Moreover, if Chicago wanted him that badly - they would had to given up 2 first rounders.

Don't forget that you don't know what was agreed upon without putting it on paper. He took very little money to play on a contender team. I am convinced that we had a gentlemen agreement not to franchise him. Regardless it would have been the wrong thing to do from an ethical standpoint.

Teams do the ethically wrong thing over and over again and agents will know and remember. The message we sent was - you have a guy that wants to prove himself send him here and we will treat him right

The one that dropped the ball turns out to be Avril in my mind. The market jumped significantly - he should have done a one year deal as well - glad he didn't

 

[Uncle Si]

Except we gave him a prove it deal last year and he was obviously disappointed in not getting a long term contract. Why should he give us a discount for cutting him years ago then going cheapskate bringing him back last year? Not to mention the media rubbing it in his face for juicy quotes to make 12's hate him. I'd take the highest bid and run like my hair was on fire and my ass was catching.

so... Bennet was made at the Seahawks this whole time?

Brilliant...

anyways.. hes taking a higher bid to play with his brother. Why is this a big deal. We dont franchise our players. We will find another one.

This team just won the Super Bowl with low end draft picks, underrated players and guys on "prove it deals". whats the anxiety over doing it again next season?

 

[Dtowers]

Except we gave him a prove it deal last year and he was obviously disappointed in not getting a long term contract. Why should he give us a discount for cutting him years ago then going cheapskate bringing him back last year? Not to mention the media rubbing it in his face for juicy quotes to make 12's hate him. I'd take the highest bid and run like my hair was on fire and my ass was catching.

so... Bennet was made at the Seahawks this whole time?

Brilliant...

anyways.. hes taking a higher bid to play with his brother. Why is this a big deal. We dont franchise our players. We will find another one.

This team just won the Super Bowl with low end draft picks, underrated players and guys on "prove it deals". whats the anxiety over doing it again next season?

We don't franchise our players? Where did this leap of logic come from?

 

[Lady Talon]

Except we gave him a prove it deal last year and he was obviously disappointed in not getting a long term contract. Why should he give us a discount for cutting him years ago then going cheapskate bringing him back last year? Not to mention the media rubbing it in his face for juicy quotes to make 12's hate him. I'd take the highest bid and run like my hair was on fire and my ass was catching.

so... Bennet was made at the Seahawks this whole time?

Brilliant...

anyways.. hes taking a higher bid to play with his brother. Why is this a big deal. We dont franchise our players. We will find another one.

This team just won the Super Bowl with low end draft picks, underrated players and guys on "prove it deals". whats the anxiety over doing it again next season?

He made it no secret from the start he wasn't happy settling for a prove it deal lol. Fans mad at him because the media picked at a fresh wound, is what's brilliant. Going to be as bad of an environment here as Cleveland for him.

 

[Uncle Si]

Except we gave him a prove it deal last year and he was obviously disappointed in not getting a long term contract. Why should he give us a discount for cutting him years ago then going cheapskate bringing him back last year? Not to mention the media rubbing it in his face for juicy quotes to make 12's hate him. I'd take the highest bid and run like my hair was on fire and my ass was catching.

so... Bennet was made at the Seahawks this whole time?

Brilliant...

anyways.. hes taking a higher bid to play with his brother. Why is this a big deal. We dont franchise our players. We will find another one.

This team just won the Super Bowl with low end draft picks, underrated players and guys on "prove it deals". whats the anxiety over doing it again next season?

We don't franchise our players? Where did this leap of logic come from?

we havent franchised someone since 2010... and that was kicker.

leap? or just a simple step? or... Carrol doesnt franchise players. Is that better?

 

[Dtowers]

I just think it is faulty reasoning. We haven't had really any players that were worthy of the tag.

 

[TDOTSEAHAWK]

I don't think people understand the franchise tag well.

If we tagged him - we would have had basically exclusive rights to work out a long term deal with him this year. Why wouldn't we want that?

The risk is that we don't work out a deal and we overpay him for a year - which doesn't affect anything except maybe getting an extra free agent or two this year (compared to what we would have paid him in a contract) and that we most certainly would have cut Clemons.

Now we have an overpaid Clemons who we can't cut because it would make our pass rush super thin.

So people on this board want a $9.7 million Clemons instead of Bennett.

Carolina is in way more cap trouble than us and they tagged Hardy.

 

[Galen96]

I would rather they bring someone who wants to be here.. If Bennett doesn't want to be a Seahawks, that's cool, but franchise him and he would pissed and it would reflect on the field

 

[Lady Talon]

But Clemons will restructure lol, knowing we have no replacement DE and teams are overpaying.

 

[Uncle Si]

I just think it is faulty reasoning. We haven't had really any players that were worthy of the tag.

or its not the business model Schneider and Carrol want to employ. Bennet being a good example.

 

[TeamoftheCentury]

Well that doesn't sound good. I figured if he did leave, Chicago was the only place I could really see Seattle being at a disadvantage competing with.

I like "prove it" deals, but Seattle should have opened the checkbook for Bennett last year. Even on a bad shoulder, he produced in 2012.

Or, perhaps they "should have" also signed Martellus. I was for that last year. Always liked his game and thought Martellus would have been a nice addition. He ended up having a great year for the Bears. Martellus signed with the Bears (4 yr, 20 mil) on March 13, Michael with the Hawks on March 14 (1 yr, 4.8 mil). I wonder if the Hawks had entertained the thought of signing both if they were already targeting Michael on a prove it deal? The brothers had already been making it known they wanted to play together.
(Though I realize it was the business side of it) I think when Red was released, that may have been an indication that it was unlikely Bennett could be re-signed (they had a connection going back to their A&M days, correct?) Yes, Bennett had a year to build other friendships with the rest of his teammates, some guys are more like family than others because of past connections (ie: Sherman and Baldwin, etc.)

If Michael does sign with Chicago, I guess I can't blame the guy for wanting to play with his brother, get paid, and (yes) Chicago is a pretty cool city. Just would have been great to see what he could do as part of the 2014 team looking to rePETE. In all honesty, I understand how valuable Bennett was to the 2013 Hawks. But, there are some players with great potential like Scruggs. Some here on .net know I had a lengthy conversation with a Hawks player last off-season and he mentioned at least two players (though we knew about, still a bit more under the radar to us fans) that the Hawks "really like"... Malcolm Smith and Greg Scruggs. That was said last Spring before his injury. Anyway, I was excited to see both players contribute in 2013. We only got to see one of those. So, I am pretty excited about the potential the Seahawks see in Scruggs and how they plan to utilize his talents. I think he's a good one we'll be talking about soon enough (barring any further setbacks.) We'll see.

 

[Uncle Si]

Except we gave him a prove it deal last year and he was obviously disappointed in not getting a long term contract. Why should he give us a discount for cutting him years ago then going cheapskate bringing him back last year? Not to mention the media rubbing it in his face for juicy quotes to make 12's hate him. I'd take the highest bid and run like my hair was on fire and my ass was catching.

so... Bennet was made at the Seahawks this whole time?

Brilliant...

anyways.. hes taking a higher bid to play with his brother. Why is this a big deal. We dont franchise our players. We will find another one.

This team just won the Super Bowl with low end draft picks, underrated players and guys on "prove it deals". whats the anxiety over doing it again next season?

He made it no secret from the start he wasn't happy settling for a prove it deal lol. Fans mad at him because the media picked at a fresh wound, is what's brilliant. Going to be as bad of an environment here as Cleveland for him.

whose mad at him? How is this like Cleveland?

 

[TDOTSEAHAWK]

I just think it is faulty reasoning. We haven't had really any players that were worthy of the tag.

or its not the business model Schneider and Carrol want to employ. Bennet being a good example.

I suspect the latter is true and they would only tag Earl Thomas, Sherm and Russell Wilson. Or player at cheaper position that Bennett.

 

[Lady Talon]

Except we gave him a prove it deal last year and he was obviously disappointed in not getting a long term contract. Why should he give us a discount for cutting him years ago then going cheapskate bringing him back last year? Not to mention the media rubbing it in his face for juicy quotes to make 12's hate him. I'd take the highest bid and run like my hair was on fire and my ass was catching.

so... Bennet was made at the Seahawks this whole time?

Brilliant...

anyways.. hes taking a higher bid to play with his brother. Why is this a big deal. We dont franchise our players. We will find another one.

This team just won the Super Bowl with low end draft picks, underrated players and guys on "prove it deals". whats the anxiety over doing it again next season?

He made it no secret from the start he wasn't happy settling for a prove it deal lol. Fans mad at him because the media picked at a fresh wound, is what's brilliant. Going to be as bad of an environment here as Cleveland for him.

whose mad at him? How is this like Cleveland?

90% of Hawk fans were offended by the Costco remark. Somewhere in between calling him greedy and devaluing his career since he said it. Why would he stay here to get booed off the field or wait for the inevitable social media backlash from a $9.5m+ here? Hell go to Detroit or Cleveland or the like where they'll give him 10m+ and the whole team gets booed off the field equally. What's the difference.

 

[MidwestHawker]

John Clayton said he gets the feeling that Bennett is staying (just said it on ESPN 710). Maybe this isn't a settled matter yet.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

Hope John is right.

 

[mikeak]

I don't think people understand the franchise tag well.

If we tagged him - we would have had basically exclusive rights to work out a long term deal with him this year. Why wouldn't we want that?.

I understand the franchise tag very well

That key word is highlighted above - We

Do you know who is excluded from the We right there? The player himself. The player gets screwed. The player gets to either take a deal without negotiating with other teams or play on a one year deal which he already did. That makes it less likely he gets a big deal later and risks big money from injury. He gets pressed into a situation where he has to take a deal.

I get the franchise tag for players normally within the organization but Bennet came here on a one year deal. It was all it was ever supposed to be - one year deal to prove himself. The franchise tag would have been incredibly disingenuous and a harsh way to treat a person that helped us win a superbowl while helping himself.

EDIT: I know some people are going to say that you can't get screwed when offered $8million / year. I completely disregard player salaries compared to my own or the general population. I put it in the perspective of the league and other players

 

[Uncle Si]

so... Bennet was made at the Seahawks this whole time?

Brilliant...

anyways.. hes taking a higher bid to play with his brother. Why is this a big deal. We dont franchise our players. We will find another one.

This team just won the Super Bowl with low end draft picks, underrated players and guys on "prove it deals". whats the anxiety over doing it again next season?

He made it no secret from the start he wasn't happy settling for a prove it deal lol. Fans mad at him because the media picked at a fresh wound, is what's brilliant. Going to be as bad of an environment here as Cleveland for him.

whose mad at him? How is this like Cleveland?

90% of Hawk fans were offended by the Costco remark. Somewhere in between calling him greedy and devaluing his career since he said it. Why would he stay here to get booed off the field or wait for the inevitable social media backlash from a $9.5m+ here? Hell go to Detroit or Cleveland or the like where they'll give him 10m+ and the whole team gets booed off the field equally. What's the difference.

I think maybe you're putting way too much into simple comments and fan reactions. The comment wasn't even derogatory. I highly doubt anyone would think to do anything but cheer loudly if Bennet was here next year.

And Bennet knows the difference. He wants to be valued. If our offer mets his estimation I doubt he thinks twice about some whiney fans on Twitter

 

[jlwaters1]

I just think it is faulty reasoning. We haven't had really any players that were worthy of the tag.

The franchise tag is an inefficient way of dealing with the cap. It's not a tool JS wants to utilize frequently. I think this is pretty obvious after watching JS and PC operate over the last 4 season.

 

[Dtowers]

I just think it is faulty reasoning. We haven't had really any players that were worthy of the tag.

or its not the business model Schneider and Carrol want to employ. Bennet being a good example.

I suspect the latter is true and they would only tag Earl Thomas, Sherm and Russell Wilson. Or player at cheaper position that Bennett.

This is my point exactly. It isn't that they flat out DON'T franchise players they just haven't had to franchise a more prominent player...yet. They have used their tag 1/4 of the time. It was in a situation where it made sense to protect the player for one year at rate that wasn't unreasonable for his services.

I wonder what the league average is for tag usage but only a handful of players get tagged in a year?