Cooper Helfet receives injury settlement, is a free agent

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Some minor news, I figured it was worth posting since it's a slow day.

Seattle saves money by going for the injury settlement over IR with Helfet, and it also allows Seattle to potentially sign Helfet back to the team later this season and have him play if he goes unclaimed through free agency until then.

Kind of sad to see. He had some promise to be a good role player. Well, good luck going forward, Cooper!

It's good they cleared the roster/money this way, anyway. Might as well.

Didn't we do the same with LJP last year or was it 2014?

Laloosh":1u0optxv said:

Didn't we do the same with LJP last year or was it 2014?

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I think it was last year too. and he came back and played decent for us.

To the OP, I think he is an above average player in what he has done for us. He caught most of his passes and was decent in blocking assignments. Others say different, but what I saw was ok for me. Hope we see him back.

The team did Helfet a solid by releasing him with an injury settlement. Cooper may now be able to play again this season somewhere including back here if the situation proves right. He will have some market value. I suspect we may see him back at some point he knows the Hawks O and was developing into a solid reserve TE and played adequately well on ST.

As Hawkstorian has observed there are quite a few guys on IR that will be absorbing needed cap $ if they remain once the regular season starts and as such some of them too may be injury settlement candidates before too long.

What kind of money do you get for a settlement such as this? $50,000? Also, does the team you were with when the injury was sustained need to pay for rehab expenses since their facility and trainers wouldn't be an option anymore? Just curious

Injury settlement isn't for a dollar amount, it is for a number of weeks. Within 5 days of an injury, the settlement must be reached. Both sides agree to how long it will be before the injured player can return to practice/ play. The player then received the income that he would have earned had he played those weeks either in a lump sum payment, or in weekly payments.

The team is still on the hook for the cost of surgery, rehab, etc, but the player is no longer on the team so I believe he can't make use of the team's facilities and rehab equipment and personnel, though I am admittedly not certain that there is a rule banning this.


edited to add the following

Helfet's contract makes it pretty easy to figure out since there are no bonuses to pro-rate. He was scheduled to make $37,500 per week this year. Figure he will be out 6-10 weeks. The team would argue for the former and his agent the latter. So he is looking at a $225,000 to $375,000 settlement, likely to be 8 weeks $300,000 IMHO. Surgery and rehab expenses would be added to this, but wouldn't count against the cap

Edited a second time to note I failed to subtract the remaining weeks of preseason. So instead of 6-10 weeks worth of pay he is probably negotiating for 2-6 weeks. You can do the math.

bigskydoc":2o98dbdx said:

Injury settlement isn't for a dollar amount, it is for a number of weeks. Within 5 days of an injury, settlement must be reached. Both sides agree to how long it will be before the injured player can return to practice/ play. The player then received the income that he would have earned had he played those weeks either in a lump sum payment, or in weekly payments.

The team is still on the hook for the cost of surgery, rehab, etc, but the player is no longer on the team so I believe he can't make use of the team's facilities and rehab equipment and personnel, though I am admittedly not certain that there is a rule banning this.

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I think you're confused about what an injury settlement is. Basically, the CBA does not allow a team to void a contract ("cut") an injured player. In an injury settlement, the team and the player come to an agreement where the team basically buys out the remainder of that player's deal and releases him. I assume the amount of the buyout is negotiated by the agent and team and would be a fraction of the total amount of the deal.

IDK about the medical care and rehab. Probably also negotiated. IAE, the contract is voided and the player becomes a free agent and can sign with any other team if he gets healthy enough to pass a physical.

sutz":hkug3bt0 said:

I think you're confused about what an injury settlement is... I assume the amount of the buyout is negotiated by the agent and team and would be a fraction of the total amount of the deal.

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Inarticulate? Perhaps, but not confused. In fact, I just explained exactly how the amount of the buyout is negotiated.

It isn't like the team comes to the table and says we will buy out 20% of your contract and the agent says, no 50%. They negotiate how many weeks the injury will keep the player out based on the optimistic medical opinions of the staff doctors and the pessimistic medical opinion of the player's personal physician. The value of each of those weeks, and thus the dollar amount of the settlement, is already defined by the contract.

sutz":hkug3bt0 said:

IDK about the medical care and rehab. Probably also negotiated. IAE, the contract is voided and the player becomes a free agent and can sign with any other team if he gets healthy enough to pass a physical.

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No, the medical cost of the injury is the responsibility of the team for the weeks negotiated. If it is a six-week settlement, then the team is responsible for six weeks of medical care and rehab. That is one of the reasons why you only see injury settlements for minor injuries.

In the case of Helfet, they almost certainly chose to go with an injury settlement so that they can re-sign him later this year without using their one "return from IR" spot.


edited because Sutz is correct. I meant to add a qualifier to that statement but got sidetracked

I'm not confused. I've seen injury settlements based on career ending injuries. A 'settlement' is exactly that, it settles the deal and ends the contract in a way mutually agreed to by both sides.

Regardless of all that, he's a free agent now and there is no guarantee he would return as a Seahawk if some other team offered him a deal.

sutz":1fodkxm5 said:

I'm not confused.

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I never claimed you were

sutz":1fodkxm5 said:

A 'settlement' is exactly that, it settles the deal and ends the contract in a way mutually agreed to by both sides.

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I never claimed differently, I just explained how the settlement is reached

sutz":1fodkxm5 said:

Regardless of all that, he's a free agent now and there is no guarantee he would return as a Seahawk if some other team offered him a deal.

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Didn't say there was a guarantee, just that this is the most likely scenario for why the Hawks want to go this route with this player. If they placed him on IR, they could choose to bring him back later in the season, choose to leave him on IR for the entire season, or cut him once he is physically able to perform. If they did the latter, he would not be able to be re-signed by the team this season.

By choosing an injury settlement, it leaves open the possibility of signing him again this season if he hasn't been signed by another team.

He is free to sign with any team now except the Hawks, but would have to refund pay for any of the remaining weeks in the negotiated settlement. 6 weeks after the final week of the injury settlement, he will be eligible to sign with the Hawks.

This is the most acrimonious thread ever about an injury settlement.

The only other option if they wanted him off the active roster, but potentially available later this year would have been to place him on IR.

Anytime from week six on, they could then choose to bring him back, but by the time the team wants/needs him back on the active roster, they might have more pressing needs for the one spot they are allowed to bring back off of IR.

For example let's say they IR Helfet with the plan of bringing him back in week 8. However, Collins gets injured in pre-season and they free up a roster spot by placing him on IR. Come mid to late season, and assuming no injuries to a major star, they are going to have to make a decision which one they want to bring back since they can only bring back one.

By giving Helfet an injury settlement, there is the potential of bringing both back during the season, although this comes with the risk that another team will sign Helfet first.

I'm pretty sure they have to designate in advance who gets on the IR-DTR list. You can't just pick a guy from IR and activate him. Not worth it in Helfet's case. I agree there might be someone more valuable to use that on.

Thanks bigsky and sutz for your takes on the injury settlement dialogue. I figured the players' union had a provision in the CBA about this kind of agreement. It would seem harsh to just cut a guy like Cooper, likely working on a 1-year contract, due to a preseason injury. So he gets paid a prorated agreed upon portion of what likely is the league minimum contract and the Hawks don't apply that to their cap -- win/win for both parties.

Siouxhawk":3ux4g9g1 said:

... So he gets paid a prorated agreed upon portion of what likely is the league minimum contract and the Hawks don't apply that to their cap -- win/win for both parties.

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Any money that is paid is still applied to the cap, just as all IR salaries are. Any money saved by cutting him will not count against the cap. Yes, he was on a league minimum salary ($600,000 for a player with 2 years accrued experience).

sutz":3ux4g9g1 said:

I'm pretty sure they have to designate in advance who gets on the IR-DTR list. You can't just pick a guy from IR and activate him. Not worth it in Helfet's case. I agree there might be someone more valuable to use that on.

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That used to be true, but this March, the league did away with the so-called "Designated to return" rule. Now teams actually can "just pick a guy from IR and activate him."

Teams are still limited to a activating only one player per season, but they do not have to designate which player in advance. The player still has to have spent 8 weeks on IR before he can return to the active roster. The returning player can return to practice after 6 weeks on IR.

This opens up several new IR strategies, and I think may have contributed to us drafting so many running backs. If a team is worried about the health of their running backs, tight ends, and offensive linemen, they can stash one of each on IR and select which one to activate based on late-season needs. This is, of course, assuming you have cap space to do so.

Yes, that does make for some strategic late-season possibilities. I don't get how the cap hit would come into play, though, as since you're already paying a player his full salary if you IR him. But I totally get where you're at as far as stashing one of our many running backs. Makes me think we should sign Tarvaris for the veteran minimum, have him fake an injury, stash him on the IR and activate him if needed. Wouldn't be much against our cap and we'd have first crack at him should an emergency situation arise. Is that preposterous?

For salary cap purposes, a player on IR is the same as a player on the active roster. If the player is cut, it reduces his salary and his cap hit.

The injury settlement is just a different way of cutting a player. He doesn't get his salary plus the settlement, he gets the settlement instead of the remaining salary. Since the settlement is less than the remaining salary, the difference is cap savings.

The team could just keep him on IR until healed then cut him at that point, but then they couldn't re-sign him that season.

You certainly could do that with TJack (I wouldn't), but it would cost you $885,000 (the vet min for a guy with 9 years in the league). That would be $885,000 of non-productive salary cap room. It is a different story for guys with minimal league experience. It is much cheaper to keep them on IR.

I still wouldn't just get a guy and stash him there, but if I had a situation like Prosise, who is hurt early on, I would consider stashing him for a year (essentially redshirting him). Activate him toward the end of the year if you don't need to activate a star off of IR, and if he looks good you can ignore running back in next year's draft.

I like it. He wasn't probably going to make the team anyway. If someone goes down during the season we won't have to go looking for a Moeaki or Coffman. There will (most likely) be a guy who already knows our system ready to go.