Freeney signs: 6 years, $72 million, incl. $30 million bonus

[Philagape]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2935483

[Ed]

Move over Nate Clements. Your run as the highest paid defender is already over. You know what's scary? In a few years Clements deal won't even seem that great.

The article mentions Peppers waiting to see what Freeney gets to re-do his deal or whatever. He's going to get a MONSTER contract. I wonder how Schobel feels right now? I'm sure he'll be wanting a pretty hefty raise after this season before he gets too old.

[OpIv37]

Freeney is good but damn- that's a steep price tag.

[Ed]

Hey, if he has another 6 sack season that's only a little over $2 million per sack.

Bargain!

[Philagape]

Hey, if he has another 6 sack season that's only a little over $2 million per sack.

Bargain!

I guess that means Schobel should be making $28 million a year

[Saratoga Slim]

the Colts have at least 4 HUGE salaries on their roster, with Manning, Harrison, Wayne and now Freeney. I assume Tarik Glenn's is up there too. I wonder if that comes back to bite them, or if Polian will be able to keep all the balls in the air for the coming years.

[mikemac2001]

the Colts have at least 4 HUGE salaries on their roster, with Manning, Harrison, Wayne and now Freeney. I assume Tarik Glenn's is up there too. I wonder if that comes back to bite them, or if Polian will be able to keep all the balls in the air for the coming years.


Who cares they just won the SB


we all would take that problem in a heartbeat

[Tatonka]

freeney sucked for 14 games this season.. and got all his sacks in 2.. biggest waste of money every in the history of the world.. the guy is above average but not even close to the best defensive player in the league.. colts better have some outs..

[casdhf]

Kelsay was a steal!

[Devin]

As much as I hate saying Schobel deserves that kind of payday. hes been consistant every year regardless of the crap talent around him.

I hope he gets paid one way or another.

[patmoran2006]

Stats dont mean **** when evaluating guys like Freeney.

He commands so much attention he opens the door for scrubs (cough cough Tripplett) to have career seasons and go on to bigger paydays.

He's not worth that money, nobody is.. But he's much more deserving of being the highest paid defensive player in the league than Clements.

[Philagape]

I got this off an Indy paper story at work:

"I just appreciate Mr. Irsay and Bill Polian," said Freeney's agent, Gary Wichard. "That's the history of this franchise: When they value a player and want to keep him, they make the commitment.
"That's why they're walking around with world champions' rings."


cough, cough

[Philagape]

biggest waste of money every in the history of the world.

Roger Clemens is giving him a run at that

[Night Train]

The total of that contract can be misleading but the 30 Mil signing bonus is the figure to pay attention to. That's plain silly.

That doesn't bode well at all for the Bills and other small market teams. As a previous poster mentioned, how can Indy have all their $$ tied up in 4,5 players ? Is the cap expected to rise that quickly over the long haul ?

[Bulldog]

I'm a huge Syracuse fan, and Freeney is a good player. But the Colts are going to regret that contract. I know you guys don't like Peter King, but he threw out an interesting stat on NFL Network last night. Over the last 20 games, Freeney has not had a sack in 15 of them. Think about that for a second.

[Michael82]

:bigwave: Aaron Schobel


:(

[John Doe]

Indy was between a rock and a hard place. They virtually had to sign Freeney if they wanted to make another title run.

[Lexwhat]

Who cares if they have so many high-priced players? I do not claim to be a salary cap expert, but some people here seem to have no clue.

It takes a real good mind to be able to be "cap-creative." The Ravens, Redskins, and Colts all have those type of people running the show. Those 3 teams (and others too) have been giving out high-priced contracts for years, and always seem to make room to sign more top-notch players.

In past years, people have been predicting that the Redskins "would soon have to" cut half of their roster just to be under the cap.... Guess what? That's never been the case. (The fact that the Redskins sign overrated players has nothing to do with my point).

I think the worse that can happen is that those teams will eventually face a salary-cap purge for a short period. However, IMO, recovery is quick. Remember when the Titans were in such bad cap shape? They bounced back VERY quickly and have recenetly been among the teams with the highest cap space.

[Tatonka]

i just hate to see the largest contract (guarenteed upfront money) ever handed out to a guy that is dominant at times and disappears for huge huge stretches. i understand that teams have to account for him, but either you produce or you dont.. he has made a very minimal difference in a ton of games.. like someone else said.. in 20 games, he has 15 where he didnt register a single sack.. and he is a one dimensional player in alot of cases.. look at those games where he didnt have any sacks.. he also didnt have any tackles at all.. if you saw how many games he had last year where he didnt have ANY statistical impact at all.. not just sacks, but ANYTHING.. it is embarrassing that a guy like him got that muhc money.. because it means that a guy like schobel should demand MORE than freeney or at least as much as..

it just sucks.. the salaries are getting so stupid and for a small team like buffalo, i dont see any way they can complete with that.

[Lexwhat]

i just hate to see the largest contract (guarenteed upfront money) ever handed out to a guy that is dominant at times and disappears for huge huge stretches. i understand that teams have to account for him, but either you produce or you dont.. he has made a very minimal difference in a ton of games.. like someone else said.. in 20 games, he has 15 where he didnt register a single sack.. and he is a one dimensional player in alot of cases.. look at those games where he didnt have any sacks.. he also didnt have any tackles at all.. if you saw how many games he had last year where he didnt have ANY statistical impact at all.. not just sacks, but ANYTHING.. it is embarrassing that a guy like him got that muhc money.. because it means that a guy like schobel should demand MORE than freeney or at least as much as..

it just sucks.. the salaries are getting so stupid and for a small team like buffalo, i dont see any way they can complete with that.

I will have to disagree. I do not claim to have seen him play a lot, but I have seen a fair share. Freeney doesn't really need to be a run-stopper. He does his job trying to put pressure on the QB.

Freeney is the type of player who is always double-teamed. On obvious passing downs for opposing offenses, he is sometimes even triple-teamed. His "bad games" with no tackles and no sacks are because he often has 3 guys covering him and teams running to the opposite side. He makes life much easier for Robert Mathis and the DTs.

Indy obviously recognizes his value and gave him money accordingly. He makes everyone else on the D-Line look better than they really are. They could actually SAVE money by throwing any inexpensive, average players next to him and things would balance out.

...Which is why we got stuck with Tripplet...


As for the Schobel comparison, IMO, there is NO comparison. Schobel is double-teamed much less than Freeney, and never triple-teamed.