I understand his disappointment in not drafting as well as he had hoped to, but Mel Kiper doesn’t sign the checks. I have to think that his threat to re-enter the draft next year is not credible. Where would you draft him? Certainly not #10 overall, maybe not anywhere in the first round.
Exactly. If he goes back into the draft, he’s dropping like a rock. He’ll lose a lot more money by holding out than if he had signed.
What an idiot.
Eh, he’s under no obligation to provide his services for less than what he thinks they are worth. He obviously thinks (or his agent has convinced him) that he will make more if he gets re-drafted. This is not a completely insane thought, as it has happened that way in MLB before (JD Drew being one obvious example).
Of course the players are generally in a much weaker position in the NFL so I wouldn’t be surprised if he is effectively blacklisted and ends up making far less than if he had just knuckled under.
Wonder where the bad advice is coming from; his friends and relatives, his agent or his own head? San Fran beats Super Bowl contender Arizona w/o Crabtree. Ooops!
One interesting tidbit is that Crabtree will not be able to participate in next year’s combine should he sit out; also he would not be permitted to showcase his talents for any NFL team prior to the draft, which would absolutely affect his draft ranking. I don’t believe that baseball players face this same situation.
He’s not under any obligation to sign with the 49ers, but he’s being an idiot. There’s no way he’ll get more money next year, having not played any kind of competitive ball and having taken a hit to his reputation. There’s no comparison to the MLB here, either. It’s common for players to go back into the draft there, and they can play in independent leagues if they choose. Crabtree isn’t going to the AFL.
The 49ers should offer him a half-eaten sandwich and (as a performance incentive) a bag of potato chips.
They most certainly do not. Baseball players that refuse to sign either return to college to show off their skills or play in an independent league. In both cases they are heavily scouted. Tryouts are also allowed, as far as I know. The only limitation is actually in favor of the player - if he is re-drafted by the same team he can refuse to allow it and be drafted later.
Just more examples at how completely useless the NFL players union is compared to the MLBPA.
I’m glad to see the 49ers holding their ground on this. There is absolutely no way he’ll make more money if he re-enters the draft next year because he’ll have this reputation of being obstinent. Many times in the past attitude problems, or even perceived ones, have hurt draft positions. Besides, he’s just being unreasonable. He may think he’s better, than the #9 pick, but it just doesn’t work that way.
Worse, even if he does get a better contract next year, he’s still leaving almost $6 million on the table this year so he’d have to get about a $35 million contract just to break even. Seriously, the one dollar less offer should have been considered a big win for him. He should have taken that, played his ass off, and renegotiated in a couple years for more money. All this does is prove that it’s all about the size of the contract for some sort of status or whatever; if he really cared about maximizing his earnings, he’d have signed a while ago.
I predict if he does re-enter the draft next year, he’ll probably show up out of shape and get drafted even later than his attitude alone would set him back, and he’ll get a whole lot less. That’ll be hilarious.
I don’t remember any other first round picks going back into the draft.
You mean other than Bo Jackson?
Meh, what does Bo know?
Wait… don’t answer that!
And he went from the first pick overall to a seventh round pick. Does anyone know what this meant for his salary?
I don’t think the comparison works regarding Crabtree. He went #1 because no one knew he was really considering playing baseball. He then went in the 7th because he was going to miss training camps, preseason and a few football games every year because of his baseball career.
The only remotely similar case I can think of is Mike Williams from USC. He declared for the NFL after his sophomore year the year Maurice Clarett from Ohio State was challenging the NFL rule that you had to be three years removed from high school to declare for the draft. He hired an agent, automatically disqualifying him from going back to school, and the NFL rule was eventually upheld on appeal. He was a consensus first-rounder and had to wait a year. The following year he was drafted at #10 by, you guessed it, the Detroit Lions. He has been out of the league since 2007.
Crabtree is colossally fucked. Even if he turns out to be the next Jerry Rice this petulance and chaos will negatively effect every single contract he receives. People have watched TO and Brandon Marshall implode and take their teams with them and they just aren’t going to ever give Crabtree A+ money regardless of the numbers he puts up. Any money he extracts from the 49ers now will be lost 5 times over over his career.
Additionally if he signs now he’ll be docked the pay for the missed time, the first game check at least, which is probably a bigger number than the amount of money they are quibbling over. He’s not going to get a decent marketing deal in the short term and he’ll likely never get a premiere deal for the big spenders. That money too probably exceeds the difference in the negotiations.
If he holds out the whole year he’ll probably not even get drafted in the first round next year. There goes the big contract and any deal he gets will probably be a shorter one. Between now and then there could be a new CBA which lowers the rookie pay scale to boot.
His agent Eugene Parker should go down with this ship. This is his bed and while Crabtree will be the one to pay the price, Parker should never get another NFL prospect in his office. What he’s allowing and what he laid the ground work for is an embarrassment. The fact that he’s recently turned on his client only makes him look worse.
Part of me thinks Al Davis is crazy like a fox. By giving Heyward-Bey that ridiculous contract he’s basically fucked 2 other teams. It’s practically espionage. And if you told most teams that by spending an extra $3 million over 3 years or so they could undermine their competition and rob them of a #1 pick they’d probably do it. Don’t you think Belichick would love to play games like that?
I’d say it’s very similar, and that works against Crabtree. Williams was almost universally projected to be a top 3 pick (kinda like Crabtree pre-injury). The one year wait dropped him to #10 (where Crabtree was picked). This spot was considered a huge reach by most and many people were projecting him nearer to the end of the first round because of the layoff and uncertainty. The fact that a player (a similar WR no less) who had to take a whole year off ended up being such a bust will crush Crabtree’s draft stock. If we use the NFL Draft trade value chart the difference between a #3 overall pick and #10 (what Williams lost waiting a year) was 900 points, which when applied to Crabtree at #10 drops him all the way down to #50, the middle of the second round.
What a maroon.
There will likely be a lockout in 2011. That will put him in a tough spot. He will have a one year deal and the reason for the lockout is to cut player salaries. It was a stupid move by him and his agent. One year off a multi million dollar contract will be impossible to recoup. His ego will cost him a ton. My advice. Fire his agent and go begging to get a deal.
Similar, but worse. Williams thought, erroneously, that he was draft-eligible. That might reflect poor judgment, but it does not suggest character issues. Crabtree’s holdout screams “high-maintenance WR,” which is going to make some teams gun-shy above and beyond the yearlong layoff.
FWIW, I think top 10 is a reach for ANY WR. But I’m not a GM.
Could you explain that? I didn’t pay much attention to the draft this year and while I kinda-sorta understand how it affected SF, I don’t get the other team you’re referring to.