Saints sign Meredith to an offer sheet

[DABEARSDABOMB]

Saints sign Meredith to an offer sheet

Per Schaffer

[DABEARSDABOMB]

Terms update: Saints signing Bears’ RFA WR Cameron Meredith to a 2-year offer sheet, per source. Expecting money to be about $5 million per year - 2 years, roughly $10 million.

 

I’ll match that if I am Pace. That said, we could have just signed him to the bigger tender and had him for one year and just less than 3 million. Basically this deal gets us an extra year at 7 million.

 

[DABEARSDABOMB]

In general though, having meredith locked up for two years is nice. Gives more time to evaluate him post injury. I think he’s going to be a good one.

[Stinger226]

it will end up being 2 mil more than the tender offer, no big deal , plus if he succeeds , would save a big payday on the next year contract going forward.

[bowlingtwig]

If the medical staff signs off on his ACL then I'm ok with it

[bradjock]

17 hours ago, Stinger226 said:

it will end up being 2 mil more than the tender offer, no big deal , plus if he succeeds , would save a big payday on the next year contract going forward.

Agreed.  Cam Meredith is a young talent and we certainly have the cap space.  Although Pace is going to have a tough time answering why he didn’t give Meredith the 2.9 million tender.   That’s a bad look for Pace.  

To make matter’s worse, while Chicago is where NFL receivers go to die, New Orleans with Breese is a place where receiver’s thrive.  If Meredith is really good, that will be an even worse look for Pace.  

On a side note, as I’m a 2 time ISU grad, I’m personally rooting for Meredith to thrive with the Bears.  He’s an easy guy to root for.  

Edited April 7, 2018 by bradjock
Typos!

[AZ54]

Seems like a perfect contract for Pace.  Wasn't the 2nd Rd tender worth about $5mil?  Now he gets Meredith for two years at the same price.  

[bradjock]

5 minutes ago, AZ54 said:

Seems like a perfect contract for Pace.  Wasn't the 2nd Rd tender worth about $5mil?  Now he gets Meredith for two years at the same price.  

I believe the 2nd round tender was for 2.9 million.  Based on all the interest Meredith received, it would appear Pace read the market wrong.  I don’t see how Pace can let him walk.  

[BearFan PHX]

I don't think you can say that Pace misjudged the market.

We don't know for example, what Meredith's agent was looking for. Probably a 4 year deal tho, and if Pace didn't want to do that, then this was an excellent move that worked out, and gives us the 2 year option to accept or not.

We also can't assume that the tender offer was equivalent to what he had on the table in terms of a long term deal. Only that Meredith's agent thought he might do better elsewhere. If Pace was offering a 2 year 3.5 Million a year deal, for example, then this move brings that up to market value, and if Pace thinks it exceeds market value, then he can either eat a little more cap room, or not sign him and lose him to the Saints.

All we really know is that in offering the tender, Pace said "I will pay you 2.9 million for one year OR you can test the market and I have the right to match." And he did, and the number is now known. The best offer on the open market was 2 years for $10 Million. Then Pace has the option to match or not. So it stands to reason that as a fair market price, maybe Pace would have accepted the price in the first place too, so maybe it was Meredith's agent who priced his client above the market. Or maybe a combination.

All I'm really saying is that it didn't cost us whatever we pay in advance of 2.9 Mil, because we may have been offering more than that, and we didn't have the option to lock that in, if the agent knew shopping would increase the price.

Anyway, that's how these tags work, they allow players to see what the greatest interest is from other teams in a real way, in that the team making the highest bid has to commit to it if the team that tagged him doesnt match, so it's a REAL offer, and then the team that tagged him, can match or not.

Given that the agent has a decent idea of what the player might be worth on the open market when the negotiations begin for a long term deal before the tag, it's hard to see how anyone can really misjudge the market here, and even harder to see how anyone could get tricked into overpaying. I mean if the deal was too high, Pace doesn't have to match it.

Basically the tag is a way for the GM to say to the player "youre asking for unreasonably high things, go prove it in the market" and for the player to say to the GM "youre asking for unreasonably low things, go prove it in the market" so when the tag gets used, it pretty much opens an auction that sets the fairest market price. You really can't get screwed this way, especially because you can just let the player go if the other team overpays.

The only way to get screwed is if you let your cap situation get unmanageable, and another team beats you to a player not on more money on the life of the deal, but just with some trick of how it's structured that you cant accommodate on your cap. That's the only way to get beat in this thing.

[Stinger226]

I think we have to wait until the contract details come out. 5.4 is suppose to be the guaranteed money. That almost just a one year deal with no risk after that if he fails. So shooting low loses 2 mil, not a big deal. It at least establishes that there is other opinions that he may turn out to be a good WR. 2 mil is no big deal when you have a cheap RB and QB for 4 more years.

 

[bowlingtwig]

Your said that pace picked up the option. I haven't seen anything regarding that. Is this your belief or did you see it

[BearFan PHX]

sorry, youre totally right. I wasnt fully awake yet. Of course he didnt match yet, youre correct. I was speaking down that scenario in the wrong verb tense.

I expect Pace will sign it, but who knows. If it's too rich, then we're looking for another Free Agent, part of the reason I think we'd resign Meredith is that otherwise, you gotta be looking at a draft pick for a receiver in the first 4 rounds, and we might want to be looking at OL and defense there.

But you're right, Pace hasn't declared either way yet! Ill go edit what I wrote.

[Stinger226]

It is not to expensive of a contract. What Pace did was let the league set the value of Meredith. I read where they offered him a contract and they were far apart on the value so they let the league set the value. Pace did not screw this up.

[Alaskan Grizzly]

Sure Meredith has/had potential.  Considering the degree of his knee injury we’re probably better off with him gone.  I’m still holding out hope on White’s resurgence and that maybe Inman will find a place on the team. 

Speaking of WRs; I’ve talked to a few Vikes fans I know and  they’re stoked about Wright joining their team.  

[bradjock]

2 hours ago, BearFan NYC said:

sorry, youre totally right. I wasnt fully awake yet. Of course he didnt match yet, youre correct. I was speaking down that scenario in the wrong verb tense.

I expect Pace will sign it, but who knows. If it's too rich, then we're looking for another Free Agent, part of the reason I think we'd resign Meredith is that otherwise, you gotta be looking at a draft pick for a receiver in the first 4 rounds, and we might want to be looking at OL and defense there.

But you're right, Pace hasn't declared either way yet! Ill go edit what I wrote.

But if we’d offered him the 2.9 million tender, for New Orleans to sign him, they’d have to give us their 2nd round pick.  The consensus is that no team would give up a 2nd rounder for an injured and somewhat unproven Meredith.   Not to mention, it’s hard to believe we’d be good with guaranteeing him 5.5 million worth up to 8+ million when we wouldn’t guarantee him 2.9.  Which either means we misjudged the market or we really don’t like Meredith.   Like you said, if we don’t resign him, we pry need to draft a guy. 

On a side note, assuming we keep Meredith, it’s concerning out top 3 non-slot WR’s (Robinson, Meredith, White) missed all of last season.

 

[bradjock]

2 hours ago, Stinger226 said:

It is not to expensive of a contract. What Pace did was let the league set the value of Meredith. I read where they offered him a contract and they were far apart on the value so they let the league set the value. Pace did not screw this up.

Pace could have had him for 2.9 million.  If we’d lost him, we’d receive a 2nd round pick.  Instead we have to decide to match, assuming the reports are correct, 5.4 million guaranteed and worth up to 9.6 million over 2 years. 

New Orleans is pretty cash strapped.  They worked him out and were convinced that’s what he’s worth. 

How did Pace not screw up by undervaluing Meredith’s value?   Especially after we signed Marcus Wheaton for 2 years 11 million, with 6 guaranteed.  

[BearFan PHX]

https://dawindycity.com/2018/04/06/chicago-bears-cameron-meredith-offer/

[Stinger226]

They were a negotiating a long term contract with him and his agent asked for a large contract. So if we did the 2.9, it would have pissed them off. So Pace did the right thing by letting the NFL set his value. Now he knows what his value is. If we gave him 2.9 and he was asking for 6-7 a year, we would have another situation like Ashton that thinks he is worth more than his value. Would have booked at the end of the year lie Ashton.

[bowlingtwig]

58 minutes ago, bradjock said:

Pace could have had him for 2.9 million.  If we’d lost him, we’d receive a 2nd round pick.  Instead we have to decide to match, assuming the reports are correct, 5.4 million guaranteed and worth up to 9.6 million over 2 years. 

New Orleans is pretty cash strapped.  They worked him out and were convinced that’s what he’s worth. 

How did Pace not screw up by undervaluing Meredith’s value?   Especially after we signed Marcus Wheaton for 2 years 11 million, with 6 guaranteed.  

Are we seriously saying pace screwed up because of a lousy $2.5M essentially. That's all we are talking about here. We aren't talking about any kind of real cash that is going to hamstring us.  What's the big deal. Every GM makes mistakes. Usually much bigger ones. Pace has had a good off-season let's focus on that

[bradjock]

1 hour ago, bowlingtwig said:

Are we seriously saying pace screwed up because of a lousy $2.5M essentially. That's all we are talking about here. We aren't talking about any kind of real cash that is going to hamstring us.  What's the big deal. Every GM makes mistakes. Usually much bigger ones. Pace has had a good off-season let's focus on that

I agree Pace has had a good offseason, every GM makes mistakes, and 2.5 million is not huge deal with the 180 million+ salary cap.  But he did make a 2.5 million mistake.   

[bowlingtwig]

17 minutes ago, bradjock said:

I agree Pace has had a good offseason, every GM makes mistakes, and 2.5 million is not huge deal with the 180 million+ salary cap.  But he did make a 2.5 million mistake.   

Big deal. What's $2.5M when according to over the cap.com we have $27.4M in available cap space this yr and $60M available next yr. I honestly don't see what the fuss is all about. Pace gave Wheaton 2 yr $11M with $6M gtd. So we are essentially talking about a deal worth less than Wheaton was given

[BearFan PHX]

I dont see how it was a mistake if he signs him or lets him go. What was the other option he should have taken?

 

[ASHKUM BEAR]

They may not sign him, I hope they do though.  He is the type who will grow into a clutch WR.  Former QB who understands what he has to learn.  I am not one bit upset they didn' put a 2nd rd tender on him unless a team would sign him and give it up. Wasn't happening though,  Pace knew it and knew he could spoil the relationship by low balling him 2.9 million on a 1 yr deal.  The kid wants a paycheck and some stability. 

[BearFan PHX]

52 minutes ago, ASHKUM BEAR said:

They may not sign him, I hope they do though.  He is the type who will grow into a clutch WR.  Former QB who understands what he has to learn.  I am not one bit upset they didn' put a 2nd rd tender on him unless a team would sign him and give it up. Wasn't happening though,  Pace knew it and knew he could spoil the relationship by low balling him 2.9 million on a 1 yr deal.  The kid wants a paycheck and some stability. 

yup

 

[AZ54]

What's the mistake?  Pace could have definitely had him for 1yr at $2.9 mil.  Everyone knows nobody was going to give up a 2nd Rd pick for Meredith so that option was on the table for Pace.   Now for just $5mil guaranteed we get Meredith for 2 years.  If he does not return to form after the knee injury then we lost an extra $2mil to find out.  If he does, then at $5mil/yr he's a bargain for 2 years.  If he does return to form after one year Pace can offer him a new longer term deal next year when he might be much cheaper than he could be after two years.   I don't see any way Pace wasn't expecting this type of a contract for Meredith, or even hoping it would happen.