Carter's situation ‘feels like a lowkey hold-in’
After Nick Sirianni was "deliberately evasive" about Jalen Carter's absence from team drills, Mike Florio and Michael Holley explore what could be going on in Philadelphia, where a potential hold-in could be brewing.
Video Transcript
We don't have to I, I, I don't want to get into I'm sorry.
I'm, I'm not gonna get into all those, all those different things.
you know, right now I've been able to work some individual, scenarios, you know, on individual, practices, and that's where he i- that's Everybody's in a little bit different boat right now o- of, you know, where they are in the off-season, and, and that's where Jalen is right now.
Is his shoulder okay?
Is his shoulder fine?
Has he recovered from his shoulder surgery?
you know, he's worked really hard to continue to get himself in to be the best position he can possibly be in to go into a training camp, and, he's continuing to work with that.
It's not a yes.
He had procedures on both shoulders, missed about a month late in the regular season last year.
Vic Fangio, the team's defensive coordinator, had said not that long ago that Carter was fine.
He was recovered.
He's got his strength back in his shoulders.
This is, to me, a contractual thing.
And I, I'm not here to say how Nick Sirianni should respond to questions, but this is the second sa- straight day we've used a clip from Sirianni where he's just kind of deliberately evasive.
Now, with Carter, it could be a contract thing.
He's in the window to get a new deal, and they haven't given it to him yet.
And we know the Eagles are very proactive when it comes to getting their guys signed to long-term deals.
And there was a report back in March that they were getting calls about him for a possible trade.
I think that was leaked by the Eagles to maybe get some more calls.
There was a report that there were discussions with the Browns about Miles Garrett and that the Browns wanted Jalen Carter.
Now, Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer has since said that's not true, but that's out there.
That's the background for the fact that they've yet to give this guy his contract.
He's got a fifth-year option of, like, 27 million because he's, he's activated a higher level of the fifth-year option given his Pro Bowls and given his performance so far.
But this just feels like a low-key hold-in, and I don't blame him.
That's what Bijan Robinson and Jahmyr Gibbs should be doing.
"I'll be here, but I'm not putting myself at risk until you give me the contract I've earned, period."
And I don't know why Nick Sirianni just won't come out and say it, but he won't.
But it sure seems like that's what's happening.
Yeah.
A l- a lot of times coaches don't come out and say it because maybe they feel like, "I don't wanna say something that screws up the deal," or, "Maybe we're close to a deal, and we'll have something to announce soon.
I don't wanna mess it up, so I'll just, do this little dance here."
But you know, Mike, isn't it, isn't it great now that we really don't have to guess about contractual situations?
I mean, there's something about covering football in the 21st century that is easier than it was in the old school days.
So, a- and I know some, some people have been covering it for a long time say, "Oh, yeah, I remember back in the day, we could watch practice, and we could travel with the guys, and access was a lot better."
Sure.
But now you know.
It's pretty clear.
If you have OTAs and you have somebody participating in drills, some drills but not all the drills, then you know it's 90% of the time that's a contractual situation.
And also, you know if you're on social media and if a player unfollows a team , you know something's going on.
"I, you know, I just decided to clean up my social media page.
I just wanted to scrub it.
There's nothing going on.
Everything's fine."
Okay.
When a player unfollows a team, then that player's about to be a former player of that team.
Yeah, I think Jalen, Carter looks at it and, looks at his position and looks at other people around him, not only in the organization but in the league, and he says, "Well, wait a minute.
I, I'm, I've outperformed my contract.
I'm pretty good t- to this.
I'm pretty in- pivotal, instrumental to this operation."
I, I think he wants a new contract, and I don't know if the Eagles are giving him pushback and that's why they're being a, a, evasive, or the Eagles and Jalen Carter are close to announcing something, a, a new deal.
And for the players who have played at a high level for three years after they were drafted, especially in the top 10, it's critical that they get their reward.
The entire rookie wage scale that was put in place in 2011 is a product of the NFL incessantly whining.
And I'm not intending that to be as derisive as it sounds, because there was a point to be made.
When the top of the draft is paying contracts that are so exorbitant that teams were actually considering passing deliberately.
Bill Parcells, when he was with the Dolphins in 2008, they were considering not picking anyone at number one and just waiting until the pick fell to a slot that they thought was more financially practical.
It did get out of control, and the argument was, "We're giving these gigantic sums to guys who have never played.
Some of them, many of them, will be busts.
Some of them will be hard to handle in the locker room because there's nothing you can say to them.
We can't cut them.
We can't do anything.
We've made this gigantic guaranteed commitment."
So when they got that under control, the problem is, what about the guys who should've gotten that money?
What about the guys who aren't busts?
You gotta take care of them.
Some teams do it after three years.Some teams wanna kick it to year five.
That fourth year, the way these contracts are structured, that fourth year is so cheap, and we've seen great players have to play that fourth year for not a whole lot of money until they get that contract.
And that's what Jalen Carter's trying to avoid.
That's what Bijan Robinson's trying to avoid.
That's what Jahmyr Gibbs is trying to avoid.
And I think that the system needs to have a better trigger to ensure that for the guys who aren't busts, they break the bank, and the team can't play games with them, stretching it out five years, franchise tagging them.
These guys who were not busts who came in and played well, they delivered on their promise, there needs to be a better and more reliable way to get them properly paid because obviously they're years away from free agency.
Yeah, they'll, they'll keep tweaking it because I, I think we go back to before 2011.
What Who was the, the, the, the guy who changed the w- whole structure of it?
Was, wasn't it Sam Bradford?
Was it Sam Bradford, that deal, you know, all that guaranteed money, with the Rams?
And people looked at it and said, "Wait a minute, the guy hasn't done anything in the league, and how is he getting all this money?"
So you're right.
The, the bust factor, I think the league has done, the, the league and Players Association working together, they've figured out how to kind of mitigate the bust factor.
But there, there does need to be some type of adjustment for guys who are really good players, who are really good players who it's clear in year one, year two you're gonna outperform this contract.
You're not a bust, and the team shouldn't be able to just kind of put the thumb on the scales and keep you in the same position, for, for an extra year or two.
It's one of the reasons why those draft picks are so valuable.
You acquire the opportunity to get a potentially great player.
The expense is relatively low, significantly lower than what it would take to go out and sign a veteran based upon the market, based upon the cap, based upon the fact that there isn't for veterans a formula like there is to determine what you're gonna be paid based upon where you're drafted.
And that's why those picks mean so much.
You get the guy, first-round pick, five years, and you can tag him once, and you can tag him twice.
Seven years before you hit the open market.
I've been wondering if there will be a day when And I thought maybe Baker Mayfield would do this with the Browns.
Obviously, things fell apart in Cleveland before it got to that point.
A quarterback who enters the draft who doesn't say, "I refuse to play for you," which has happened twice since 1983, but a quarterback who says, "I'm never signing a second contract here."
Because for a quarterback, you put in your seven years, you're still in your late 20s in most cases, on the front end of your prime.
Right.
You've done your five years.
You've done two tags.
I'm never signing a long-term deal.
I'm never doing it.
I wanna become a free agent, and I wanna pick where I continue my career after this first phase of it.
We were talking earlier about how the NFL is a year-to-year proposition now.
I keep waiting.
As much as I wait for another disrupter like John Elway and Eli Manning to say, "I refuse to play for you," and I was joking yesterday about the possibility of the Cardinals completely bottoming out this year, earning the first overall pick and having Arch Manning say, "I'm never playing for you," but I'm waiting for a guy to say, "I'm gonna become a free agent.
I'll put in my seven years if that's how long it lasts, but I'm gonna become a free agent."
Yeah, I think a guy can say it.
I, I think what's difficult, Mike, is for a quarterback or especially a quarterback who says that, and then, you know, you're presented with a market value contract from a bad franchise.
But they give you a market value contract and they say, "Okay, I know you said on draft day that you would never sign a second contract here, but, you know, Patrick Mahomes just, uh..." I- and he's, he's getting 64 million, and, and the, the market is going up every day.
"So, we're gonna give you a contract, and it's, yeah, average about $75 million per year.
Are you gonna turn it down?"
Like, most, most guys say, "I won't, I won't sign a second contract," then you look at that number and you go, "Well, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, I will."
It's easy to say.
I think it's just hard to pull off.
You gotta be a special guy- Oh, you're right just to, to have the discipline to walk away from that and say, "All right, there's something better for me elsewhere."
And, you know, maybe the best way to get the maximum deal is to sell the idea that I'm never signing a second contract, and mean it.
That's always the best path in negotiation.
I've experienced that.
Every car that I've ever bought, not every single one, but at least the last four or five, I only made the deal after I said to the salesperson, "I don't want it.
I don't want it.
I'm out."
"Oh, now you'll move?
Now you'll move to the number that you refused to move to once I said I'm out?"
But here was the problem: for me, when I get to that point, I mean it.
So I had to go back and kind of, like, re-get myself fired up about this car because they're finally giving me the deal that I wanted all along.
So yeah, if you sell it too hard and you mean it, and they want you, they'll find a way to keep-
