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March 16, 2015
Tribe Fans Need to Know Lefty Weisman: Reliving Yesteryear
March 16, 2015Jordan Cameron’s path to Miami sure was interesting, wasn’t it? It would seem that Cameron’s agents pulled a fast one on some national reporters and helped solidify the Browns look of dysfunction in “leaking” a fictitious agreement with the Browns. In short order, the Dolphins were reported to have matched the two-years and $15 million that Cameron had “agreed to” with the Browns. But did Cameron really even get $15 million for two years?
The details of the contract are out and it appears not to be the case. In fact, the details of the deal have me wondering if this contract will someday look completely antiquated.
Per a source with knowledge of the deal, Cameron will receive $5 million fully guaranteed on his two-year, $15 million contract, with $4 million to sign and a $1 million fully-guaranteed salary in 2015. The rest of his compensation for 2015 is tied to per-game roster bonuses.
It’s a whopping $2.5 million, earned one game played at a time in the amount of $156,250 per game.
It’s that last part that gives me pause. Jordan Cameron will make over $156k per game, meaning that the Dolphins are directly worried about him being on the field. It makes a lot of sense because Cameron missed six games in 2014. He missed five in a row in the middle of the year with concussion symptoms. At the time I noted that it seemed like the culture around the NFL was starting to grow as I didn’t hear much complaint about Cameron sitting due to his head injury. It seemed that it was a huge step forward to me from a time when players had to get on the field — even risking their health — or be labeled as less than a man.
Seems I was wrong. The Dolphins might not disparage their new tight end if he misses time due to head injuries in 2015, but they also won’t be paying him a large portion of his contract. That also seems kind of fair in a lot of ways, except that it sets up a really bad set of incentives whereby the Dolphins are encouraging a guy to play through injuries, even to the point that it might be in Cameron’s best financial interest to hide an injury. Who knows? Cameron might even now be willing to hide a head injury that would otherwise cause him to sit out five games and take care of himself.
In a lot of ways, this Dolphins contract seems regressive for a culture that seems to have come around some on player safety, especially with regard to concussions in the last few years. I’m sure it’s totally legal as of right now, but if I was a betting man, I wouldn’t bet on this kind of contract structure being legal at some time in the future. It’s a bad precedent for health and safety in the league.
15 Comments
Although it was a lesser amount, the Browns did something similar with Ben Tate’s contract last year: http://www.dawgsbynature.com/2014/3/19/5528098/breaking-down-the-contract-for-browns-rb-ben-tate
I’m not upset Cameron left simply because he could never stay on the field. I also think he was highly overrated.
Agree it is bad from a health standpoint as it encourages players to lie about concussions. However, it may be only way a player with injury history can get a substantial contract. I’m a Cleveland fan and loved Cameron’s performance when he was able to play. I did NOT want the Browns to resign him as his health was too unpredictable to invest serious coin in him in a league governed by a salary cap. I understand that any player can get injured, but a players history can help predict likelyhood of future injury.
I believe this is similar to the statistic incentives, but it is easier for the player to get than stats. There has always been performance incentives (1000yd recieving, XX receptions etc.), but in this case, the agent/team chose games instead of stats assuming if they are in the game, they will be producing the stats. Cameron will not be playing through injuries, I can tell you that much.
Chris, I love your work over at DBN–I was late to the game, but I’m now a regular reader.
As for the FA coverage, on a scale of 1-10, how anti-climactic was doing the live blog from a Browns fan perspective (with 1 representing Geraldo Rivera opening Al Capone’s vault)?!
It seems as if the only players who really care about concussions are the retired ones.
Full agreement, Craig, the contract’s structure sickens me when you think that Cameron has had 3 concussions in 2 seasons, and now is incentivized to hide symptoms even from his own training staff.
Of course it’s up to the players’ union to object and collectively bargain a change to this system. The owners love having their gladiators in a straight “play to pay” system – they suffer cap consequences but no future payroll obligations when they cut a player in mid-contract, and they pay for future rather than past performance. Even Jordan’s agent has a reason to push him back out on the field, health be damned. But with union members being younger and younger – a direct result of owners being able to terminate long-term contracts – I doubt the union would hold out in negotiations and a work stoppage necessary to force a change in something so lucrative to owners.
If it is not pay per games, it will be pay per production. That is what I would do if I were a team. I hope the guy never gets another concussion or injury, but if he is not producing stats, how is he helping the team?
like Jason Worilds, Jake Locker, and Patrick Willis
Well, mg, it seems like there are always exceptions. Generally speaking and all.
If only Cameron had a similar contract offer he could have went for…
good article Craig …
technically, those guys ARE retired (now) 🙂
The Dolphins will have him wear that special helmet that Daniel Thomas wore, which should reduce the impact blows to the head… He’ll be Aight!!
Thanks!
From my perspective, live blogging was not anti-climatic, because as you saw, “not making moves” actually became just as big of a story as if we had made moves. So from my perspective, if still gave me material to gossip about and such. From a football point of view, I was disappointed we didn’t do much to address our 32nd-ranked run defense.