Zach Extension Not Looking Promising (merged w/other Zach threads) | Page 3 | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Zach Extension Not Looking Promising (merged w/other Zach threads)

Zach should be a Dolphin for the remainder of his career. Thats the bottom line.

I look at Brooking's contract and I see promise because Brooking is probably better than Zach and he's also younger I think so we have right and reason to be asking Zach to take a signing bonus around the 7 or 8 million range rather than 10 million. Use the Gardner thing and say hey we got burned last time we dumped tons o cash on a guy we didn't feel right about injury-wise and age and injuries are always linked.
 
I know several people that make that and more. I have my own business and to keep up with our goal for 2003 (to stay in business :) ) my senior staff and I all took paycuts or cut out bonuses for two years. I think Zach is in the same position as my company, he is making a lot of money and if that is all he wants, then he will not take a cut. However if he is serious about wanting to attain his goal and win a SB as a dolphin then accepting a pay cut should not be out of the question. He is not an under $72k salaried employee, he makes a s**t load of money and taking a cut to attain your goals should not be out of the question especially when that pay cut is still a s**t load of money Just my 1 cent, had to cut out the 2 cent opinions!
 
I agree with fin-atic... Zach's agent is doing all the talking, not Zach... Give it some time, he'll do what's best for himself AND the team, and that's sign a restructured contract that leads to him retiring as a Dolphin...
 
Fin-atic,

Nice to see you and I are on the same page on this one (we won't talk about Griese, OK ;) ) as I was beginning to think I was the only person left who still believed in what ZT can do.

I was actually quite shocked to see how many people, all of a sudden, decided to slam ZT over this without hearing both sides of the story.
 
I can't see why a deal can't get done, maybe if he didn't have a bastard like Rosenhaus as his agent who loves to **** the Fins cap up. It sounds like Konrad will definitely test the FA market. I don't know why the Fins trust Drew so much, he is a dick and he doesn't care at all about our team!!!
 
Look if he doesn't re-sign with us he will get cut. It is his last year and we really don't have to keep him. I don't think he would have a cap penalty, because of that. His replacement would be Cris Claiborne who would quit simply sit on Travis Henry. He would be slightly cheaper than Zach and will only be turning 25. Then in the OLB spot we cna bring in Dwayne Rudd to solidify it all. On offense we go for Doug Gabriel, Newson, and Marcus Robinson. We get ourselves Koy Detmer and Gandy. Trust me this is not as expensive as it seems.

The pay cuts from Ruddy and Rodgers will pay for Gandy. We get the money for Rudd from the 500k we save from Thomas and Perry's cut. Then we are done. We will keep the first year on Claiborne's contract cheaper than the second so that we can get under. We will be in good cap shape once Gardener's cap hit is over in 2004.

I'm not saying we should do it if Zach is cooperative though. Only if he doesn't want to comply.
 
Jaj, no way this team could bring in those many players with so little scratch even if Thomas goes away. I ask this question, when Miami signed any of their players to these contracts, why on earth to they expect everyone to cooperate in resigning. I know some of you will state that they had an understanding that down the line there will be a restructure, but maybe there wasn't. Besides, you guys are using the wrong analogy as far as work goes. This is the equivilant to your boss telling you that you are going to make this much money and then he comes to you later once he realizes he is in a pinch and says ok give me your money back, and I PROMISE to give it back to you in three years. Personally I don't blame Zach for not taking the cut, its Miami's fault fo rsigning him to it in the first place. They had to know this might happen.

However, if Zach isn't going to play ball and re-do his contract, I don't ever want to hear him complain about not having any players to help him out ever again. If he does, management should drop the blame on recent failures squarely on his shoulders too since his actions prevented them from getting more players.
 
I stated in a post at the end of the season that I felt the Thomas, Dolphins relationship would somehow end badly for both when it did in fact end. I said the same thing about Madison. I surely hope this isn't the beginning of the end for Zach.
 
The question may be: Does Zach fear spikes?

A little while ago I advocated going after Spikes, and for a couple of reasons. Firstly, Spikes gives us the short term help we need at OLB, bringing some great play making ability to the spot. However, the other reason would be with regard to eventually using Spikes to replace Zach (when his skills/health really take a nose dive), leaving the option to trade him away, or simply ditch his salary. There is every reason to believe that Spikes could play MLB, and allow the Phins to move on without skipping a beat, should Zach be removed from the equation.

I still like the idea of Takeo Spikes, because of both the reasons listed above. However, perhaps Zach, or at least his agent see a similar scenario in the near future, and are worried about making Zach's contract a little too 'trade friendly'.
 
The dolphins need to upgrade at OLB, but they need to do it CHEAPLY. You always have to pay attention to the big picture and the big picture tells us that we're so lopsided in salaries toward the defensive side of the ball that it is ridiculous. It doesn't have to be that way either. Offense is usually the money gulper, because you can often use young cheap guys on defense and get away with it.

There's two sides to that "uh oh" attitude late in games when the defense was blowing leads. There's our defense's attitude, and there's the opposing offense's attitude. If the opposing offense sat on the sideline and saw another offense on the field that was moving down the field with ease and still able to put up points in the second half, then they wouldn't feel energized and invigorated to begin a late game comeback. Rather, in the second half of games the opposing team sees an offense that keeps shooting itself in the foot giving the other offense a constant feeling of "Hey this is our chance!" and with our defensive schemes always being constant with the man to man coverage, you will find that the opposing offense will slide into a rhythm and will STAY in that rhythm until they are deflated.

My prescription is for cheap help at the OLB position in the form of a draft pick in the 2nd round (whether it be a true OLB or a DE conversion), signing a BIG name WR be it David Boston or Curtis Conway, getting help at safety with a veteran, and help on the OL through Gandy or Petitgout. Use the 3rd round draft pick to nab us a guy that can play the slot WR position. I don't like 3rd round picks at WR in general, I think if you're gonna look for a guy that you really need to make an impact it almost definitely has to be rounds 1 or 2, but round 3 guys can play slot and are usually guys with size problems falling down the boards.

If we can't get our hands on a premium name WR and are forced to accept a Dyson, Hilliard, or Gadsden, then I say we grab Marcus Robinson to check him out in training camp, we use the money we were gonna spend at WR on a guy like Peterson or Simmons (basically whatever OLB goes unsigned in free agency the longest) and we move WR up to the 2nd round. We need help at OLB but we also need help at WR because Gadsden's arthritic and McKnight is old, and we've got too much money tied up in the defense.

Keep an eye on the big picture. Stay away from Spikes.
 
I must admit that two years ago the idea of Zach Thomas not manning the middle of the defense would scare me sh!tless but now the idea of a guy like say Chris Claiborne in the middle seems more comfortable than it once would have been.
 
Rick Spielman said that he wanted to give Zach a GUARENTEED contract instead of a large signing bonus. It was in the Herald this morning. Zach would get his money, just not right now. The problem that Zach's agent probably has is, he wan't Z.T. to cash in with a large bonus, so he gets a big fat check right off the top, instead of waiting for money that's coming down the line.

Now that's just a guess, and maybe Zach is hoping for that as well. All I know is, if we cut Thomas, then we might as well cut Perry, Ruddy, and Rodgers. Also don't re-sign Dixon, and Konrad.

Take 2003 to rebuild, have a crap 6-10 or worse season, and kick butt in the draft next year.

This off-season is looking bleak, but I sort of expected to have to pay the piper at some point.
 
Well thing is that I think a guaranteed base salary doesn't count as signing bonus in the manner of prorating it through the life of the contract. So if you think of the signing bonus as sort of cut insurance, then the dolphins are offering a contract with very little insurance against being cut after this year.
 
Zach isn't the type of guy you want to give a guaranteed contract too considering his age and the pounding he takes.
 
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