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What's next for Henson?
By Pat Kirwan
Special to NFL.com
...the workout is in the books, it's not as important to find out how the workout went as to exactly how a team might get the Henson deal done. Remember, the workout was in shorts and he's a talented, well-prepared athlete. You still can't tell if he can do it in pads with pressure in his face. As one scout who went to the workout said to me, "I can't tell who's going to win the U.S. Open by watching them on the driving range, and if anyone can, I'd like to meet them."
So how does a deal get done with the Texans if some team wants to pull the trigger on a trade? Let's just say for argument sake that the Texans and another club agree on the draft compensation for the trade -- that does not mean a deal can get done.
The Texans have to sign Henson in order to trade him. What complicates that issue is Henson must fit under the Houston rookie pool from last year, and Henson may not like how little space the Texans have to construct a deal. Remember, Houston used most of their rookie pool money to sign all their other draft picks. What was left over was about the value of a sixth-round pick, which by no means will excite Henson to sign. If his workout is so good that someone wants to trade for him now, you could assume he will be drafted higher than the sixth round this year. So why would Henson agree to sixth-round money which could look like $1 million over three years? This guy surrendered over $10 million of his baseball bonus!
Drew Henson was happy to finish his workout, but what's next? So what are the choices?
The Texans and the new team could consider trying to persuade him to sign a one-year deal and convince Henson they'll give him a big deal a year from now. Rookie deals can't be torn up for a year, so forget the idea of getting him for a sixth-round price and tearing it up after he gets to his new team. Believe me there will be a lot of watchful eyes on what happens with Henson's contract if he is traded.
The next idea is to load up the contract with incentives, but that will be a problem too. For a rookie drafted in the sixth round, many incentives are likely to be earned to some degree. For example, let's say you tried to put $2 million in the deal if he played 25 percent of the plays. Well, that figure counts in the salary cap and the rookie pool which Houston doesn't have the space to sign and trade. The next idea I hear about is tying the incentives to wins. That means if a club says the incentive for playtime is tied to winning one more game than the previous year, they are trying to avoid it as a cap charge. If you're talking about a team like Green Bay who won 10 games last year, then Henson realizes he only earns this money if he plays 25 percent of the plays and the team wins 11 games. The probability of that happening are slim. So, incentives don't really appear like a viable way to go.
At the end of this workout, Henson may have to weigh the risk of being drafted by a bad team for more money versus a great team now for a lot less money. I'm curious to see which way he's leaning.
See the rest at:
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/7085892
By Pat Kirwan
Special to NFL.com
...the workout is in the books, it's not as important to find out how the workout went as to exactly how a team might get the Henson deal done. Remember, the workout was in shorts and he's a talented, well-prepared athlete. You still can't tell if he can do it in pads with pressure in his face. As one scout who went to the workout said to me, "I can't tell who's going to win the U.S. Open by watching them on the driving range, and if anyone can, I'd like to meet them."
So how does a deal get done with the Texans if some team wants to pull the trigger on a trade? Let's just say for argument sake that the Texans and another club agree on the draft compensation for the trade -- that does not mean a deal can get done.
The Texans have to sign Henson in order to trade him. What complicates that issue is Henson must fit under the Houston rookie pool from last year, and Henson may not like how little space the Texans have to construct a deal. Remember, Houston used most of their rookie pool money to sign all their other draft picks. What was left over was about the value of a sixth-round pick, which by no means will excite Henson to sign. If his workout is so good that someone wants to trade for him now, you could assume he will be drafted higher than the sixth round this year. So why would Henson agree to sixth-round money which could look like $1 million over three years? This guy surrendered over $10 million of his baseball bonus!
Drew Henson was happy to finish his workout, but what's next? So what are the choices?
The Texans and the new team could consider trying to persuade him to sign a one-year deal and convince Henson they'll give him a big deal a year from now. Rookie deals can't be torn up for a year, so forget the idea of getting him for a sixth-round price and tearing it up after he gets to his new team. Believe me there will be a lot of watchful eyes on what happens with Henson's contract if he is traded.
The next idea is to load up the contract with incentives, but that will be a problem too. For a rookie drafted in the sixth round, many incentives are likely to be earned to some degree. For example, let's say you tried to put $2 million in the deal if he played 25 percent of the plays. Well, that figure counts in the salary cap and the rookie pool which Houston doesn't have the space to sign and trade. The next idea I hear about is tying the incentives to wins. That means if a club says the incentive for playtime is tied to winning one more game than the previous year, they are trying to avoid it as a cap charge. If you're talking about a team like Green Bay who won 10 games last year, then Henson realizes he only earns this money if he plays 25 percent of the plays and the team wins 11 games. The probability of that happening are slim. So, incentives don't really appear like a viable way to go.
At the end of this workout, Henson may have to weigh the risk of being drafted by a bad team for more money versus a great team now for a lot less money. I'm curious to see which way he's leaning.
See the rest at:
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/7085892
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